<p>The <b>LEFT/LEFTB</b> function is one of the text and data functions. Is used to extract the substring from the specified string starting from the left character. The <b>LEFT</b> function is intended for languages that use the single-byte character set (SBCS), while <b>LEFTB</b> - for languages that use the double-byte character set (DBCS) like Japanese, Chinese, Korean etc.</p>
<pstyle="text-indent: 50px;"><b><em>string</em></b> is a string you need to extract the substring from,</p>
<pstyle="text-indent: 50px;"><b><em>number-chars</em></b> is a number of the substring characters. It is an optional argument. If it is omitted, the function will assume it to be 1.</p>
<p>The data can be entered manually or included into the cells you make reference to.</p>
<p>To apply the <b>LEFT/LEFTB</b> function,</p>
<ol>
<li>select the cell where you wish to display the result,</li>