Left()

Left()

Category: Text

Syntax: Left ( text ; numberOfCharacters )

Parameters: text ”any expression that resolves to a text string; numberOfCharacters ”any expression that resolves to a positive integer.

Description: Returns a string containing the first n characters from the specified text string. If the string is shorter than numberOfCharacters , the entire string is returned. If numberOfCharacters is less than 1, an empty string is returned.

Examples:

 Left ("Hello" ; 2) 

Returns He .

 Left (FirstName ; 1) 

Returns the first character of the FirstName field.

Comments:

The Left() function is commonly used in text parsing routines to extract portions of a text string. It is often used in conjunction with other text functions. For example, to extract the City portion of a field (called "CSZ") containing "City, State Zip" data, you could use the following formula:

 Let (commaPosition = Position (CSZ; "," ; 1 ; 1) ; Left (CSZ ; commaPosition - 1))