Remove first two characters of all fields in MySQL?

To remove the first two characters of all fields, you need to use SUBSTRING() function from MySQL. The syntax is as follows −

UPDATE yourTableName SET yourColumnName=SUBSTRING(yourColumnName,3)
WHERE yourCondition;

To understand the above syntax, let us create a table. The query to create a table is as follows −

mysql> create table RemoveFirstTwoCharacterDemo
   -> (
   -> Id int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
   -> StringValue varchar(30),
   -> PRIMARY KEY(Id)
   -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.04 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command. The query is as follows −

mysql> insert into RemoveFirstTwoCharacterDemo(StringValue) values('U:100');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)
mysql> insert into RemoveFirstTwoCharacterDemo(StringValue) values('S:20');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.21 sec)
mysql> insert into RemoveFirstTwoCharacterDemo(StringValue) values('N/A');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec)
mysql> insert into RemoveFirstTwoCharacterDemo(StringValue) values('T:8');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec)
mysql> insert into RemoveFirstTwoCharacterDemo(StringValue) values('N/A');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec)
mysql> insert into RemoveFirstTwoCharacterDemo(StringValue) values('W:99');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.19 sec)

Display all records from the table using a select statement. The query is as follows −

mysql> select *from RemoveFirstTwoCharacterDemo;

The following is the output −

+----+-------------+
| Id | StringValue |
+----+-------------+
|  1 | U:100       |
|  2 | S:20        |
|  3 | N/A         |
|  4 | T:8         |
|  5 | N/A         |
|  6 | W:99        |
+----+-------------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)

The following is the query to remove the first two characters −

mysql> update RemoveFirstTwoCharacterDemo set StringValue=SUBSTRING(StringValue,3)
   -> where StringValue <> 'N/A';
Query OK, 4 rows affected (0.27 sec)
Rows matched: 4 Changed: 4 Warnings: 0

Check the table records once again using a select statement. The query is as follows −

mysql> select *from RemoveFirstTwoCharacterDemo;

The following is the output −

+----+-------------+
| Id | StringValue |
+----+-------------+
|  1 | 100         |
|  2 | 20          |
|  3 | N/A         |
|  4 | 8           |
|  5 | N/A         |
|  6 | 99          |
+----+-------------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)