DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `moo`; CREATE TABLE `moo` ( `fish` varchar(32) default NULL ) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8; -- -- Dumping data for table `moo` -- LOCK TABLES `moo` WRITE; /*!40000 ALTER TABLE `moo` DISABLE KEYS */; INSERT INTO `moo` VALUES ('fish1'),('fish1'),('fish1'),('moo1'),('moo1'),('moo1'),('moo1'); /*!40000 ALTER TABLE `moo` ENABLE KEYS */; UNLOCK TABLES; /*!40103 SET TIME_ZONE=@OLD_TIME_ZONE */; mysql> insert into moo values ('moo1'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec) mysql> select count(1) as npple, substring(fish,1, 3) as ra from moo group by ra order by npple; +-------+------+ | npple | ra | +-------+------+ | 3 | fis | | 4 | moo | +-------+------+ 2 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> select count(1) as npple, substring(fish, -2, 1) as ra from moo group by ra order by npple; +-------+------+ | npple | ra | +-------+------+ | 7 | | +-------+------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql> select substring(fish, -2, 1) from moo; +------------------------+ | substring(fish, -2, 1) | +------------------------+ | h | | h | | h | | o | | o | | o | | o | +------------------------+ 7 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> select count(1) as npple, substring(fish, -2, 1) as ra from moo group by ra order by npple; +-------+------+ | npple | ra | +-------+------+ | 7 | | +-------+------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)