Mysql - count values from comma-separated field

I have to do some statics from read-only db where value are stored in a weird formexample: I have 2 rows like ID text field 1 1001,1003,1004 2 1003, 1005 I need to be able to count that this is "5".I don't have write access so don't know how to read and count right away without creation a function or something like that. Answer: SELECT SUM(LENGTH(textfield) - LENGTH(REPLACE(textfield, ',', '')) + 1) FROM tablename For each row you want to know number values in comma separated field use below query SELECT ID, textfield, CHAR_LENGTH(textfield)...