left

Builtin index · Collections & strings

result = left(s, n)

Input: s, n · Output: result

What it is

The first n characters of a string. s is a Str; n (number of characters) selects the first n of them, clamped to the whole string if n exceeds its length.

Overloads

One call shape — this function is not overloaded.

Code	Input	Output	Description
`result = left(s, n)`	`s` Str`s` is a `Str`. `n` number or string`n` (number of characters) selects the first `n` of them, clamped to the whole string if `n` exceeds its length.	`result` Str	Returns a `Str`.

Examples

From the documentation, and run by the build -- the output and the figure below are what the engine actually produced. Simplest first.

s = "Hello, Qu World!"
print(mid(s, 7, 2))          # "Qu"

print(left(s, 5))            # "Hello"

print(right(s, 6))           # "World!"

print(reverse("abc"))        # "cba"

print(lower("SHOUT"))        # "shout"

print(ucase("shout"))        # "SHOUT"

print(lcase("SHOUT"))        # "shout"

print(toupper("mix"))        # "MIX"

print(tolower("MIX"))        # "mix"

print(capitalize("ada lovelace"))  # "Ada lovelace"

print(ltrim("   padded"))    # "padded"

print(rtrim("padded   ") + "|")   # "padded|"

print(pad_right("ab", 5, "."))    # "ab..."

print(compare("apple", "banana")) # -1

print(asc("A"))              # 65

output

Qu
Hello
World!
cba
shout
SHOUT
shout
MIX
mix
Ada lovelace
padded
padded|
ab...
-1
    ... 1 more lines

from collections-strings

How it works

left(s, n) / right(s, n) — first/last n characters; n beyond the string's length is clamped (the whole string comes back), not an error, matching substr's own length leniency.

From the note above this builtin in the interpreter, where the reasoning was written down as it was built.