LEFT

Microsoft Office Excel 2003

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See Also

Also applies to:

LEFTB

LEFT returns the first character or characters in a text string, based on the number of characters you specify.

LEFTB returns the first character or characters in a text string, based on the number of bytes you specify. This function is for use with double-byte characters.

Syntax

LEFT(text,num_chars)

LEFTB(text,num_bytes)

Text    is the text string that contains the characters you want to extract.

Num_chars specifies the number of characters you want LEFT to extract.

  • Num_chars must be greater than or equal to zero.

  • If num_chars is greater than the length of text, LEFT returns all of text.

  • If num_chars is omitted, it is assumed to be 1.

Num_bytes specifies the number of characters you want LEFTB to extract, based on bytes.

Example (LEFT)

The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet.

Show How?

  1. Create a blank workbook or worksheet.
  2. Select the example in the Help topic. Do not select the row or column headers.

    Selecting an example from Help

    Selecting an example from Help

  3. Press CTRL+C.
  4. In the worksheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V.
  5. To switch between viewing the results and viewing the formulas that return the results, press CTRL+` (grave accent), or on the Tools menu, point to Formula Auditing, and then click Formula Auditing Mode.
 
1
2
3
A
Data
Sale Price
Sweden
Formula Description (Result)
=LEFT(A2,4) First four characters in the first string (Sale)
=LEFT(A3) First character in the second string (S)

Example (LEFTB)

LEFTB("Tokyo to ShibuyaTokyo to ShibuyaTokyo to Shibuya Tokyo to ShibuyaTokyo to ShibuyaTokyo to Shibuya",4) equals "Tokyo to ShibuyaTokyo to Shibuya"

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