LOCATE() FUNCTION
The MySQL LOCATE function is used to get the location of the first appearance of a substring in a string. The various versions of MySQL support the LOCATE function, namely, MySQL 5.7, MySQL 5.6, MySQL 5.5, MySQL 5.1, MySQL 5.0, MySQL 4.1, MySQL 4.0 and MySQL 3.23.
Syntax:
LOCATE( substring, string, start_position )
Parameters:
substring: It is used to specify the substring to search for.
string: It is used to specify the string to search.
start_position: It is an optional parameter that is used to specify the position to start the search from.
Example 1:
mysql> SELECT LOCATE ( ‘L’ 'HELLO WORLD' );
Output:
3
Explanation:
The position of the first appearance of the substring starting from the first position is returned as the result.
Example 2:
mysql> SELECT LOCATE ( ‘l’ 'HELLO WORLD', 5 );
Output:
10
Explanation:
The position of the first appearance of the substring starting from the 5th position is returned as the result.