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LEFT()

Available in: DSQL, PSQL

Added in: 2.1

Description

Returns the leftmost part of the argument string. The number of characters is given in the second argument.

Result type: VARCHAR or BLOB

Syntax 

LEFT (string, length)
  • This function fully supports text BLOBs of any length, including those with a multi-byte character set.
  • If string is a BLOB, the result is a BLOB. Otherwise, the result is a VARCHAR(n) with n the length of the input string.
  • If the length argument exceeds the string length, the input string is returned unchanged.
  • If the length argument is not a whole number, bankers' rounding (round-to-even) is applied, i.e. 0.5 becomes 0, 1.5 becomes 2, 2.5 becomes 2, 3.5 becomes 4, etc.