Left
In excel left function gives a very good example which helps user to extract desired number of characters from starting of input string using Left Function. Left function takes two arguments where second argument is option.
Syntax
=LEFT(text, [num_chars])
Parameters
- text: a mandatory parameter refers to a string from which characters need to be extracted.
- num_chars: its an optional parameter refers to a positive integer, refers to number of characters need to be extracted from given text, if omitted, first character of the string would be returned
Formula example

Output

Explanation
If you notice the first formula where I tried passing a negative number in the second parameter and got #VALUE! error, proving that we have to supply a positive number. The second formula governs that if we remove the second parameter LEFT function returns 1 character from the left of given string. Finally third formula shows that we want to extract 3 characters from the left of given string and resulting “VBA“.
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