See why hundreds of industry leaders trust Secoda to unlock their data's full potential.
See why hundreds of industry leaders trust Secoda to unlock their data's full potential.
Get the guideThe Snowflake SUBSTRING function, also known as the SUBSTR function, is a powerful tool for extracting a subset of characters from a larger string or binary value. This tutorial will guide you through the usage, syntax, and practical applications of the SUBSTRING function in Snowflake.
The Snowflake SUBSTRING function is used to extract a specific portion of a string or binary value. It requires three arguments: a base expression (either VARCHAR or BINARY), a start expression (an integer specifying the offset), and an optional length expression (an integer specifying the number of characters or bytes to return). If the length is not specified, the function extracts the substring from the starting position to the end of the string. If the length is negative, the function returns an empty string.
SUBSTR(<base_expr>, <start_expr> [ , <length_expr> ])
This syntax allows for flexible string manipulation, making it useful for data analysis and pattern searching within strings.
To effectively use the SUBSTRING function, you need to understand its arguments and how they interact. The base expression is the string or binary value you want to extract from. The start expression determines where the extraction begins, and the length expression specifies how many characters or bytes to extract. If any of these inputs are NULL, the function returns NULL.
To extract a substring from a string, you can use the SUBSTRING function with the base expression and start expression. For example, to get the name "John" from the string "John Rose":
SELECT SUBSTRING('John Rose', 0, 4);
This code extracts the first four characters from the string, starting at position 0.
If you do not specify the length, the function will extract the substring from the starting position to the end of the string:
SELECT SUBSTRING('John Rose', 5);
This code extracts the substring starting from position 5 to the end of the string, resulting in "Rose".
If any of the inputs to the SUBSTRING function are NULL, the function will return NULL:
SELECT SUBSTRING(NULL, 0, 4);
This code returns NULL because the base expression is NULL.
While using the SUBSTRING function, you might encounter some common challenges. Here are a few and their solutions:
In this tutorial, we covered the Snowflake SUBSTRING function, its syntax, and practical applications. The key takeaways include:
By understanding and applying these concepts, you can effectively use the SUBSTRING function for various data manipulation tasks in Snowflake.
Built for data teams, designed for everyone so you can get more from your data stack.
© 2025 Secoda, Inc. All rights reserved.
By using this website, you accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
