# POSITION function
<a name="POSITION"></a>

Returns the location of the specified substring within a string.

## Syntax
<a name="position-synopsis"></a>

```
POSITION(substring IN string )
```

## Arguments
<a name="POSITION-arguments"></a>

 *substring*   
The substring to search for within the *string*. 

 *string*   
The string or column to be searched. 

## Return type
<a name="position-return-type"></a>

The POSITION function returns an integer corresponding to the position of the substring (one-based, not zero-based). The position is based on the number of characters, not bytes, so that multi-byte characters are counted as single characters.

## Usage notes
<a name="POSITION_usage_notes"></a>

POSITION returns 0 if the substring is not found within the string:

```
select position('dog' in 'fish');

position
----------
 0
(1 row)
```

## Examples
<a name="sub-POSITION_usage_notes-examples"></a>

The following example shows the position of the string `fish` within the word `dogfish`:

```
select position('fish' in 'dogfish');

position
----------
 4
(1 row)
```

The following example returns the number of sales transactions with a COMMISSION over 999.00 from the SALES table: 

```
select distinct position('.' in commission), count (position('.' in commission))
from sales where position('.' in commission) > 4 group by position('.' in commission)
order by 1,2;

position | count
---------+-------
       5 |    629
(1 row)
```