Truncating a variable

Is there a function to get a portion of a variable? I know you can do RAND to get a random number b/t a min & max so I was wondering if there is a LEN function or what other functions are available? I want to just take the date potion of the built-in variable PublishDate but wasn't sure the best way to accomplish that. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.Is there a function to get a portion of a variable? I know you can do RAND to get a random number b/t a min & max so I was wondering if there is a LEN function or what other functions are available? I want to just take the date potion of the built-in variable PublishDate but wasn't sure the best way to accomplish that. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.