LEFT (function)

The LEFT$ function lets you extract a portion of characters from a string, starting from the beginning. In other words, it lets you "cut" a string from the left.

You can get prefixes, codes, or any other initial part of a string, to combine LEFT$ with other functions to manipulate, format, and parse strings, to use LEFT$ to check the length or initial content of a string.

The numbering of characters in a string always starts at 1. If the specified number_of_characters is greater than the length of the string, LEFT$ will return the entire string.

Make sure both string$ and substring$ are declared as strings (typically using a $ at the end of the variable name). LEFT$ is a very useful function for manipulating strings in BASIC, allowing you to extract specific areas from a longer string.

EXAMPLE

 x = LEFT( "TEST", 2 )

Used in:
EXTRACT A SUBSTRING (USING LEFT())