Skip to content
Free Excel Tutorials
  • Home
  • Excel For Beginners
  • Excel Intermediate
  • Advanced Excel For Experts

Data Analysis

  • How to calculate correlation coefficient Correlation in Excel
  • Conditional Formatting Icon Sets Examples in Excel
  • Excel Line Chart
  • How to create running total in an Excel Table
  • How to calculate average last N values in a table in Excel

References

  • How to use Excel ROW Function
  • Two-column Lookup in Excel
  • Perform case-sensitive Lookup in Excel
  • How to create dynamic named range with OFFSET in Excel
  • How to use Excel OFFSET function

Data Validations

  • Excel Data validation don’t exceed total
  • Excel Data validation with conditional list
  • Excel Data validation whole percentage only
  • Excel Data validation allow weekday only
  • Excel Data validation require unique number

Remove unwanted characters in Excel

by

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 find and replace text in a cell, wherever it occurs.

Worked Example:   Extract word that begins with specific character in Excel

In this case, we are using SUBSTITUTE to find a character with code number 202, and replace it with an empty string (“”), which effectively removes the character completely.

How did I know to remove character 202?

To figure that out, I first used this formula to get the code number for the first character of B4:

=CODE(LEFT(B4))

Here, the LEFT function, without the optional second argument, returns the first character on the left. This goes into the CODE function, which reports the characters code value, which is 202.

Worked Example:   How to split text with delimiter in Excel

All in one formula

In this case, since we are stripping leading characters, we could combine both formulas in one, like so:

=SUBSTITUTE(B4,CHAR(CODE(LEFT(B4))),"")

Here, instead of providing character 202 explicitly to SUBSTITUTE, we are using CODE and CHAR to provide a code dynamically, using the first character in the cell.

Worked Example:   SUBSTITUTE function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

Post navigation

Previous Post:

Split dimensions into three parts in Excel

Next Post:

Split text and numbers in Excel

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Learn Basic Excel

Ribbon
Workbook
Worksheets
Format Cells
Find & Select
Sort & Filter
Templates
Print
Share
Protect
Keyboard Shortcuts

Categories

  • Charts
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Validation
  • Excel Functions
    • Cube Functions
    • Database Functions
    • Date and Time Functions
    • Engineering Functions
    • Financial Functions
    • Information Functions
    • Logical Functions
    • Lookup and Reference Functions
    • Math and Trig Functions
    • Statistical Functions
    • Text Functions
    • Web Functions
  • Excel VBA
  • Excel Video Tutorials
  • Formatting
  • Grouping
  • Others

Logical Functions

  • Nested IF function example in Excel
  • IFS function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • FALSE function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • OR function Examples in Excel
  • IF function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

Date Time

  • Two ways to sum time over 30 minutes in Excel
  • Create date range from two dates in Excel
  • Sum through n months in Excel
  • Get last day of month in Excel
  • Count birthdays by month in Excel

Grouping

  • Group times into 3 hour buckets in Excel
  • Group numbers at uneven intervals in Excel
  • Group times into unequal buckets in Excel
  • If cell contains one of many things in Excel
  • Map text to numbers in Excel

General

  • How to count total number of cells in a rectangular range in Excel
  • How to calculate percentage of total in Excel
  • How to calculate percentage discount in Excel
  • Subtotal by color in Excel
  • AutoFit Column Width, AutoFit Row Height in Excel
© 2023 xlsoffice . All Right Reserved. | Teal Smiles | Abbreviations And Their Meaning