Skip to main content

LEFTB

The LEFTB function returns a specific number of characters from the beginning of a string, based on the given amount of bytes.

This function is useful when working with texts containing characters that are larger than one byte, for example, in languages with multi-byte characters (such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean).

Syntax​

LEFTB(string, [num_bytes])

ArgumentDescriptionPermitted values
stringString from which the left fragment will be returnedText string or reference to a cell containing text
[num_bytes](optional) The number of bytes that need to be returned from the left side of the “string” argument. By default, 1Positive integer or a reference to a cell with a number

Examples of use​

Retrieving the first 5 bytes from a string:

=LEFTB("Hello, world!", 5)

If the string consists of characters, each of which occupies 1 byte, the formula will return “Hello”.

However, if the string contains multibyte characters, the result may be different.

If the number of bytes is not specified, the function will return 1 byte:

=LEFTB("Test")

This formula will return T.

Notes​

  • If the value of the num_bytes argument exceeds the length of the string, the function will return the entire string.
  • If the string contains characters that occupy more than one byte, make sure you specify the number of bytes correctly to avoid errors.