SUBSTRING()()
SUBSTRING() same as SUBSTR — take a piece of text. You use it in SELECT (and sometimes WHERE/UPDATE). It does not change stored data unless you UPDATE … SET col = SUBSTRING(col).
Board: SELECT SUBSTRING(name, 1, 3) FROM students; Run it. Say the result out loud. If the column is NULL, the result is often NULL — wrap with IFNULL if you need a blank instead.
String indexes in MySQL start at 1, not 0 (SUBSTR, INSTR, LEFT). Index starts at 1.
Interview — name SUBSTRING, one argument list, one example on the students table. Don’t recite every string function.
On the example next to this theory: SUBSTRING()(): create two demo rows, then SELECT qty >= 2 ordered. Say which labels come back.
Say what SUBSTRING returns, then SELECT SUBSTRING(name, 1, 3) FROM students;