What is the purpose of the LEFT function in Excel?

The LEFT function in Excel is specifically designed to return a specified number of characters from the left side of a text string. When you use this function, you can define how many characters you want to extract, allowing you to easily manipulate text data for various purposes such as formatting or extracting important information from larger strings.

For example, if you have a string "Hello World" and you use the LEFT function to extract 5 characters, it will return "Hello." This functionality is particularly useful when working with data that has a consistent format, such as extracting state codes from full addresses or getting the first few characters of product codes.

The other options describe functions that do not align with the purpose of the LEFT function: one deals with text extraction from the right side, another modifies text case, and the last determines the length of a text string. Each of these serves different needs in text manipulation and data processing within Excel.