VB & VBA in a Nutshell: The Language

Left, Left$, LeftB, LeftB$ Functions

Named Arguments

Yes

Syntax

Left(string, length)

string

Use: Required

Data Type: String

The string to be processed.

length

Use: Required

Data Type: Variant (Long)

The number of characters to return from the left of the string.

Return Value

Left$ and LeftB$ return a String, and Left and LeftB return a variant of subtype String.

Description

Returns a string containing the leftmost length characters of string.

Rules at a Glance

• If length is 0, a zero-length string ("") is returned.

• If length is greater than the length of string, string is returned.

• If length is less than or Null, the function generates runtime error 5, "Invalid procedure call or argument," and runtime error 94, "Invalid use of Null," respectively.

• If string contains Null, Left returns Null.

• Left and Left$ process strings of characters; LeftB and LeftB$ process binary data.

Programming Tips and Gotchas

• Use the Len function to determine the overall length of string.

• When you use the LeftB function with byte data, length specifies the number of bytes to return.

See Also

Len Function, Mid Functions, Right Function