MySQL truncate text with ellipsis

Question

Suppose I have a MySQL table of one column: \"Message\". It is of type TEXT. I now want to query all rows, but the text can be large (not extremely large but large) and I on

Answer 1

My approach:

• Let x be the maximum number of characters to display (therefore x + 3 dots will be the longest string displayed)
• You always want LEFT(field,x)
• If LENGTH(field) > x + 3, append 3 dots
• Otherwise if LENGTH(field) > x, append the remainder of field

SELECT CONCAT(
    LEFT(field,x),
    IF(LENGTH(field) > x+3,
       '...',
        IF(LENGTH(field) > x,
            MID(field,x+1,LENGTH(field)),
            ''
        )
    )
) FROM table