how to count rows by first letter?

Question

a noob question here!

I wrote this query, but the \"group by\" is very stupid... so, how can I correct this?

SELECT
    COUNT(*) AS total,
    \'x\'         


        

Answer 1

should give you everything in case you want it

SELECT
  COUNT(*) AS total,
  test
FROM
 (SELECT substring(name,1,1) as test
 from contents) t
GROUP BY test