PostgreSQL Tutorial: RIGHT Function: Get Last N characters in a String

September 19, 2023

Summary: The PostgreSQL RIGHT() function returns the last n characters in a string.

Table of Contents

Syntax

The following shows the syntax of the PostgreSQL RIGHT() function:

RIGHT(string, n)

The PostgreSQL RIGHT() function requires two arguments:

1) string

is a string from which a number of the rightmost characters returned.

2) n

is a positive integer which specifies the number of the rightmost characters in the string should be returned.

If n is negative, the RIGHT() function returns all characters in the string but first |n| (absolute) characters.

The PostgreSQL RIGHT() function returns the last n characters in a string.

Let’s look at some examples of using the PostgreSQL RIGHT() function.

The following statement gets the last character in the string 'XYZ':

SELECT RIGHT('XYZ', 1);

Here is the result:

 right
-------
 Z
(1 row)

To get the last two characters, you pass the value 2 as the second argument as follows:

SELECT RIGHT('XYZ', 2);

And the result is:

 right
-------
 YZ
(1 row)

The following statement illustrates how to use a negative integer as the second argument:

SELECT RIGHT('XYZ', - 1);

In this example, the RIGHT() function returns all character except for the first character.

 right
-------
 YZ
(1 row)

See the following customer table in the sample database:

customer table

The following statement uses the RIGHT() function in WHERE clause to get all customers whose last names ended with 'son':

SELECT last_name
FROM customer
WHERE RIGHT(last_name, 3) = 'son';

The following picture illustrates the result:

PostgreSQL RIGHT example

If you want to return the n first characters, please check the LEFT() function for more detailed information.

In this tutorial, you’ve learned how to use the PostgreSQL RIGHT() function to get the n rightmost characters in a string.

PostgreSQL Tutorial: String Functions