Left

Description

Obtains a specified number of characters from the beginning of a string.

Syntax

Left ( string, n )

Argument

Description

string

The string you want to search

n

A long specifying the number of characters you want to return

Returns

String. Returns the leftmost n characters in string if it succeeds and the empty string ("") if an error occurs. If any argument’s value is null, Left returns null. If n is greater than or equal to the length of the string, Left returns the entire string. It does not add spaces to make the return value’s length equal to n.

Examples

Example 1

This statement returns BABE:

Left("BABE RUTH", 4)

Example 2

This statement returns BABE RUTH:

Left("BABE RUTH", 40)

Example 3

These statements store the first 40 characters of the text in the SingleLineEdit sle_address in emp_address:

string emp_address

emp_address = Left(sle_address.Text, 40)

For sample code that uses Left to parse two tab-separated values, see the Pos function.

See also