Example

Extract 3 characters from a string (starting from left):

SELECT LEFT("SQL Tutorial", 3) AS ExtractString;

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Definition and Usage

The LEFT() function extracts a number of characters from a string (starting from left).

Tip: Also look at the RIGHT() function.

Syntax

LEFT(string, number_of_chars)

Parameter Values

Parameter	Description
string	Required. The string to extract from
number_of_chars	Required. The number of characters to extract. If this parameter is larger than the number of characters in string, this function will return string

Technical Details

Works in:

From MySQL 4.0

More Examples

Example

Extract 5 characters from the text in the "CustomerName" column (starting from left):

SELECT LEFT(CustomerName, 5) AS ExtractString
FROM Customers;

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