You can use LEFT() from MySQL. Let us first create a −
mysql> create table DemoTable1428 -> ( -> EmployeeId int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, -> EmployeeName varchar(20) -> ); Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.05 sec)
Insert some records in the table using insert −
mysql> insert into DemoTable1428(EmployeeName) values('Chris Brown'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable1428(EmployeeName) values('Bob Brown'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable1428(EmployeeName) values('John Smith'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.23 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable1428(EmployeeName) values('David Miller'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.18 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable1428(EmployeeName) values('John Doe'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.22 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable1428(EmployeeName) values('Carol Johnson'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec)
Display all records from the table using select −
mysql> select * from DemoTable1428;
This will produce the following output −
+------------+---------------+ | EmployeeId | EmployeeName | +------------+---------------+ | 1 | Chris Brown | | 2 | Bob Brown | | 3 | John Smith | | 4 | David Miller | | 5 | John Doe | | 6 | Carol Johnson | +------------+---------------+ 6 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Following is the query to filter column value by the first character −
mysql> select * from DemoTable1428 where left(EmployeeName,1)='J';
This will produce the following output −
+------------+--------------+ | EmployeeId | EmployeeName | +------------+--------------+ | 3 | John Smith | | 5 | John Doe | +------------+--------------+ 2 rows in set (0.00 sec)