return the first n letters of a column

I know that MySQL can choose queries with certain length.

Can MySQL output only the first 开发者_StackOverflow社区10 letters from the word?

Form Example

mysql_query(SELECT LEFT(col,10),some2,some3 FROM someTable);

In the col I have for example

'TextForExampleLongerThanTen'
'Text' 
'SHORTER'
'LONGERAGAINTHANTEN'

I want these all to be output but, only their first 10 symbols

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Use "LEFT()", e.g.

SELECT LEFT(col, 10) FROM table;