# Substring
Substring

`substring` returns the characters in a string, starting at the location specified by the *start* argument and proceeding for the number of characters specified by the *length* arguments. 

## Syntax


```
substring(expression, start, length)
```

## Arguments


 *expression*   
An expression can be the name of a field that uses the string data type like **address1**, a literal value like **'Unknown'**, or another function like `substring(field_name,1,5)`.

 *start*   
The character location to start from. *start* is inclusive, so the character at the starting position is the first character in the returned value. The minimum value for *start* is 1. 

 *length*   
The number of additional characters to include after *start*. *length* is inclusive of *start*, so the last character returned is (*length* - 1) after the starting character.

## Return type


String

## Example


The following example returns the 13th through 19th characters in a string. The beginning of the string is index 1, so you begin counting at the first character.

```
substring('Fantasy and Science Fiction',13,7)
```

The following value is returned.

```
Science
```