LEFT Function [String]

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

Syntax

LEFT ( string-expression, numeric-expression )

Parameters

Parameters
Parameter	Description
string-expression	The string.
numeric-expression	The number of characters to return.

Returns

LONG VARCHAR

LONG NVARCHAR

Note: The result data type is a LONG VARCHAR. If you use LEFT in a SELECT INTO statement, you must have an Unstructured Data Analytics Option license or use CAST and set LEFT to the correct data type and size.

Example

The following statement returns the value “choco”:

SELECT LEFT( 'chocolate', 5 ) FROM iq_dummy

Usage

If the string contains multibyte characters, and the proper collation is being used, the number of bytes returned may be greater than the specified number of characters.

Note: The result data type of a LEFT function is a LONG VARCHAR. If you use LEFT in a SELECT INTO statement, you must have an Unstructured Data Analytics option license or use CAST and set LEFT to the correct data type and size.

Standards and Compatibility

SQL—Vendor extension to ISO/ANSI SQL grammar.
Sybase—Not supported by Adaptive Server Enterprise.