---
title: "Left"
slug: "left"
updated: 2024-05-04T19:46:39Z
published: 2024-05-04T19:46:39Z
canonical: "help.mail-and-deploy.com/left"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.mail-and-deploy.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Left

### General

The *Left* function can be used to extract left characters from a [String](/release34/docs/string).

### Syntax

The syntax of the *Left* function is:

          Left Function Syntax

          

Left(<value>, <length>)

### Examples

The following [Expression](/release34/docs/introduction-to-mail-and-deploy-expressions) returns a [String](/release34/docs/string) that contains the 4 left characters of the value of variable *vTest* of a [Datasource](/release34/docs/introduction-to-datasources) named *Consumer Sales*:

          Left Function Example

          

Left([Datasource].[Consumer Sales].[Variable].[vTest], 4)