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247. INSTR Function

Learn how to find the position of a substring using INSTR where supported.

📘 Lesson 247 of 728 ⏱ 9 min 🎯 Intermediate

The INSTR function searches for a substring within another string and returns the position of its occurrence in database systems that support the function.

INSTR provides a convenient way to locate characters and substrings during text parsing.

Find the position of a hyphen in a product code.

SQL 
SELECT
    ProductCode,
    INSTR(ProductCode, '-') AS HyphenPosition
FROM Products;

INSTR is useful for parsing identifiers, extracting values, and analyzing structured text fields.

  • INSTR searches for text within text.
  • It returns a position.
  • It is useful for parsing strings.
  • Syntax varies between databases.
  • It can be combined with SUBSTRING.
What is INSTR used for?

INSTR is used to find the position of a substring within another string.

Is INSTR available in every SQL database?

No. Function names and syntax differ between database systems.

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