Question

Is it possible in MySQL to select rows for a certain range of items?

For example when I want to select all items in where the first letter of the NAME is between the B and T, alphabetically.
I know I can make this is PHP aswell, but it would save me a bit of time if this is possible in MySQL…

Is it possible, and if so, how?

The ideal situation would be something like this:

$sql="SELECT * FROM paths FROM name=name1 TO name=name6"; //which would select name1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Answer 1

Using BETWEEN will basically get you there, but you need to use one letter past where you want to end. Experiment until you get the result you desire.

SELECT * FROM paths WHERE UPPER(name) BETWEEN 'B' AND 'U';

The idea here is that everything beginning with a ‘T’ will sort alphabetically before anything beginning with a ‘U’. You need to convert it to upper-case via UPPER() so you don’t run up against potential collation problems.

So your results could be like:

B,
Bill
Bob
Jane
Tommy
Travis

But Uwe (He’s German) would be excluded.