How to substring a MySQL table column

Question

I want to select a field from table and substring it.

For example:

VAN1031 --> 1031

I tried this, but is improper syntax:

<

Answer 1

Sometimes you need to catch the column without some last characters. For example, I have:

This is a string

Let's say that for some reason I want column without last 6 characters:

This is a 

We can do (using @bluefeet 's answer and LENGHT):

select substring(col1, 1,LENGTH(col1)-7)
from table1

It was only an example, but you got the idea, I'm using to fix a wrong database import.