Table of Contents
Left(text, no_of_chars)
Category: Text function
Description
This function returns the specified number of symbols from the left of text as a text value.
Arguments
| Argument | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| text | Text | The text value to extract the symbols from. |
| no_of_chars | Integer, minimum of 0 | The number of symbols returned from the left side of the text argument. |
Return value type: Text
Remarks
Regardless of the type of value passed in for text, the result of this function is always a text value.
Entering a no_of_chars of 0 will return an empty value. Entering a no_of_chars greater than the length of text will result in the full text value being returned.
Numbers and equations can be used as the text argument and are implicitly converted to their text-equivalent. When passing in an equation for text, no_of_chars number of symbols from the equation's result will be returned.
Passing in a date value (#yyyy-MM-dd) will return no_of_chars number of symbols from the converted date serial value. See the examples below.
Examples
left('Los Angeles', 3) //Returns 'Los'
left('IT services', 8) //Returns 'IT servi'
left('Canada',10) //Returns 'Canada'
left('EasyMorph',0) //Returns '' (Empty value)
left(12345, 3) //Returns '123' (Note, the numeric value of 12345 was passed in. The result is a text value.)
left(#2021-10-21, 3) //Returns '444' (2021-10-21 is 44490 as a date serial value, so '444' is returned.)
left(100*3, 1) //Returns '3' (The result of 100 * 3 = 300, so '3' is returned as the leftmost character.)