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DatabaseSQLReference

INSTR
Syntax

Descriptionoftheillustrationinstr.gif(img_text/instr.htm)

Purpose

TheINSTRfunctionssearchstringforsubstring.Thefunctionreturnsanintegerindicatingthepositionofthecharacterinstringthatisthefirstcharacter
ofthisoccurrence.INSTRcalculatesstringsusingcharactersasdefinedbytheinputcharacterset.INSTRBusesbytesinsteadofcharacters.INSTRCuses
Unicodecompletecharacters.INSTR2usesUCS2codepoints.INSTR4usesUCS4codepoints.

positionisannonzerointegerindicatingthecharacterofstringwhereOracleDatabasebeginsthesearch.Ifpositionisnegative,thenOraclecounts
backwardfromtheendofstringandthensearchesbackwardfromtheresultingposition.
 occurrenceisanintegerindicatingwhichoccurrenceofstringOracleshouldsearchfor.Thevalueofoccurrencemustbepositive.

BothstringandsubstringcanbeanyofthedatatypesCHAR,VARCHAR2,NCHAR,NVARCHAR2,CLOB,orNCLOB.ThevaluereturnedisofNUMBERdatatype.

BothpositionandoccurrencemustbeofdatatypeNUMBER,oranydatatypethatcanbeimplicitlyconvertedtoNUMBER,andmustresolvetoaninteger.The
defaultvaluesofbothpositionandoccurrenceare1,meaningOraclebeginssearchingatthefirstcharacterofstringforthefirstoccurrenceof
substring.Thereturnvalueisrelativetothebeginningofstring,regardlessofthevalueofposition,andisexpressedincharacters.Ifthesearchis
unsuccessful(ifsubstringdoesnotappearoccurrencetimesafterthepositioncharacterofstring),thenthereturnvalueis0.

SeeAlso:
Table210,"ImplicitTypeConversionMatrix"(sql_elements002.htm#g195937)formoreinformationonimplicitconversion

Examples

ThefollowingexamplesearchesthestringCORPORATEFLOOR,beginningwiththethirdcharacter,forthestring"OR".ItreturnsthepositioninCORPORATEFLOOR
atwhichthesecondoccurrenceof"OR"begins:

SELECTINSTR('CORPORATEFLOOR','OR',3,2)"Instring"FROMDUALInstring14

Inthenextexample,Oraclecountsbackwardfromthelastcharactertothethirdcharacterfromtheend,whichisthefirstOinFLOOR.Oraclethensearches
backwardforthesecondoccurrenceofOR,andfindsthatthissecondoccurrencebeginswiththesecondcharacterinthesearchstring:

SELECTINSTR('CORPORATEFLOOR','OR',3,2)"ReversedInstring"FROMDUALReversedInstring2

Thenextexampleassumesadoublebytedatabasecharacterset.

SELECTINSTRB('CORPORATEFLOOR','OR',5,2)"Instringinbytes"FROMDUALInstringinbytes27

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