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Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Help and How-to >  Formulas and functions >  Text and data
LEFT function
LEFT function

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

Syntax

LEFT(text,num_chars)

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.

Examples

Col1Formula Description (Result)
Sale Price=LEFT([Col1],4) First four characters in the string (Sale)
Sweden=LEFT([Col1]) First character in the string (S)