Querying 1st three letters of a variable

[geosite]

I've been working with table that have ID tags (field IDArea) for the world's nations. If I insert $mycode = 'fra' in a page's head section, then write a database query that includes, "Where IDArea = $mycode, then that table displays data for France (ID = fra).

Now I'm working on something similar for animals and plants, but there's a catch. I'm using six-character ID's - the first three letters of the genus and species names. For example, the wolf - Canus lupus - is can lup.

But consider the following values:

ros | Rosa |
rosbla | Rosa | blanda
rosche | Rosa | cherokee

The first row represents a generic designation - ALL roses. So could I display all three designations on a page by querying just the first three letters of ros, rosbla, and rosche? In other words, any code that begins with ros would be fair game.

I may be leaving something out. This is kind of confusing, and I'm sure I'll have to work out a number of kinks as I encounter them. One problem I anticipate is listing the general designation first and only once in the page's title.

For example, consider the following:

United Kingdom | ros | Rosa |
Canada | ros | Rosa |
Arkansas | rosbla | Rosa | blanda
North Dakota | rosche | Rosa | cherokee

If the page's title = $mycode, I wouldn't want the title to read "Rosa blanda," when the page focuses on ALL roses. Nor would I want it to read Rosa Rosa for both the UK and Canada. I'd want it to simply read Rosa, or perhaps Rosa species.

Do you know how I can handle that?

Thanks.

[kleineme]

Hi,

for the first part (and for MySQL):

SELECT LEFT(column, 3) FROM table;
resp.
SELECT * FROM table WHERE LEFT(column, 3) = '$mycode';

[markl999]

So could I display all three designations on a page by querying just the first three letters of ros, rosbla, and rosche? In other words, any code that begins with ros would be fair game.

WHERE IDArea LIKE 'ros%' would do that (WHERE IDArea LIKE '$mycode%')

[geosite]

Thanks for the tips. I've got it working now.