Left function behavior

[#1]

I'm having an odd behavior with Left(). Consider the following:

Left( "A", 2, " ") 

I anticipate the result will be "A " (i.e. padded on the right with a space). And indeed this is what I get.

However, When I use the same expression in a column formula like this:

Left( :Input, 2, " ")

and I have "A" as the value in Input, I am just getting "A" in the result column (i.e. no right space).

Am I missing something?

[#2]

I think you are hitting a rule that trims trailing spaces from character data in data tables. This works:

Append a non-space after the left function's result

[#3]

Is that a built-in JMP rule that is always on? It’s fine if so, I just didn’t know it existed.

[#4 · Accepted solution]

Removing trailing spaces can't be turned off. JMP removes the trailing spaces so other code that does grouping can run faster and not make two groups that seem to have the same identifier.