ASA SQL Reference
  SQL Functions
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LEFT function [String]

Function 

Returns a number of characters from the beginning of a string.

Syntax 

LEFT ( string-expression, integer-expression )

Parameters 

string-expression    The string.

integer expression    The number of characters to return.

Usage 

If the string contains multi-byte characters, and the proper collation is being used, the number of bytes returned may be greater than the specified number of characters.

Standards and compatibility 

• SQL/92    Vendor extension.

• SQL/99    Vendor extension.

• Sybase    Not supported by Adaptive Server Enterprise.

See also 

RIGHT function [String]

International Languages and Character Sets

Example 

The following statement returns the value choco.

SELECT LEFT( 'chocolate', 5 )