basic query not working,not sure why

[Randy]

field name is externallevel1
there are 54,068 of rows
This is example of values in the field
020- AC - Accounts receivable net"
050- AC - Inventories"
210- AN - Property and equipment net"
410- LC - Accounts payable"
etc etc. There are about 26 different descriptions repeated over the 54,068 of rows

I want to list all items that match this
Left(externallevel1,3)="020"

Query returns no items

seems simple, what am I missing?

 

[Galaxiom]

Could there be a leading space or other whitespace character?

Otherwise it should work, but this would be better:

WHERE Like "020*"

Put an index on the field in the table.

Better still, change the field to a numeric (or three character text) representation and store the rest description in a lookup table.