| 
 Purpose  | 
 Return the left-most n characters of a 
  | 
| 
 Syntax  | 
 s$ = LEFT$(string_expression, n&)  | 
| 
 Remarks  | 
 n& is a Long-integer expression and specifies the number of characters in string_expression to be returned. LEFT$ returns a string consisting of the left most n& characters of its string argument. If n& is greater than or equal to the length of string_expression, all of string_expression is returned. If n& is zero, LEFT$ returns an empty string. If the length value parameter is negative, it is interpreted as LEN(string_expression)-ABS(n&). For example, LEFT$("1234567890",-2) returns "12345678".  | 
| 
 See also  | 
 EXTRACT$, INSTR, LTRIM$, MID$, RIGHT$, RTRIM$, SPLIT, TALLY, TRIM$, VERIFY  | 
| 
 Example  | 
 ' Demonstrate LEFT$ and RIGHT$ functions DIM TestString$, x$, y$, n AS LONG TestString$ = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP" FOR n = 1 TO 14 STEP 2 x$ = LEFT$(TestString$,n) y$ = RIGHT$(TestString$,n) NEXT n  |