Excel TEXT functions return a number in a specified number format
If you want to count the total characters in a range of cells, you can do with a formula that uses LEN, along with the SUMPRODUCT function. Formula =SUMPRODUCT(LEN(rng)) Explanation In the example, the active cell contains this formula: =SUMPRODUCT(LEN(B3:B6)) Here’s how the formula works: SUMPRODUCT accepts the range B3:B6 as an array of four …
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 numeric characters from a text string, you can try this experimental formula based on the TEXTJOIN function, new in Excel 2016. Formula {=TEXTJOIN(“”,TRUE,IF(ISERR(MID(A1, ROW(INDIRECT(“1:100”)),1)+0), MID(A1,ROW(INDIRECT(“1:100″)),1),””))} Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C5 is: =TEXTJOIN(“”,TRUE,IF(ISERR(MID(B5, ROW(INDIRECT(“1:100”)),1)+0), MID(B5,ROW(INDIRECT(“1:100″)),1),””)) Note: this is an array formula and must be entered with control + shift + …
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 to count the total characters in a cell, you can do so using the LEN function. Formula =LEN(a1) Explanation In the example, the formula in the active cell is: =LEN(B3) The LEN function simply counts all characters that appear in a cell. All characters are counted, including space characters. Numbers are also …
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 non-numeric characters from a text string, you can try this experimental formula based on the TEXTJOIN function, new in Excel 2016. Formula {=TEXTJOIN(“”,TRUE,IFERROR(MID(A1,ROW (INDIRECT(“1:100″)),1)+0,””))} Note: TEXTJOIN will return the numbers as text, for example “100,”500″, etc. If you want a true numeric result, add zero, or wrap the entire formula in the VALUE function. TEXTJOIN was added …
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 …
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 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 strip html or other markup from values in cells, you can use the MID function. Formula =MID(text,start,LEN(text)-markup_len) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C5 is: =MID(B5,4,LEN(B5)-7) How this formula works The MID function returns characters using a fixed starting point and ending point. In this case, the markup consists of the html …
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 to count how many times a specific a word (or any substring) appears inside a cell, you can use a formula that uses SUBSTITUTE and LEN. Formula =(LEN(text)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(text,word,””)))/LEN(word) Explanation In our example, we are using this formula: =(LEN(B4)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B4,C4,””)))/LEN(C4) How this formula works B4 is the cell we’re counting words in, and C4 …
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 split text at an arbitrary delimiter (comma, space, pipe, etc.) you can use a formula based on the TRIM, MID, SUBSTITUTE, REPT, and LEN functions. Formula =TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(A1,delim,REPT (” “,LEN(A1))),(N-1)*LEN(A1)+1,LEN(A1))) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C5 is: =TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE($B5,”|”, REPT(” “,LEN($B5))),(C$4-1)* LEN($B5)+1,LEN($B5))) Note: references to B5 and C4 are mixed references to allow the formula …
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 need to count specific characters in a range of cells, you can do so with a formula that uses LEN and SUBSTITUTE, along with the SUMPRODUCT function. Formula =SUMPRODUCT(LEN(range)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(range,text,””))) Explanation In the example, the active cell contains this formula: =SUMPRODUCT(LEN(B3:B7)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B3:B7,”o”,””))) How the formula works For each cell in the range, SUBSTITUTE removes all …
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 split a text string at a certain character, you can use a combination of the LEFT, RIGHT, LEN, and FIND functions. Formula =LEFT(text,FIND(character,text)-1) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C5 is: =LEFT(B5,FIND(“_”,B5)-1) And the formula in D5 is: =RIGHT(B5,LEN(B5)-FIND(“_”,B5)) How these formulas work The first formula uses the FIND function to locate …
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 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 …
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 count the total words in a cell, you can use a formula based on the LEN and SUBSTITUTE functions. Formula =LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,” “,””))+1 Explanation In the example shown, C3 contains this formula: =LEN(TRIM(B3))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B3,” “,””))+1 How the formula works SUBSTITUTE removes all spaces from the text, then LEN calculates the length of the text without spaces. This …
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(B5,CHAR(10),REPT(” “,200)),200)) Note: 200 is an arbitrary number that represents the longest line you expect to find in a cell. If you have longer lines, increase this number as needed. Explanation In …
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. …
If you want to count the total words in a range of cells, you can do with a formula that uses LEN and SUBSTITUTE, along with the SUMPRODUCT function. Formula =SUMPRODUCT(LEN(TRIM(range))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(range,” “,””))+1) Note: The formula inside SUMPRODUCT will return 1 even if a cell is empty. If you need to guard against this problem, you can …
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 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 …
If you need to include double quotes inside a formula, you can use additional double quotes as “escape characters”. By escaping a character, you are asking Excel to to treat the ” character as literal text. As always, you’ll also need to include double quotes wherever you would normally in a formula. For example, if …
To find the nth occurrence of a character in a text string, you can use a formula based on the FIND and SUBSTITUTE functions. Formula =FIND(CHAR(160),SUBSTITUTE (text,”@”,CHAR(160),N)) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in D5 is: =FIND(CHAR(160),SUBSTITUTE (B5,”@”,CHAR(160),C5)) How this formula works In this example we are looking for the nth occurrence of the …
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 extract the last two words from a cell, you can use a formula built with several Excel functions, including MID, FIND, SUBSTITUTE, and LEN. Formula =MID(A1,FIND(“@”,SUBSTITUTE(A1,” “,”@”,LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,” “,””))-1))+1,100) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C5 is: =MID(B5,FIND(“@”,SUBSTITUTE(B5,” “,”@”,LEN(B5)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B5,” “,””))-1))+1,100) How this formula works At the core, this formula uses the MID function to …
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 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 extract lines from a multi-line cell, you can use a clever (and intimidating) formula that combines 5 Excel functions: SUBSTITUTE, REPT, TRIM, MID, and LEN. Formula =TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(A1,delim,REPT (” “,LEN(A1))), (N-1)*LEN(A1)+1, LEN(A1))) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in D5 is: =TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE($C5,CHAR(10),REPT (” “,LEN($C5))), (D$4-1)*LEN($C5)+1, LEN($C5))) How this formula works At the core, this formula …
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 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 …
If you need to get the nth word in a text string (i.e. a sentence, phrase, or paragraph) you can so with a clever (and intimidating) formula that combines 5 Excel functions: MID, SUBSTITUTE, TRIM, REPT, and LEN. Formula =TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(A1,” “,REPT(” “,LEN(A1))), (N-1)*LEN(A1)+1, LEN(A1))) Explanation How this formula works At the core, this formula takes …
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 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 …