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Left function

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Returns a Variant (String) containing a specified number of characters from the left side of a string.

Syntax

Left(string, length)

The Left function syntax has these named arguments:

Part Description
string Required. String expression from which the leftmost characters are returned. If string contains Null, Null is returned.
length Required; Variant (Long). Numeric expression indicating how many characters to return. If 0, a zero-length string ("") is returned. If greater than or equal to the number of characters in string, the entire string is returned.

Remarks

To determine the number of characters in string, use the Len function.

Note

Use the LeftB function with byte data contained in a string. Instead of specifying the number of characters to return, length specifies the number of bytes.

Example

This example uses the Left function to return a specified number of characters from the left side of a string.

Dim AnyString, MyStr
AnyString = "Hello World"    ' Define string.
MyStr = Left(AnyString, 1)   ' Returns "H".
MyStr = Left(AnyString, 7)   ' Returns "Hello W".
MyStr = Left(AnyString, 20)  ' Returns "Hello World".

See also

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