SELECT row with minimum value length?

Hi,

I have table person, some persons have the same first name:

firstname lastname
John Lennon
John Lewis
John Chow
John McCain
...

I use this query
SELECT lastname FROM person WHERE firstname='John';

Now I wanna select only one rows, whose lastname has the min. value length (in this case, it's Chow - 4 characters)
How can I do that?

 

i would try with select lastname, firstname, min(len(firstname)) from person group by lastname

len is a function for lenght. you should have something similar with the DB you are using.

 

Thanks for your help.

But

It looks like my MySQL doesn't have LEN function...

 

A simple research in Google with "MySql lenght" let me found this function :

CHAR_LENGTH() Return number of characters in argument

Remember! Google is your friend and if you want to succeed on programming, you will have sometimes to do yourself the research.

Hope this help!

 

Thank you! It works Rep+ for your help