MID, MIDB functions: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

While, MIDB returns a specific number of characters from a text string, starting at the position you specify, based on the number of bytes you specify.

• MID always counts each character, whether single-byte or double-byte, as 1, no matter what the default language setting is.
• MIDB counts each double-byte character as 2 when you have enabled the editing of a language that supports DBCS and then set it as the default language. Otherwise, MIDB counts each character as 1.

The languages that support DBCS include Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), and Korean.

Syntax of MID, MIDB functions

MID(text, start_num, num_chars)

MIDB(text, start_num, num_bytes)

The MID and MIDB function syntax has the following arguments:

• Text: The text string containing the characters you want to extract.
• Start_num: The position of the first character you want to extract in text. The first character in text has start_num 1, and so on.
• Num_chars: Specifies the number of characters you want MID to return from text.
• Num_bytes: Specifies the number of characters you want MIDB to return from text, in bytes.

MID, MIDB formulas explanation

• If start_num is greater than the length of text, MID returns “” (empty text).
• If start_num is less than the length of text, but start_num plus num_chars exceeds the length of text, MID returns the characters up to the end of text.
• If start_num is less than 1, MID returns the #VALUE! error value.
• If num_chars is negative, MID returns the #VALUE! error value.
• If num_bytes is negative, MIDB returns the #VALUE! error value.

Example of MID, MIDB functions

Steps to follow:

1. Open a new Excel worksheet.

2. Copy data in the following table below and paste it in cell A1

Note: For formulas to show results, select them, press F2 key on your keyboard and then press Enter.

You can adjust the column widths to see all the data, if need be.