SQL Server LEFT() Function

Extract 3 characters from a string (starting from left):

SELECT LEFT('SQL Tutorial', 3) AS ExtractString;

Definition and Usage

The LEFT() function extracts a number of characters from a string (starting from left).

LEFT( string, number_of_chars)

Parameter	Description
string	Required. The string to extract from
number_of_chars	Required. The number of characters to extract. If the number exceeds the number of characters in string, it returns string

Works in:	SQL Server (starting with 2008), Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Parallel Data Warehouse

Extract 5 characters from the text in the "CustomerName" column (starting from left):

SELECT LEFT(CustomerName, 5) AS ExtractString
FROM Customers;

Extract 100 characters from a string (starting from left):

SELECT LEFT('SQL Tutorial', 100) AS ExtractString;