Question Extract part of a field from a table

[aligforce]

Hi - I want to take the first 15 characters from a field in my table and place those 15 characters into a new field in the same table , assuming i can do this with a query - any help please ?

 

[gemma-the-husky]

this sort of thing. Easily done in a visual query

update table1 set field2 = left(field1, 15)

 

[Brianwarnock]

But should you do this?
It means that you are storing the same data twice which you should not do, what if the data changes?
You can always extract the data when needed, else split the field and store the two separate parts, personally as it's so simple to extract the first part and you have not indicated that you require the rest as a separate entity I would just leave it.

Brian

 

[aligforce]

Thanks , no it was a temporary measure just to sort on