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Left, Mid, and Right functions

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Applies to: Canvas apps Dataverse formula columns Desktop flows Model-driven apps Power Pages Power Platform CLI

Extracts the left, middle, or right portion of a string of text.

Description

The Left, Mid, and Right functions return a portion of a string.

  • Left returns the beginning characters of a string.
  • Mid returns the middle characters of a string.
  • Right returns the ending characters of a string.

If you specify a single string as an argument, the function returns the portion that you requested of the string. If you specify a single-column table that contains strings, the function returns a single-column table with a Value column containing the portions that you requested of those strings. If you specify a multi-column table, you can shape it into a single-column table, as working with tables describes.

If the starting position is negative or beyond the end of the string, Mid returns blank. You can check the length of a string by using the Len function. If you request more characters than the string contains, the function returns as many characters as possible.

Syntax

Left( String, NumberOfCharacters )
Mid( String, StartingPosition [, NumberOfCharacters ] )
Right( String, NumberOfCharacters )

  • String - Required. The string to from which to extract the result.
  • StartingPosition - Required (Mid only). The starting position. The first character of the string is position 1.
  • NumberOfCharacters - Required (Left and Right only). The number of characters to return. If omitted for the Mid function, the function returns the portion from the starting position until the end of the string.

Left( SingleColumnTable, NumberOfCharacters )
Mid( SingleColumnTable, StartingPosition [, NumberOfCharacters ] )
Right( SingleColumnTable, NumberOfCharacters )

  • SingleColumnTable - Required. A single-column table of strings from which to extract the results.
  • StartingPosition - Required (Mid only). The starting position. The first character of the string is position 1.
  • NumberOfCharacters - Required (Left and Right only). The number of characters to return. If omitted for the Mid function, the function returns the portion from the starting position until the end of the string.

Examples

Single string

The examples in this section use a text-input control as their data source. The control is named Author and contains the string "E. E. Cummings".

Formula Description Result
Left( Author.Text, 5 ) Extracts up to five characters from the start of the string. "E. E."
Mid( Author.Text, 7, 4 ) Extracts up to four characters, starting with the seventh character, from the string. "Cumm"
Mid( Author.Text, 7 ) Extracts all characters, starting with the seventh character, from the string. "Cummings"
Right( Author.Text, 5 ) Extracts up to five characters from the end of the string. "mings"

Single-column table

Each example in this section extracts strings from the Address column of this data source, named People, and returns a single-column table that contains the results:

Name Address
"Jean" "123 Main St NE"
"Fred" "789 SW 39th #3B"
Formula Description Result
Left( ShowColumns( People, "Address" ), 8 ) Extracts the first eight characters of each string. A single-column table with a Value column containing the following values: "123 Main", "789 SW 3"
Mid( ShowColumns( People, "Address" ), 5, 7 ) Extracts the middle seven characters of each string, starting with the fifth character. A single-column table with a Value column containing the following values: "Main St", "SW 39th"
Right( ShowColumns( People, "Address" ), 7 ) Extracts the last seven characters of each string. A single-column table with a Value column containing the following values: "n St NE", "9th #3B"

Step-by-step example

  1. Import or create a collection named Inventory, and show it in a gallery, as the first procedure in Show images and text in a gallery describes.

  2. Set the Text property of the lower label in the gallery to this function:

    Right(ThisItem.ProductName, 3)

    The label shows the last three characters of each product name.