Left vs Left$

Probably a dumb question.

I read that Left$ processes faster than Left. In that case, why/when would you ever need to use the Left version?

Oh wait. NULLs.

Anything else?

Hi,

The $ means you are dealing with a string and without means it is a variant data type. See:
http://bytes.com/topic/access/answer...-left-function

Left only has 4 characters, Left$ has 5, and you need to hold down shift to get the last one.

Thanks Marvin.

I should have made clear in the OP that I already know what the difference between the two is.

I was asking why/when would you ever NEED to use Left instead of Left$ (Assuming you have no NULLs that is)


Or to put it another way round - If I ensured that the input will never be a NULL, and because Left$ is faster than Left, then I should always use Left$ instead of Left? Yes/No?

mc84excel

That was kind of meant to be a joke/humorous aside type of thing.

Sorry if I offended you in any way.

Originally Posted by Norie

mc84excel

That was kind of meant to be a joke/humorous aside type of thing.

Sorry if I offended you in any way.

Norie it's all good - I'm not offended. Although I didn't get it was a joke straight away. (Adding a on the same post might have helped clue me in!)