Select the "first_name" followed by the username in parentheses and alias it as "display_name". For example "Andrew (chalkers)". There's a space between the end of the first_name and username in parentheses.

this one passed:

SELECT CONCAT(SUBSTRING(UPPER(first_name),1,1), ". ", UPPER(last_name)) AS name FROM users;

Thanks I just figured that out 30 mins ago, I appreciate it. I'm stuck on the third challenge now, do you have any idea how to do that one?

Very similar to the 2nd challenge. You'll need to make use of the SUBSTRING function. It takes 3 arguments: the string you wish to take a substring from, the start index, the end index. Remember that SQL uses 1-based indexing, not 0 like many other languages. You'll also need the UPPER function in there.

Ok I'll try it out and see what I come up with, thanks.

SELECT CONCAT(SUBSTRING((first_name).1),".", (UPPER(last_name))) AS name FROM users;

I've had the same problem with the third question to this challenge. I'm not sure if I am putting the extra period in the correct spot. My code is above.

It seems that SELECT CONCAT(first_name, " (", username, ")") AS disply_name FROM users; gives the correct answer but is not an acceptable answer for some reason. It simply users 3 parameters for the CONCAT function instead of 4.

can someone explain why we need to use " " two times here for username as Im not clear

(first_name, " ", "(", username, ")")

I was trying it as (first_name, " ", "( username)") and I dont know why that doesntwork

thanks

David, from my understanding, it's because you cannot combine row names (like first_name or username) with actual strings (like space " ") so you have to concatenate them. When you want to use data from the database, you use the row name and you concat a string wrapped with double quotes.