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Leftfunction

Returns the leftmost substring of a string

String Functionsfunctiondocumented

Syntax

Declare Function Left ( ByRef str As Const String, ByVal n As Integer ) As String
Declare Function Left ( ByRef str As Const WString, ByVal n As Integer ) As WString

Parameters

NameDescription
strThe source string.
nThe number of characters to return from the source string.

Return value


Returns the leftmost substring from str.

Description


Returns the leftmost n characters starting from the left (beginning) of str. If str is empty, then the null string ("") is returned. If n <= 0 then the null string ("") is returned. If n > len(str) then the entire source string is returned.

Remarks

Usage


result = Left[$]( str, n )

Platform Differences


  • DOS does not support the wide-character string version of Left.

Dialect Differences


  • The string type suffix "$" is required in the -lang qb dialect.
  • The string type suffix "$" is optional in the -lang fblite dialect.
  • The string type suffix "$" is ignored in the -lang fb dialect, warn only with the -w suffix compile option (or -w pedantic compile option).

Differences from QB


  • QB does not support Unicode.

See also


Example


Dim text As String = "hello world"

Print Left(text, 5)

will produce the output:

hello
An Unicode example:
 

dim text as wstring*20
text = "Привет, мир!"
print left(text, 6) 'displays "Привет"

Reference

  • Documented in KeyPgLeft.html