What is LEFT() Function in SQL?

Programming Language
#1

LEFT() function in MySQL is used to extract a specified number of characters from the left side of a given string. It uses its second argument to decide, how many characters it should return.

Syntax :

LEFT (str, len)

Parameter : This function accepts two parameters as mentioned above and described below :

  • str : The given string from whose left side a number of characters are to be extracted.
  • len : The number of characters to extract. If this parameter is larger than the number of characters in the string, this function will return the actual string.

Returns : It returns a number of characters from a string (starting from left).

Example: Applying LEFT() Function to a given string.

SELECT LEFT("gamesforgames", 4) AS Left_Str;

Output :

Left_Str

games