Description
LEFT function returns the first character or characters in a text string, based on the number of characters you specify.
LEFTB function returns the first character or characters in a text string, based on the number of bytes you specify.
What is the difference between LEFT and LEFTB?
LEFT is intended for use with languages that use the single-byte character set (SBCS), whereas LEFTB is intended for use with languages that use the double-byte character set (DBCS). The default language setting on your computer affects the return value in the following way:
- LEFT always counts each character, whether single-byte or double-byte, as 1, no matter what the default language setting is.
- LEFTB counts each double-byte character as 2 when you have enabled the editing of a language that supports DBCS and then set it as the default language. Otherwise, LEFTB counts each character as 1.
The languages that support DBCS include Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean, and Japanese.
Syntax
LEFT(text, [num_chars])LEFTB(text, [num_bytes])Parameters
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.
Num_bytes Optional. Specifies the number of characters you want LEFTB to extract, based on bytes.
Examples
Example 1: LEFT
The example may be easier to understand if you copy the example data (include header) in the following table, and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.
| Formula | Result | Description |
|---|---|---|
=LEFT("Excel 2022",5) |
Excel | Returns first five characters in the string. |
=LEFT("Excel 2022") |
E | num_chars is omitted, it is assumed to be 1, returns first character. |
=LEFT("Excel 2022",1) |
E | Returns first character in the string. |
=LEFT("Excel 2022",15) |
Excel 2022 | Num_chars is greater than the length of text, returns all characters. |
Example 2: LEFTB
=LEFTB("中国香港",2)equals "中". LEFTB returns the first 2 characters, because each character is counted as 2.
=LEFT("中国香港",2)equals "中国". LEFT returns the first 2 characters, because each character is counted as 1. LEFT returns the first 2 characters no matter what the default language setting is on your computer.