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LEFT

Textbeginner

LEFT pulls characters from the beginning of a text value. It's a core text manipulation formula used for parsing codes, extracting prefixes, and cleaning data. Often combined with FIND or LEN for dynamic extraction.

Syntax

Excel:=LEFT(text, [num_chars])

Google Sheets: Same syntax

Parameters

textThe text string or cell reference.

num_chars?How many characters to extract from the left. Defaults to 1.

? = optional parameter

Worked Example

Extract just the 'INV' prefix from an invoice ID.

Row numbers	A
Header row	invoice_id
2	INV-1001
3	INV-1002
4	INV-1003
5	INV-1004
6	INV-1005

Formula

=LEFT(A2, 3)

Result

INV

LEFT takes the first 3 characters from A2, which contains 'INV-1001'. In this sample, that returns the invoice prefix 'INV'.

Related:RIGHT MID LEN FIND

Practice Exercises

2 exercises - work through each one using the data table below

Exercise 1 of 2beginner

#LEFT-001

Question

Your team wants to extract just the numeric portion of invoice IDs to use as a shorter reference. Invoice IDs follow the format 'INV-XXXX'. What are the last 4 characters of INV-1001 — in other words, what does LEFT("INV-1001", 7) return starting from the right? Actually: what do the 4 characters after 'INV-' look like? Use LEFT to extract the first 4 characters of the numeric suffix from the string '1001'. What is LEFT("1001", 4)?

Dataset

Showing rows 1-10

Download CSV

Row numbers	A	B
Header row
2	INV-1001	Cloudline Software
3	INV-1002	Apex Office Supply
4	INV-1003	Summit Consulting Group
5	INV-1004	Meridian Travel Co.
6	INV-1005	Forge & Frame Creative
7	INV-1006	NovaTech Solutions
8	INV-1007	Atlas Hardware Co.
9	INV-1008	Clearview Data Systems
10	INV-1009	Redstone Marketing
11	INV-1010	Keystone Legal Advisors
12

Click a column name to sort. Use the filter icon to narrow rows by column value.

Scroll to explore the table, then sort or filter by column as needed.

Hints

Your Answer

Exercise 2 of 2beginner

#LEFT-002

Question

You want to create abbreviated vendor codes using the first 6 characters of each vendor name. What does LEFT("Summit Ridge Consulting", 6) return?

Dataset

Showing rows 1-20

Download CSV

Row numbers	A	B
Header row
2	INV-1001	Cloudline Software
3	INV-1002	Apex Office Supply
4	INV-1003	Summit Consulting Group
5	INV-1004	Meridian Travel Co.
6	INV-1005	Forge & Frame Creative
7	INV-1006	NovaTech Solutions
8	INV-1007	Atlas Hardware Co.
9	INV-1008	Clearview Data Systems
10	INV-1009	Redstone Marketing
11	INV-1010	Keystone Legal Advisors
12	INV-1011	Cloudline Software
13	INV-1012	Basecamp Events
14	INV-1013	Apex Office Supply
15	INV-1014	BrightPath Analytics
16	INV-1015	Meridian Travel Co.
17	INV-1016	Clearview Data Systems
18	INV-1017	Apex Office Supply
19	INV-1018	Summit Consulting Group
20	INV-1019	Cloudline Software
21	INV-1020	Atlas Hardware Co.
22

Click a column name to sort. Use the filter icon to narrow rows by column value.

Scroll to explore the table, then sort or filter by column as needed.

Hints

Your Answer

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