Excel: Left Function

In Excel, the Left function allows you to extract a substring from a string, starting from the left-most character.

The syntax for the Left function is:

Left( text, number_of_characters )

text is the string that you wish to extract from.

number_of_characters indicates the number of characters that you wish to extract starting from the left-most character.

Applies To:

For example:

Let's take a look at an example:

Based on the Excel spreadsheet above:

=Left(A1, 5) would return "Alpha"

=Left(A2, 8) would return "techonth"

=Left("Excel", 2) would return "Ex"

VBA Code

The Left function can also be used in VBA code. For example:

Dim LResult As String

LResult = Left("Alphabet",3)

The variable LResult would now contain the value of "Alp".