mySQL question

[gort]

I was wondering how to only get the first x number of characters in an SQL query. Like if you have a field called job_description and you want to only display the first 50 chars or so as a "preview." Do you think it would be easier to use a built-in PHP function to crop it or is there a way to do it with the select statement. I don't have any of my reference books handy so I can't look it up.

 

[muso]

Personally I'd use PHP: http://www.php.net/substr

 

[Murlyn]

LEFT(str,len)
Returns the leftmost len characters from the string str.

mysql> SELECT LEFT('foobarbar', 5);
-> 'fooba'