## Syntax
```mermaid
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flowchart LR
Start((START)) --> INSTR[INSTR]:::quoted
INSTR --> End((END))
```
## Purpose
The `INSTR` SQL functions retrieves the position of the first occurrence of a search text in text. Returns `0` when the search text is not present.
A positive start position indicates the start position from the left to start from, and search going left to right. A negative start position indicates the start position from the right to start from after removing sign, and search going right to left.
Parameters:
- Text (`varchar2`): text to be searched for search text.
- Search text (`varchar2`): text to search for.
- Start position (`int32`, optional): position of character to start searching from. Defaults to `1`.
- occurrence (`int32`, optional): return the position of the occurrence. Defaults to `1`.
Returns: the position of the search text inside the text as `int32`.
## Examples
The following example search for the first occurrence of `o`:
```sql
select instr('aap noot mies', 'o')
----------------
6
```
The following example search for the second occurrence of `o`:
```sql
select instr('aap noot mies', 'o', 1, 2)
----------------
7
```
The following example search for the third occurrence of `o` (which does not exist):
```sql
select instr('aap noot mies', 'o', 1, 3)
----------------
0
```