This function will return the left most characters of a text string based on a number specified.

Syntax

LEFT(Text, Number)

• Text (required) – This is the text string you want to return the left most characters from.
• Number (optional) – This is the number of characters you want returned. If no value is entered, only the first character will be returned.

Example

In this example we get the first few characters of a text string. Notice that negative numbers result in a #VALUE! error and non whole numbers are rounded down to the whole integer.

=LEFT(A2,B2)