How to Use the LEFT Function in Excel (Extract Characters from the Start)

How to Use the LEFT Function in Excel (Extract Characters from the Start)

The LEFT() function is used to extract a specific number of characters from the start (left side) of a text string in Excel.

📘 Syntax:

=LEFT(text, num_chars)

✅ Example:

=LEFT("EMP2025ID", 3)

This will return "EMP", the first 3 characters.

🎯 Use Cases:

• Extract department codes from employee IDs
• Split structured text data
• Get area codes from phone numbers

⚡ Pro Tip:

Combine with SEARCH() to dynamically find cutoff points in text data.

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