SQL select distinct substring where like muddleup howto

Question

I\'ve got a table with a field that is similar to this:

ANIMAL
========
FISH 54
FISH 30
DOG 12
CAT 65
CAT 09
BIRD 10
FISH 31
DOG 10

The fie

Answer 1

This will work for SQL Server. If you use something else you need to figure out the corresponding functions to left and charindex. Left could of course be replaced with a substring.

select distinct left(T.Animal, charindex(' ', T.Animal, 1)-1)
from YourTable as T

Result:

-------------------------
BIRD
CAT
DOG
FISH

In MySQL you would use left and locate. (Code not tested)

select distinct left(T.Animal, locate(' ', T.Animal, 1)-1)
from YourTable as T