What is the purpose of the FIELD function in MySQL?
The FIELD() function in MySQL is used to return the index position of a specified value in a list. Its purpose is to sort or filter query results based on the specified value.
Syntax:
FIELD(value, value1, value2, …)
Explanation of parameters:
- value: the value to be indexed
- multiple values in a list
Return value:
If the value is found in the list, the function will return its index position in the list (starting from 1). If not found, it will return 0.
Suppose there is a table named students, which has two columns: name and age. If we want to retrieve the names of all students and sort them in a specific order, we can use the FIELD() function.
The above query will sort the results in the order of ‘Tom’, ‘John’, ‘Alice’ and return the name and age.
