LEFT

Purpose

  • Returns the leftmost x characters in a text string, where x is user-defined

Example

LEFT

  • Here is a screenshot, for reference:

LEFT


Syntax

  • =LEFT(text, num_chars)

Arguments

  • text
    • This is the text (or number) in question
    • This can be hard-coded text, a cell reference, or text resulting from a calculation
    • The LEFT function will return the leftmost user-defined number of characters of the num_chars text string
  • num_chars [optional]
    • This is the number of characters that you want to return, starting from the leftmost character in the text argument
    • This can be a hard-coded number, cell reference, or calculation
    • If omitted, Excel treats this value as "1" (i.e. Excel will return the single leftmost character in the text)
    • If this value is greater than the total number of characters in the text, the entire text will be returned
      • For example, =LEFT("hello",1000) will return "hello"

Tips

  • Remember that blank spaces (" ") and other special characters (such as decimal places) are counted as characters

External Links