INTRODUCTION
LEFT function comes under the TEXT category in Excel.
LEFT FUNCTION is used if we need to extract a specified number of characters counted from the left side of a string.
LEFT returns the first character or characters in a text string, based on the number of characters you specify
PURPOSE OF LEFT FUNCTION IN EXCEL
LEFT FUNCTION returns the specified number of characters from a string, counted from the left.
This function is of extreme importance when it comes for day to day Excel jobs.
This function is applicable when we have these kind of situations.
- Get a certain number of characters from a word.
- Remove first word from the line in a cell.
- Remove a portion of the sentence from the starting side.
PREREQUISITES TO LEARN LEFT
THERE ARE A FEW PREREQUISITES WHICH WILL ENABLE YOU TO UNDERSTAND THIS FUNCTION IN A BETTER WAY.
- Basic understanding of how to use a formula or function.
- Basic understanding of rows and columns in Excel.
- Some information about the financial terms is an advantage for the use of such formulas.
- Of course, Excel software.
Helpful links for the prerequisites mentioned above
What Excel does? How to use formula in Excel?
SYNTAX: LEFT FUNCTION
The Syntax for the function is
=LEFT(STRING, NUMBER OF CHARACTERS)
STRING Text from which the characters are to be extracted
NUMBER OF CHARACTERS number of characters to be extracted or kept.
Rest will be removed.
EXAMPLE:LEFT FUNCTION IN EXCEL
DATA SAMPLE
Let us try to exact first 5 letters from a string.
Sample String: It is a beautiful day.
STEPS TO USE EXACT FUNCTION
The strings are put in the cells G9 and G11.
The string used is “IT IS A BEAUTIFUL DAY”.
The output is sought in cell I9 AND I11. The functions used are
=LEFT(G9,5) FOR I9
This function extracts 5 letters from the text stored in G9.
Similarly for I11, the function is
=LEFT(G11,7).
This function extracts 7 letters from text stored in G11.
The text can be declared in the function also with the use of “”.
e.g. =LEFT(“HELLO”,2)
The result will be HE.
KNOWLEDGE BYTES
USES OF LEFT FUNCTION
LEFT FUNCTION can be used for many things such as separating the DATE.Suppose we need to separate the day of a date. Always remember that the day portion should be uniformly present for all the dates. i.e. if its dd, then it should be dd for all the dates.Suppose the dates are 01.02.202002.02.202010.02.2020and we need to extract the DAY portion from these days. we can use=LEFT(DATE_TEXT,2)and copy the function to all the further cells.The result will be achieved.
