Personally, I always use LEFT() when extracting only part of a fixed-sized field.
padr() can be used to guarantee that a variable-length expression (for instance, a memo field, or an expression like alltrim(MyField)) has a fixed length. LEFT() is unrealiable in this case.
Regards,
Hilmar.
>Hi,
>
>On a SELECT for control the size of a result char field, with left alignment,
>the normal code used is:
>
>SELECT PADR(cExp,LenResult) ....
>
>
>You can use
>
>SELECT LEFT(cExp,LenResult) ....
>
>
>It is faster.
>
>Fabio
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