Update a table in MySQL and display only the initials name in a new column

To get the initial, use the concept of left() along with substring_index().

Let us create a table −

mysql> create table demo13 −> ( −> full_name varchar(100), −> short_name varchar(20) −> ); Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.18 sec)

Insert some records into the table with the help of insert command −

mysql> insert into demo13(full_name) values('John Smith'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.27 sec) mysql> insert into demo13(full_name) values('David Miller'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec) mysql> insert into demo13(full_name) values('Chris Brown'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.28 sec)

Display records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from demo13;

This will produce the following output −

+--------------+------------+ | full_name    | short_name | +--------------+------------+ | John Smith   | NULL | | David Miller | NULL | | Chris Brown  | NULL | +--------------+------------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to update table and get the initials name −

mysql> update demo13 −> set short_name= concat( −> left(full_name, 1), −> left(substring_index(full_name, ' ', −1), 1) −> ); Query OK, 3 rows affected (0.14 sec) Rows matched: 3 Changed: 3 Warnings: 0

Display records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from demo13;

This will produce the following output −

+--------------+------------+ | full_name | short_name | +--------------+------------+ | John Smith | JS | | David Miller | DM | | Chris Brown | CB | +--------------+------------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec)