Excel has many functions to offer when it comes to manipulating text strings. Formula tab → Function Library Group → Text Function N/B: Every formula in excel must begin with an equal sign, function then in bracket; cell name/cell ranges/cell references. Syntax: =fx(cell name/cell ranges/cell references) Example: = Sum( A1:B4) Where Sum is the function name and A1:B4 is …
What is SUBSTITUTE function in Excel? SUBSTITUTE function is one of TEXT functions in Microsoft Excel that substitutes new_text for old_text in a text string. Use SUBSTITUTE when you want to replace specific text in a text string; use REPLACE when you want to replace any text that occurs in a specific location in a …
To convert a measurement in feet and inches to inches only (i.e. 4’5″ to 53) you can use a formula based on several functions, including LEFT, FIND, MID, and SUBSTITUTE. See illustration below: Formula =LEFT(B5,FIND(“‘”,B5)-1)*12+SUBSTITUTE (MID(B5,FIND(“‘”,B5)+1,LEN(B5)),””””,””) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in D5 is: =LEFT(B5,FIND(“‘”,B5)-1)*12+SUBSTITUTE (MID(B5,FIND(“‘”,B5)+1,LEN(B5)),””””,””) How this formula works In the first …
To convert a column number to an Excel column letter (e.g. A, B, C, etc.) you can use a formula based on the ADDRESS and SUBSTITUTE functions. See example below: Formula =SUBSTITUTE(ADDRESS(1,col_number,4),”1″,””) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C5 is: =SUBSTITUTE(ADDRESS(1,B5,4),”1″,””) The first step is to construct an address that contains the column …
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 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 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 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 words that begin with a specific character, you can use a formula based on six functions: TRIM, LEFT, SUBSTITUTE, MID, LEN, and REPT. This approach is useful if you need to extract things like a Twitter user name from a cell that contains other text. Formula =TRIM(LEFT(SUBSTITUTE(MID(text,FIND(“@”, txt),LEN(text)),” “,REPT(” “,100)),100)) Note: 100 represents the longest …
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 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 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 …
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 …
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 …
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 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 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 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 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),” …
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 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 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 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 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 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 …
If you want to get the current workbook’s full name and path without a sheet name, you can use a formula that employs several text functions to strip off the sheet name. The final result will be a text string that looks like this: path[workbook.xlsm] Formula =SUBSTITUTE( LEFT(CELL(“filename”,A1),FIND(“]”,CELL(“filename”,A1))-1),”[“,””) Explanation How the formula works The CELL …
To extract the top level domain (called “TLD”) from a list of domain names or email addresses, you can use a rather complex formula that uses several functions. In the formula below, domain represents a domain or email address in normal “dot” syntax. Formula =RIGHT(domain,LEN(domain)-FIND(“*”,SUBSTITUTE(domain,”.”,”*”, LEN(domain)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(domain,”.”,””))))) Explanation In the example, the active cell contains this formula: …
To convert simple text values to numbers, you can use the the VALUE function, or simply add zero as described below. Formula =VALUE(A1) Explanation In the example shown, the formula in C5 is: =VALUE(B5) Background Sometimes Excel ends up with text in a cell, when you really want a number. There are many reasons this …
This tutorial shows how to count line breaks in cell in Excel worksheet using example below. To count total lines in a cell, you can use a formula based on the LEN, SUBSTITUTE, and CHAR functions. Formula =LEN(B5)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B5,CHAR(10),””))+1 Explanation In the example, we are using this formula: =LEN(B5)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B5,CHAR(10),””))+1 How the formula works First, the LEN function counts …
The TRIM function in Excel removes leading spaces, extra spaces and trailing spaces. Use the SUBSTITUTE function to remove all spaces or non-breaking spaces. 1. The TRIM function below removes 2 leading spaces, 3 extra spaces and 2 trailing spaces. Note: the TRIM function does not remove single spaces between words. 2. To get the length of a string, use …
This example shows the difference between the SUBSTITUTE function and the REPLACE function. 1a. If you know the text to be replaced, use the SUBSTITUTE function. 1b. The SUBSTITUTE function has a 4th optional argument. You can use this argument to indicate which occurrence you want to substitute. 2. If you know the position of the text to …
This example describes how to count the number of instances of text (or a number) in a cell. 1. Use the LEN function to get the length of the string (25 characters, including spaces). 2. The SUBSTITUTE function replaces existing text with new text in a string. LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,B1,””)) equals 13 (the length of the string without …
This chapter shows how to count the number of words in a cell. 1a. The TRIM function returns a string with leading spaces, extra spaces and trailing spaces removed. 1b. To get the length of the string with normal spaces, we combine the LEN and TRIM function. 2a. The SUBSTITUTE function replaces existing text with new text in a …