SQL Reference Guide

LOCATE function (ODBC compatible)

Syntax

LOCATE( char-expr1 , char-expr2, [start-position] )

Description

The scalar function LOCATE returns the location of the first occurrence of char-expr1 in char-expr2. If the function includes the optional integer argument start-position, LOCATE begins searching char-expr2 at that position. If the function omits the start-position argument, LOCATE begins its search at the beginning of char-expr2.

LOCATE denotes the first character position of a character expression as 1. If the search fails, LOCATE returns 0.

char_expr1 and char_expr2 must evaluate to a CHAR value.
start, if supplied, must evaluate to an INTEGER value.
If either expression is null, LOCATE returns NULL.

Example

The following example uses two string literals as character expressions. LOCATE returns a value of six:

SELECT LOCATE('this', 'test this test', 1) FROM TEST;

LOCATE(THIS,

------------

1 record selected