# SUBSTRING\_INDEX

Extracts the portion of a string up to the given number of occurrences of a delimiter.

This is mainly useful for delimited strings, such as a CSV or ASCII table. If the `count` argument is negative, the delimiters will be counted starting from the right, and the portion of the string to the right of the final delimiter will be returned.

## Syntax

```sql
SUBSTRING_INDEX(str, delimiter, count)

```

## Arguments

* str: any string or binary object
* delimiter: the “field” delimiter
* count: the number of fields to extract

## Return Type

String

## Examples

```sql
SELECT SUBSTRING_INDEX('a b c d', ' ', 3);

```

```output

+------------------------------------+
| SUBSTRING_INDEX('a b c d', ' ', 3) |
+------------------------------------+
| a b c                              |
+------------------------------------+

```

```sql
SELECT SUBSTRING_INDEX('de305d54-75b4-431b-adb2-eb613', '-', 2) as uuid;

```

```output

+---------------+
| uuid          |
+---------------+
| de305d54-75b4 |
+---------------+
```

```sql
SELECT SUBSTRING_INDEX('01-23-45-67-89', '-', -2);

```

```output

+--------------------------------------------+
| SUBSTRING_INDEX('01-23-45-67-89', '-', -2) |
+--------------------------------------------+
| 67-89                                      |
+--------------------------------------------+
```

## Related Topics

* [SUBSTRING](https://docs.singlestore.com/db/v9.1/reference/sql-reference/string-functions/substring.md)

***

Modified at: February 27, 2023

Source: [/db/v9.1/reference/sql-reference/string-functions/substring-index/](https://docs.singlestore.com/db/v9.1/reference/sql-reference/string-functions/substring-index/)

(An index of the documentation is available at /llms.txt)