JLatham wrote on Sat, 5 May 2007 18:31:00 -0700:

Left$ and Right$ and Mid$ and other string operators are "left
over" from the
days of BASIC. Ron and Jon have explained their use quite
well. LEFT, RIGHT
etc are late comers to the world.

J As you note, James, there is no LEFT$, RIGHT$, MID$ for the
J worksheet itself, just in the innards of VB.

Ah, you've jogged my memory; it was BASIC! I had a feeling that
I had seen things like LEFT$ in computer languages of the dim
past :-) I knew it wasn't Fortran, FOCAL, Algol or C but I had
not thought of BASIC!!

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not