left

First N characters of a string.

Syntax

v = left(text, num_chars)

Description

Returns the leftmost num_chars characters from text. Default num_chars is 1. Equivalent to MATLAB’s text(1:num_chars).

Examples

left('hello world', 5)   % 'hello'
left('abc')              % 'a'

See also

• right — Last N characters of a string.
• mid — Substring starting at a given position.
• leftb — First N bytes of a string.