This article describes the formula syntax and usage of the LEFT function in Microsoft Excel.
Description
LEFT returns the first character or characters in a text string, based on the number of characters you specify.
Syntax
LEFT(text, [num_chars])
The function syntax has the following arguments:
Text Required. The text string that contains the characters you want to extract.
Num_chars Optional. 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.
Example
Copy the example data in the following table, and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. For formulas to show results, select them, press F2, and then press Enter. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.
| Data | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sale Price | ||
| Sweden | ||
| Formula | Description | Result |
| =LEFT(A2,4) | First four characters in the first string | Sale |
| =LEFT(A3) | First character in the second string | S |
Important
The LEFTB function is deprecated. LEFT now supports Unicode surrogates via the Compatibility Version, Version 2.