RIGHT() function in Postgres is not right

Question

I'm reviewing the Postgres RIGHT() function documentation, right..

For the documentation example:

SELECT RIGHT('XYZ', 2);

I was expecting the right response as per the documentation viz;

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

But then I ran the query in Aginity Workbench and the result wasn't right. I get:

found "RIGHT" (at char 8) expecting an identifier found a keyword

Can someone set me right?

Nitpicking: that link is not "the Postgres documentation. The official Postgres manual is here: postgresql.org/docs/current/static/index.html — user330315
– user330315, Commented Aug 29, 2018 at 5:29

Tim Biegeleisen · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-29 03:11:49Z

4

The right function is only available beginning with Postgres version 9.1. I am guessing that the version used which generated that error message is using version 9.0 or earlier.

See the documentation for 9.0 which does not have a right function, then see the documentation for 9.1 which shows that right is available.

As a workaround, you may use substr:

select
    substr('Hello World', char_length('Hello World') - 4, 5);

World

edited Aug 29, 2018 at 3:11

answered Aug 29, 2018 at 2:53

Tim Biegeleisen

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1 Comment

Slumdog Over a year ago

If it is version I might nag about not falling too far behind on versions. I think around ver 9.6 "create table if not exists" was added which I find so useful. Upgrading is so easy and often saves a lot of grief

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