Re: limiting field extraction to 40 characters

If i try the below in my query i get no results. Ideally i would like to do this (not valid sql) <? $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM courses",$db); printf("<select name=\"coursecode\">\n"); while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { $l=$myrow['coursecode']; ?><option value="<?=$l;?>"<?=($_POST['coursecode']==$l)?' selected="selected"':"";?>><?=$myrow['left(title,40)'];?></option><? } printf("</select>\n"); ?> on 11/12/02 5:26 pm, Peter Beckman at beckman@purplecow.com wrote: > LEFT(str,len) > Returns the leftmost len characters from the string str: > > mysql> SELECT LEFT('foobarbar', 5); > -> 'fooba' > > This function is multi-byte safe. > > > select left(coursecode,40) from courses > On Wed, 11 Dec 2002, mike karthauser wrote: > >> I am using >> >> <? $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM courses",$db); >> printf("<select name=\"coursecode\">\n"); >> while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { >> >> $l=$myrow['coursecode']; >> ?><option >> value="<?=$l;?>"<?=($_POST['coursecode']==$l)?' >> >> selected="selected"':"";?>><?=$myrow['title'];?></option><? >> } >> printf("</select>\n"); >> ?> >> >> to generate a html <option><select>. Unfortunately a few of my course titles >> are really long and this effects the rendering of the <option><select> >> making it ultra wide. >> >> Is there a way i can print only the first 40 characters of the title - even >> though the full title lives in the db still (it is used throughout the >> site)?