Extracts a certain number of characters from the leading portion of a string value.

Syntax

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LEFT(<StringExpression> FOR <IntegerExpression>)
LEFT(<StringExpression>, <IntegerExpression>)

<StringExpression> = 

Type of:

CHARACTER|CHAR
CHARACTER VARYING|VARCHAR
GUID
CHARACTER LARGE OBJECT|CLOB

Returns

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Same as input

Usage

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The LEFT function extracts a certain number of characters from the leading portion of a string. The FOR parameter specifies the length of the extracted substring. If the FOR parameter is greater than the length of the input string, then the result will be the input string.

Examples

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SELECT LEFT(CustomerID, 6)
FROM Customers

SQL 2003 Standard Deviations

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This function deviates from the SQL 2003 standard in the following ways: