VBA Left Function

Related Functions:

Description

The VBA Left function returns a substring from the start of a supplied string.

The syntax of the function is:

Left( Str, Length )

Where the function arguments are:

Str	-	The original string that you want to extract a substring from.
Length	-	The length of the substring.

								' Example 1. Extract a substring of length 4 from the start of the string "John Michael Smith".
							

								Dim res As String

								res = Left( "John Michael Smith", 4 )

' The variable res is now equal to the text string "John".

In the example above, the VBA Left function returns the result "John".

								' Example 2. Extract a substring of length 12 from the start of the string "John Michael Smith".
							

								Dim res As String

								res = Left( "John Michael Smith", 12 )

' The variable res is now equal to the text string "John Michael".

In the example above, the VBA Left function returns the substring "John Michael".

								' Example 3. Extract the first part of the string "John Michael Smith", up to the first space.
							

								Dim pos As Integer

								Dim res As String

								pos = InStr( 1, "John Michael Smith", " " )

								res = Left( "John Michael Smith", pos - 1 )

' Now, the variables pos = 5 and res = "John".

In the example above:

The VBA InStr function is used to find the position of the first space. This returns the value 5, which is stored in the variable pos.
The VBA Left function uses the value pos - 1 as the Length argument. It therefore returns all characters up to (but not including) the first space. I.e. the function returns the substring "John".

Further information and examples of the VBA Left function are provided on the Microsoft Developer Network.