LEFT( ) Function
Returns a specified number of characters from a character expression, starting with the leftmost character.
LEFT(cExpression, nExpression)
Parameters
cExpression
Specifies the character expression that LEFT( ) returns characters from.nExpression
Specifies the number of characters returned from the character expression. If nExpression is greater than the length of cExpression, all of the character expression is returned. If nExpression is negative or 0, LEFT( ) returns an empty string.LEFT( ) uses a starting position of 1 and is identical to SUBSTR( ).
Return Value
Character. LEFT( ) returns a character string.
Example
The following example uses two different ways to display the string result from the LEFT( ) function, which returns the first four letters in the string, "Redmond, WA":
? LEFT('Redmond, WA', 4) && Displays the string, Redm.
myString = LEFT('Redmond, WA', 4) && Stores result in myString.
? myString && Displays result in myString.
For more information, see ? | ?? Command.