Left   built-in function

The Left function returns the initial portion of a string, for a certain length. If the string is shorter than the requested length, the result is augmented on the right with as many pad characters as required.

result = Left( string, length [, pad ] )

string

original string

length

length of returned string

pad

an optional padding character. The default pad character is a space.

Examples: say Left( 'Shazam', 4 ) -- shows: Shaz say Left( 'Shazam', 8, '+' ) -- shows: Shazam++

Observe:

The Left function does not remove trailing spaces in the original string. This can cause a perplexing defect. Consider the following:

text = 'abcdefg ' /* the space on the right can be hard to see */ text = left( text, 8, '_' )'hij' /* pad text on left with an underscore */ say text /* shows: abcdefg hij ... EXPECTED: abcdefg_hij */