The formula first joins the values in the four cells to the left using the concatenation operator and a single space between each value. For example LEFTapple3 returns app. Unlike FIND the SEARCH function is case-insensitive and it allows using the wildcard characters as demonstrated in the following example.
1 To extract the leftmost 4 characters in the B1 cell just using formula.
LEFT belongs to the category of Text functions therefore the result of a Left formula is always a text string even if the original value from which you extract characters is a numberIf you are working with a numeric dataset and want the LEFT function to return a number use it in conjunction with the VALUE function as demonstrated in this example. Functions are generally more productive compared to writing formulas. Applicationworksheetfunctionlefttextnum_chars For the function arguments text etc you can either enter them directly into the function or define variables to use instead. How to use the Excel LEFT function to Extract text from the left of a string.