Left$

left$ extracts a sub-string of a string starting from the beginning (the left side).

Syntax

   left$(EXPR_STRING,EXPR_LEN)

• EXPR_STRING is an expression that gives the string from which the substring is extracted.
• EXPR_LEN gives the number of characters to be extracted.

Examples

   # Extraction of the first 5 letter of the latin alphabet
    ALPHABET = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
    FIRST_FIVE=left$(ALPHABET, 5) : # Returns "ABCDE"
   # Computes the length of a string
   # It would be preferable to use len!!!
   STRING_LEN = 0
   While left$(MY_STRING,STRING_LEN) <> MY_STRING : STRING_LEN+=1 : Wend
   # Truncates a string to a maximum length of 32
   # the string remains unchanged if its length was smaller than 32
   MY_STRING=left$(MY_STRING,32)
   # Truncates a clob to a maximum length of 800
   # the clob remains unchanged if its length was smaller than 800
   MY_CLOB=left$(MY_CLOB,800)

Description

The function left$ extracts the first EXPR_LEN characters of a string or a CLOB. According to EXPR_LEN, the type of the result is Char or Clbfile.

Comments

• If EXPR_LEN is equal to 0, the empty string "" is returned.
• If EXPR_LEN is greater than the length of the string, the string is returned.

Associated errors

Error code	Description
10	The first argument is not a string, or the second argument is not numeric.
50	The second argument is negative.

See also

mid$, right$, seg$, len.