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SQL•SQL References

MySQL LEFT() Function

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MySQL LEFT() Function

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Example

Extract 3 characters from a string (starting from left):

SELECT LEFT("SQL Tutorial", 3) AS ExtractString;

Definition and Usage

The LEFT() function extracts a number of characters from a string (starting from left).

Tip:

Also look at the RIGHT() function.

Syntax

Left(

string, number_of_chars )

Parameter Values

Parameter

Description string

Required. The string to extract from number_of_chars

Required. The number of characters to extract. If this parameter is larger than the number of characters in string, this function will return string

Technical Details

Works in:

From MySQL 4.0

More Examples

Example

Extract 5 characters from the text in the "CustomerName" column (starting from left): SELECT LEFT(CustomerName, 5) AS ExtractString

FROM Customers;

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MySQL LENGTH() Function