Welcome
Reference Guide
This guide describes conceptual information about data design environment components when you want to use the data fabrication feature in HCL OneTest™ Server.
Schema design
A schema is a graphical data dictionary that contains metadata definitions of the structure of a document to generate test data. Schema provides visual cues for understanding the structure and complete definition of an object.
Functions and expressions
Text functions
LEFT

Release Notes
This document includes information about What’s new, installation and upgrade instructions, known issues, and contact information of HCL Customer Support.
System Requirements
This document includes information about hardware and software requirements for HCL OneTest™ Server.
Getting Started Guide
This guide provides an overview and describes the task flows to get you started with HCL OneTest™ Server. This guide is intended for new users.
Administrator Guide
This guide describes how to install HCL OneTest™ Server software. After you install the software, you can perform administration tasks such as license configuration, user management, security, memory, and disk usage management, back up and restore user data. This guide is intended for administrators.
Test Author Guide
This guide describes how to create test assets in HCL OneTest™ Server and publish test assets to the Git repository that you have configured. This guide is intended for testers and test managers.
Test Execution Specialist Guide
This guide describes tasks that you must complete before you can configure and run tests in HCL OneTest™ Server. You can find information about other tasks that you can perform on the Resource Monitoring Service, Virtualization, and Integrations with third-party applications. This guide is intended for testers or test execution specialists.
Test Manager Guide
This guide describes how to manage and track your overall test effort. This guide is intended for test managers.
Reference Guide
This guide describes conceptual information about data design environment components when you want to use the data fabrication feature in HCL OneTest™ Server.
- Files
  You add a file to a project to use it as input in the project. You can upload a file from your local file system to a project from the Files tab to generate test data. Alternatively, you can upload it when you define an action.
- Connections
  A connection defines the properties that are required to connect to an external resource. An action uses a connection to provide source data to a project or write data from a source to a target. Multiple actions can use the same connection. You can define both connections and actions at the project level.
- Schema design
  A schema is a graphical data dictionary that contains metadata definitions of the structure of a document to generate test data. Schema provides visual cues for understanding the structure and complete definition of an object.
  - Introduction to schema design
    Use the Schemas tab to define, modify, and view schemas. A schema describes the syntax, structure, and semantics of your data.
  - Type properties
    The properties of a type define the characteristics of the data objects of that type.
  - Item restrictions
    Item restrictions are an optional feature you can use to specify valid or invalid data objects for an item type. Item restrictions are grouped into three categories: Value, Character, and Range.
  - Components
  - Partitioning
  - Type inheritance
  - Schema analyzer
  - Distinguishable objects
  - Functions and expressions
    - Expressions and evaluations
    - Using functions
    - Syntax of a function
    - Function argument syntax
    - Functions that convert character-set encoding to the native code page
    - General functions
    - Bidirectional functions
    - Bit manipulation and testing functions
    - Conversion functions
    - Date/time functions
    - Error handling functions
    - External interface functions
    - Inspection functions
    - Logical functions
    - Lookup and reference functions
    - Math and statistics functions
    - Text functions
      - BCDTOTEXT
      - COUNTSTRING
      - CPACKAGE
      - CSERIESTOTEXT
      - CSIZE
      - CTEXT
      - DATETOTEXT
      - FILLLEFT
      - FILLRIGHT
      - FIND
      - HEXTEXTTOSTREAM
      - LEAVEALPHA
      - LEAVEALPHANUM
      - LEAVENUM
      - LEAVEPRINT
      - LEFT
      - LOWERCASE
      - MAX
      - MID
      - MIN
      - NORMXML
      - NUMBERTOTEXT
      - PACKAGE
      - PROPERCASE
      - RANDDATA
        The RANDDATA function returns random text based on the properties of the output type. The RAND function returns a pseudo-random integer between 0 and RAND_MAX (guaranteed to be at least 32,767). The RANDDATA function generates a valid random value of the item type that is being built when it is invoked.
      - REVERSEBYTE
      - RIGHT
      - SEED
        The SEED function primes the RAND and RANDDATA functions so they produce repeated results.
      - SERIESTOTEXT
      - SQUEEZE
      - SUBSTITUTE
      - TEXT
      - TEXTTOBCD
      - TEXTTONUMBER
      - TEXTTOTIME
      - TIMETOTEXT
      - TODATETIME
      - TONUMBER
      - TRIMLEFT
      - TRIMRIGHT
      - UPPERCASE
      - WORD
    - XML functions
    - Custom functions
    - Date and time format strings
    - Number format strings
    - RUN function return codes
    - Character set codes for CPACKAGE, CSERIESTOTEXT, and CTEXT
Troubleshooting Guide
This guide describes how to analyze and resolve some of the common problems that you might encounter while you work with HCL OneTest™ Server.
All Guides (PDF)
You can find the link to view or download the content of the release notes, system requirements, and persona guides of HCL OneTest™ Server as a PDF file.
Security Considerations
This document describes the actions that you can take to ensure that your installation is secure, customize your security settings, and set up user access controls.
Notices
This document provides information about copyright, trademarks, terms and conditions for the product documentation.

LEFT

The LEFT function returns a specified number of characters from a text expression beginning with the leftmost byte of a text item.

You can use LEFT when you need a specific part of a text item. For example, a customer number might have several uses and sometimes only the first 10 characters are needed. Therefore, LEFT can be used to return only the leftmost 10 characters.

Syntax:: LEFT (single-text-expression , single-integer-expression)
Meaning:: LEFT (text_to_extract_from , number_of_characters_to_extract)
Returns:: A single text item

LEFT returns the leftmost number_of_characters_to_extract characters from text_to_extract_from starting at the first (the leftmost) character in text_to_extract_from.

If number_of_characters_to_extract evaluates to an integer whose value is less than 1, LEFT evaluates to "none". If number_of_characters_to_extract evaluates to an integer whose value is greater than the size of text_to_extract_from, LEFT evaluates to the entire value of text_to_extract_from.

Examples

LEFT ("Abcd", 2)
Returns Ab
LEFT ("Abcd", 6)
Returns Abcd
LEFT (LastName + ", " + FirstName, 25)
Returns the leftmost 25 characters of the text string resulting from the concatenation of LastName and FirstName (separated by a comma and a space).

Related functions

RIGHT
MID
FIND