Example Of

select hex_encode('Hexadecimal')
from rdb$database;

HEX_ENCODE
======================
48657861646563696D616C

Extracts the leftmost part of a string

Result type

VARCHAR or BLOB

Syntax

LEFT (string, length)

Table 1. `LEFT` Function Parameters
Parameter	Description
string	An expression of a string type
length	Integer expression.The number of characters to return

This function fully supports text BLOBs of any length, including those with a multi-byte character set.
If string is a BLOB, the result is a BLOB.Otherwise, the result is a VARCHAR(n) with n the length of the input string.
If the length argument exceeds the string length, the input string is returned unchanged.
If the length argument is not a whole number, bankers' rounding (round-to-even) is applied, i.e. 0.5 becomes 0, 1.5 becomes 2, 2.5 becomes 2, 3.5 becomes 4, etc.