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])
Argument |
Description |
Permitted values |
|---|---|---|
string |
String from which the left fragment will be returned |
Text 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, 1 |
Positive 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.