Excel TEXT functions return a number in a specified number format
To extract the page, or the part of a path after the last forward slash (/), you can use a formula based on several Excel functions: TRIM, RIGHT, SUBSTITUTE, and REPT. Formula =TRIM(RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(url,”/”,REPT(” “,100)),100)) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C5 is: =TRIM(RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(B5,”/”,REPT(” “,100)),100)) How this formula works At the core, this formula …
If want to extract the name part of an email address, you can do so with a formula that uses the LEFT and FIND functions. In the formula below, email represents the email address you are working with. Formula =LEFT(email,FIND(“@”,email)-1) Explanation In the example, we are using this formula: =LEFT(C4,FIND(“@”,C4)-1) Here’s how the formula works: …
Atimes a user may want to extract the domain from an email address, the RIGHT, LEN, and FIND functions can be used to achieve that. In the formula below, email represents the email address you are working with. Formula =RIGHT(email,LEN(email)-FIND(“@”,email)) Explanation In the example, we are using this formula: =RIGHT(C4,LEN(C4)-FIND(“@”,C4)) Here’s how the formula works …
Atimes a user may want to build an email address from a first and last name. In that case, use a formula based on simple concatenation with help from the LEFT and LOWER functions. See illustration below: Formula =LOWER(LEFT(first)&last&”@”&domain) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in D5 is: =LOWER(LEFT(B5)&C5&”@”&$G$6) How this formula works Working …
To build email addresses using first and last names, you can use a formula that concatenates values, with help from the LOWER and LEFT functions as needed. See example below: Formula =LOWER(LEFT(first)&last)&”@domain.com” Explanation In the example shown, the formula in D5 is: =LOWER(LEFT(C5)&B5)&”@”&”acme.com” How this formula works For a name like “Tim Brown”, this formula …
If you want to extract the domain name from a complete URL, you can do so with a formula that uses the LEFT and FIND functions. See example: In the formula below, url is the the URL you are working with. Formula =LEFT(url,FIND(“/”,url,9)) Explanation In the example, we are using this formula: =LEFT(B4,FIND(“/”,B4,9)) Here’s how …
If you need to clean up names that are not in a proper case, you can use a simple formula based on PROPER functions. Formula =PROPER(name) Explanation In the example the formula in C5 is: =PROPER(B5) How this formula works The PROPER function automatically reformats text so that all words are capitalized. At the same …
If you need to join separate first and last names together into a single full name, you can easily do so with concatenation using the ampersand (&) character. In the formula below, first is first name, and last is last name. Formula =first&” “&last Explanation In the example, the active cell contains this formula: =B4&” “&C4 How this formula …
If you need to get the middle name from a full name, and you already have the first and last names in separate cells, you can use a formula that extracts the middle name using the MID and LEN functions, with help from TRIM function. Note: this is a pretty sloppy formula, but will work …
If you need extract the last name from a full name in LAST, FIRST format, you can do so with a formula that uses the LEFT and FIND functions. The formula works with names in this format, where a comma and space separate the last name from the first name. Note: this formula will only …
If you need extract the last name from a full name, you can do so with this rather complex formula that uses several functions. Note: In the formula below, name is a full name, with a space separating the first name from other parts of the name. Formula =RIGHT(name,LEN(name)-FIND(“*”,SUBSTITUTE(name,” “,”*”, LEN(name)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(name,” “,””))))) Important! Handling inconsistent …
If you need extract the first name from a full name, you can easily do so with the FIND and LEFT functions. In the formula below, name is a full name, with a space separating the first name from other parts of the name. Note: this formula does not account for titles (Ms., Mr., etc) …
To extract the first name from a full name in “Last, First” format, you can use a formula that uses RIGHT, LEN and FIND functions. Note: this formula will only work with names in Last, First format, separated with a comma and space. Formula =RIGHT(name,LEN(name)-FIND(“, “,name)-1) Explanation From the table and formula (above), name represent full …
If you have worksheet that contains text dimensions (i.e. “50 ft x 200 ft” etc.) you can split the into two parts with formulas that use several text functions. Explanation Background A common annoyance with data is that it may be represented as text instead of numbers. This is especially common with dimensions, which may …
To split a number from a unit value, you need to determine the position of the last number. If you add 1 to that position, you have the start of the unit text. Note: these is an experimental formula that uses a hard coded array constant, set down here for reference and comment. Casually tested …
To separate text and numbers, you can use a formula based on the FIND function, the MIN function, and the LEN function with the LEFT or RIGHT function, depending on whether you want to extract the text or the number. Formula =MIN(FIND({0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9},A1&”0123456789″)) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C5 is: =MIN(FIND({0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9},B5&”0123456789″)) which returns …
To remove specific unwanted characters in Excel, you can use a formula based on the SUBSTITUTE function. Formula =SUBSTITUTE(B4,CHAR(code),””) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C4 is: =SUBSTITUTE(B4,CHAR(202),””) Which removes a series of 4 invisible characters at the start of each cell in column B. How this formula works The SUBSTITUTE function can …
To split dimensions that like 100x50x25 into three separate parts, you can use some rather complicated formulas that use LEFT, MID, RIGHT, FIND, LEN, and SUBSTITUTE. Note: you can also use Flash Fill in Excel 2013 and above, and the “text to columns” feature in older versions of Excel. Both approaches are quite a bit …
To replace or substitute all occurrences of one character with another character, you can use the SUBSTITUTE function. Formula =SUBSTITUTE(ref,old,new) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C6 is: =SUBSTITUTE(B6,” “,”-“) How this formula works The SUBSTITUTE function is full automatic. All you need to do is supply “old text” and “new text”. SUBSTITUTE …
If you need to strip leading and trailing spaces from text in one or more cells, you can use the TRIM function. Formula =TRIM(text) Explanation In the example show, the formula in cell C3 is: =TRIM(B3) Once you’ve removed extra spaces, you can copy the cells with formulas and paste special elsewhere as “values” to …
To remove text from a cell when the text is at a variable position, you can use a formula based on the REPLACE function, with help from the FIND function. Formula =REPLACE(text,start,FIND(marker,text)+1,””) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C6 is: =REPLACE(B6,1,FIND(“:”,B6)+1,””) How this formula works The REPLACE function will replace text by position. …
To remove a file extension from a file name, you can use a formula based on the LEFT and FIND functions. Formula =LEFT(filename,FIND(“.”,filename)-1) Note: because this formula finds the first occurrence of “.”, it will remove all file extensions when there are are more than one. Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C5 …
To remove text from a cell by position, you can use the REPLACE function. Formula =REPLACE(text,start,characters,””) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C6 is: =REPLACE(B6,1,24,””) How this formula works The replace function lets you replace text based on its location and length. In this case, we want to strip off the drive and …
To remove text from a cell based by matching content (not location), you can use the SUBSTITUTE function. Formula =SUBSTITUTE(B6,text_to_remove,””) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C6 is: =SUBSTITUTE(B6,”-“,””) How this formula works The SUBSTITUTE function lets you replace text by matching content. In this case, we want to remove hyphens from telephone …
To remove line breaks from a cell, or from text inside a formula, you can use a formula based on the SUBSTITUTE and CHAR functions. Formula =SUBSTITUTE(A1,CHAR(10),”, “) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C5 is: =SUBSTITUTE(B5,CHAR(10),”, “) which replaces line breaks in B5 with commas. How this formula works First, you should …
To remove the first character in a cell, you can use the REPLACE function. Formula =REPLACE(A1,1,N,””) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in D5 is: =REPLACE(A1,1,1,””) How this formula works This formula uses the REPLACE function to replace the first character in a cell with an empty string (“”). The arguments for REPLACE are …
To remove the last n characters from a text string, you can use a formula based on the LEFT and LEN functions. You can use a formula like this to strip the last 3 characters, last 5 characters of a value, starting on the left. Formula =LEFT(text,LEN(text)-n) Note: there is no reason to use the …
To remove some of the natural complexity of text (strip punctuation, normalize case, remove extra spaces) you can use a formula based on the SUBSTITUTE function, with help from the TRIM and LOWER functions. Instance There may be times when you need to remove some of the variability of text before other processing. Case Study …
To get the position of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. instance of a specific character inside a text string, you can use the FIND and SUBSTITUTE functions. Note: we use “~” in this case only because it rarely occurs in other text. You can use any character that you know won’t appear in the text. …
To pad text to an equal length using another character, you can use a formula based on the REPT and LEN functions. Formula =A1&REPT(“*”,count-LEN(A1)) Explanation In the example shown, a formula is used to append a variable number of asterisks (*) to values in column B so that the final result is always 12 characters in …
To find the most frequently occurring text in a range, based on criteria you supply, you can use an array formula based on several Excel functions MATCH, MODE, INDEX, and IF. Formula =INDEX(range1,MODE(IF(range2=criteria, MATCH(range1,range1,0)))) Note: this is an array formula and must be entered with control + shift + enter. Explanation In the example shown, the formula …
To extract the word or text value that occurs most frequently in a range, you can use a formula based on several functions INDEX, MATCH, and MODE. Formula =INDEX(range,MODE(MATCH(range,range,0))) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in H5 is: =INDEX(B5:F5,MODE(MATCH(B5:F5,B5:F5,0))) Working from the inside out, the MATCH function matches the range against itself. That is, …
To join multiple cell values with a comma, you can use a formula based on the SUBSTITUTE and TRIM functions. You can use this same approach to concatenate values in cells with any delimiter you like. Formula =SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(A1&” “&B1&” “&C1&” “&D1&” “&E1),” “,”, “) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in G5 is: =SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(B5&” “&C5&” “&D5&” “&E5&” “&F5),” …
To extract text between parentheses, braces, brackets, etc. you can use a formula based on the MID function, with help from SEARCH function. Formula =MID(text,SEARCH(“(“,text)+1,SEARCH(“)”, text)-SEARCH(“(“,text)-1) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C5 is: =MID(B5,SEARCH(“(“,B5)+1,SEARCH (“)”,B5)-SEARCH(“(“,B5)-1)+0 How this formula works The foundation of this formula is the MID function, which extracts a specific …
If you need to extract the first word from some text you can use a formula that uses the FIND and LEFT functions. Formula =LEFT(a1,FIND(” “,a1)-1) Explanation From the example, the formula looks like this: =LEFT(B4,FIND(” “,B4)-1) How this formula works FIND returns the position (as a number) of the first occurrence of a space character in …
To get the last word from a text string, you can use a formula based on the TRIM, SUBSTITUTE, RIGHT, and REPT functions. Formula =TRIM(RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(text,” “,REPT(” “,100)),100)) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C6 is: =TRIM(RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(B6,” “,REPT(” “,100)),100)) Which returns the word “time”. How this formula works This formula is an interesting example …
To find and replace multiple values with a formula, you can nest multiple SUBSTITUTE functions together, and feed in find/replace pairs from another table using the INDEX function. Formula =SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(B5,INDEX(find,1),INDEX(replace,1)), INDEX(find,2),INDEX(replace,2)) Explanation In the example shown, we are performing 4 separate find and replace operations. The formula in G5 is: =SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(B5,INDEX(find,1), INDEX(replace,1)),INDEX(find,2),INDEX(replace,2)), INDEX(find,3),INDEX(replace,3)),INDEX(find,4),INDEX(replace,4)) where “find” is …
To extract a word that contains specific text,you can use a formula based on several functions, including TRIM, LEFT, SUBSTITUTE, MID, MAX, and REPT. You can use this formula to extract things like email addresses, or other substrings with a unique id. Formula =TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(A1,” “,REPT(” “,99)), MAX(1,FIND(“@”,SUBSTITUTE (A1,” “,REPT(” “,99)))-50),99)) Explanation In the example shown, …
To count how many times a specific a word (or any substring) appears inside a range of cells, you can use a formula based on the SUBSTITUTE, LEN, and SUMPRODUCT functions. Formula =SUMPRODUCT((LEN(range)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(range,text,””)))/LEN(text)) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C11 is: =SUMPRODUCT((LEN(B5:B8)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B5:B8,C2,””)))/LEN(C2)) Note: The formula on this page counts instances of a word in a …
To count how many times a specific character appears in a cell, you can use a formula based on the SUBSTITUTE and LEN functions. Formula =LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,”a”,””)) Explanation In the example, the active cell contains this formula: =LEN(B3)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B3,C3,””)) How this formula works This formula works by using SUBSTITUTE to first remove all of the characters …