mike, Please let us know what you find out. I'm very curious of this myself. As the document clearly states, mysql will use an index when you use a like but don't start the string with a wildcard. So we know that Left(str,5) = 'string' VS WHERE str LIKE 'string%'both will use an index. The question now becomes the cost of using LEFT vs using the LIKE.
BTW, I assume you meant where left(str, 6) = 'string'. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:336918 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
