Starting from Left...

Extracts n number of characters from the beginning of a string.

When you apply this operation, you are first asked to enter the number of characters to extract:

Use the preview column on the dialog box to determine if you are extracting the correct number of characters.

The dialog box also has a check box that allows you to remove the original column.

Input	Output
text	text

In this example, License # is the original column. Five characters from the left are extracted to produce the values in License #Left.