query to select substring of field?

If I want to do something like:
select substr(Field1,1,2), <other fields>
from Table
group by substr(Field1,1,2)
where Field1 is a 4-character text field, is my syntax above even close to
what I need? What I want to replicate is the situation where I'd have, say,
Field2 which would be the first two characters of Field1.
Thanks.
David"msnews.microsoft.com" <David@.David.com> wrote in message
news:%23uoYnkJ6FHA.268@.TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> If I want to do something like:
> select substr(Field1,1,2), <other fields>
> from Table
> group by substr(Field1,1,2)
> where Field1 is a 4-character text field, is my syntax above even close to
> what I need? What I want to replicate is the situation where I'd have,
> say, Field2 which would be the first two characters of Field1.
> Thanks.
> David
>
The function is SUBSTRING(). Look it up in Books Online for the full syntax.
I'm not sure what the purpose of GROUP BY is in your example but it is valid
in SQL Server to use expressions in GROUP BY. It isn't permitted in standard
SQL however.
David Portas
SQL Server MVP
--|||David,
Thanks for your help.
The purpose of the group by is that I'll be having averages taken in the
select statement (amongst the <other fields> ).
David
"David Portas" <REMOVE_BEFORE_REPLYING_dportas@.acm.org> wrote in message
news:hLmdnT-YGIX0LureRVnyvw@.giganews.com...
> "msnews.microsoft.com" <David@.David.com> wrote in message
> news:%23uoYnkJ6FHA.268@.TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> The function is SUBSTRING(). Look it up in Books Online for the full
> syntax. I'm not sure what the purpose of GROUP BY is in your example but
> it is valid in SQL Server to use expressions in GROUP BY. It isn't
> permitted in standard SQL however.
> --
> David Portas
> SQL Server MVP
> --
>sql