Question

I have a query to filter the result in mysql database into given letter ranges: I want to display the items who starts with letter a-f. I uses this query but I think there is a better query to do that.

SELECT DISTINCT title FROM tables WHERE LEFT(title, 1) ='a' AND LEFT(title, 1)='b' .....  AND LEFT(title, 1)='f';

Answer 1

You can use regex something like

   SELECT DISTINCT title FROM tables WHERE title REGEXP '^[a-f]'

---

It’s case insensitive. But you might want to remove DISTINCT if you do not want single result for uppercase and lowercase word. For example,

    mysql> select * from name;
    +------+--------+
    | id   | title  |
    +------+--------+
    |    1 | anisgt |
    |    1 | bnisgt |
    |    1 | dnisgt |
    |    1 | gnisgt |
    |    1 | hnisgt |
    |    1 | Hnisgt |
    |    1 | Pnisgt |
    +------+--------+
    7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

    mysql> SELECT DISTINCT title FROM name WHERE title REGEXP '^[f-z]';
    +--------+
    | title  |
    +--------+
    | gnisgt |
    | hnisgt |
    | Pnisgt |
    +--------+
    3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

    mysql> SELECT title FROM name WHERE title REGEXP '^[f-z]';
    +--------+
    | title  |
    +--------+
    | gnisgt |
    | hnisgt |
    | Hnisgt |
    | Pnisgt |
    +--------+
    4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Edit#1 updated case for upper-case, lower case query and example for without distinct

---

However you can force case sensitivity using binary key word like

    mysql> SELECT DISTINCT binary title FROM name WHERE title REGEXP '^[f-z]';
    +--------------+
    | binary title |
    +--------------+
    | gnisgt       |
    | hnisgt       |
    | Hnisgt       |
    | Pnisgt       |
    +--------------+
    4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Edit:2 case sensitive search added