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Returns the specified number of characters from the start of a text string.
Syntax
LEFT(<text>, <num_chars>)
Parameters
Term |
Definition |
|---|---|
text |
The text string containing the characters you want to extract, or a reference to a column that contains text. |
num_chars |
(optional) The number of characters you want LEFT to extract; if omitted, 1. |
Property Value/Return Value
A text string.
Remarks
Whereas Microsoft Excel contains different functions for working with text in single-byte and double-byte character languages, DAX works with Unicode and stores all characters as the same length; therefore, a single function is enough.
This DAX function may return different results when used in a model that is deployed and then queried in DirectQuery mode. For more information about semantic differences in DirectQuery mode, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=219171.
Example
The following example returns the first five characters of the company name in the column [ResellerName] and the first five letters of the geographical code in the column [GeographyKey] and concatenates them, to create an identifier.
=CONCATENATE(LEFT('Reseller'[ResellerName],LEFT(GeographyKey,3))
If the num_chars argument is a number that is larger than the number of characters available, the function returns the maximum characters available and does not raise an error. For example, the column [GeographyKey] contains numbers such as 1, 12 and 311; therefore the result also has variable length.