Extract substring from left, mid or right Show
Method A: Extract substring from left, middle or right by using formula In Excel, there are some formulas can help you to quickly extract part of text. Extract first n characters Supposing you want to extract first 3 characters from a given list data, please select a blank cell that you want to place the extracted result, then use this formula =LEFT(B3,3) B3 is the cell you extract characters from, 3 is the number of characters you want to extract. Press Enter key to get the extracted result. Then drag fill handle over the cells to apply this formula.  Extract last n characters For example, extract last 6 characters from a list of string, please select a blank cell that you want to place the extracted result and use this formula: =RIGHT(B9,6) B9 is the cell you extract characters from, 6 is the number of characters you want to extract. Press Enter key to get the extracted result. Then drag fill handle over the cells to apply this formula. Extract n characters form middle If you want to extract 3 characters begin from the 4th character of a string, you can use below formula: =MID(B15,4,3) B15 is the cell you extract characters from, 4 represent extract characters from 4th character (count from left), 3 is the number of characters you want to extract. Press Enter key to get the extracted result. Then drag fill handle over the cells to apply this formula. Note: If you want to move the extracted results to another location, please copy and paste the extracted results as value firstly. Method B: Extract substring from left, mid or right by Kutools for Excel If you are not familiar with formulas, you can try Kutools for Excel’s Extract Text feature which is easy to handle this job. Before using the Extract Text utility, please take 3 minutes to free install Kutools for Excel: Free Download Now! 1. Select the cells that you want to extract substrings from, click Kutools >
Text > Extract Text. 2. In the popping Extract Text dialog, under the Extract by location tab, the first three options support you to extract substring from left, mid or
right. The first N character: extract substring from left. For instance, extract first 2 characters, check this option and type 2 into
textbox. The last N character: extract substring from right of the string. For instance, extract last 2 characters, check this option and type 2 into
textbox. Start to end characters: extract specific number of characters from middle for string. For instance, extract from 4th character to 9th character, check this option and type 4 and 9 into textboxes
separately. Insert as a formula: check this checkbox, the result is a formula which can be changed as the original string change, otherwise, the result is fixed. 3. After specifying the location as you need, click Ok, a dialog pops out to select a cell to place the extracted
substring. Click OK. Now the substring has been extracted. Extract substring after or before a specified characterIf you want to extract substring after or before a specified character, you can apply one of below methods to handle the job. Method A: Extract substring after or before a defined character by using formula Supposing you want to extract characters after the character “-” from a list of strings, please use this formula: =RIGHT(B3,LEN(B3)-SEARCH("-", B3)) B3 is the cell you want to extract characters from, - is the character you want to extract string after. Press Enter key to get the extracted result. Then drag fill handle over the cells to apply this formula. If you want to extract substring before a defined character, you can use the formula like this: =LEFT(B10,SEARCH("-", B10)-1) Example
result is shown as below: Note The data may be lost or changed while you copy and paste the formula results to another location. For preventing this problem from happening, you can copy and paste the formula results as value after applying the formula. Or you can try the
Method B. Method B: Extract substring after or before a defined character by Kutools for Excel For directly extract substring after or before a specified character, you can use the Extract Text utility of Kutools for Excel, which can help you to extract all characters after or before a character, also can extract specific length of characters before or after a character. Before using the Extract Text utility, please take 3 minutes to free install Kutools for Excel: Free Download Now! 1. Select the cells that you want to extract characters, click Kutools > Text > Extract Text. 2. In the popping Extract Text dialog, under Extract by location tab, go to the before the text and after the text options to
specify the setting as you need.. Before the text: extract substrings before the entered character(s). For instance, type – into the textbox, all characters before – will be
extracted. After the text: extract substrings after the entered character(s). For instance, type – into the textbox, all characters after – will be
extracted. Insert as a formula: check this checkbox, the result is a formula which can be changed as the original string change, otherwise, the result is fixed. 3. Click Ok, a dialog pops out to select a cell to place the extracted substring. Click
OK. Now the string before or after the certain character(s) has been extracted.
Extract substring between two charactersMaybe in some cases, you need to extract substring between two characters, you can choose one of below methods to handle the job. Method A: Extract by formula Supposing to extract characters between brackets () from a given list, you can use below formula: =MID(LEFT(B3,FIND(")",B3)-1),FIND("(",B3)+1,LEN(B3)) In the formula, B3 is the cell that you want to extract string from, ( and ) are the two characters you want to extract string between. Press Enter key to get the extracted result. Then drag fill handle over the cells to apply this formula. Note If the formula is a little difficult for you, you can try the Method B, which is using a handy tool to quickly solve this problem. Method B: Extract by Kutools for Excel In Kutools for Excel’s hundreds of features, there is a feature – Extract strings between specified text can quickly extract substrings between two characters. Before using the Extract Text utility, please take 3 minutes to free install Kutools for Excel: Free Download Now! 1. Select a cell that used to place the extracted substring, click Kutools > Formula Helper > Text > Extract strings between specified
text. 2. In the Formulas Helper dialog, go to the Arguments input section, then select or directly type the cell reference and the two characters you want to extract between. In default, when you select the cell reference which used to extract substring, the cell
reference will be absolute which cannot use the auto fill handle to fill formula, please change it to relative. 3. Click Ok, now the first result has been gotten, then drag auto fill handle over cells that need this
formula. Tip: If you want to extract strings between two characters (including the two characters), the Extract Text utility of Kutools for Excel also can do you a favor on this operation. 1. Select the cells that you want to extract
substring between characters, click Kutools > Text > Extract Text. 2.In the popping Extract Text dialog, under Extract by rule tab, go to the Text section, type the characters that you want to extract string between, and the string can be repented by the wildcard *. If you want to extract string with fixed length, the wildcard ? can be used, one ? indicate one character. Then click Add to add the rule to the Rule description section. 3.Click
Ok, a dialog pops out to select a cell to place the extracted substring. Click OK. Now the string between two certain characters has been
extracted. Extract E-mail address from a stringIf you want to extract e-mail address from a given string or a range of cells, you can use the Extract Email Address function to handle this job at once time instead of finding them one by one. Before using the Extract Email Address utility, please take 3 minutes to free install Kutools for Excel: Free Download Now! 1. Select the cells that will be extracted email address, then click Kutools > Text > Extract Email Address. 2. Then a dialog pops out for you selecting a cell to output the address emails. 3. Click OK, the email addresses in each cell have been extracted. Extract numeric or alphabetical characters from stringIf there is a list of data mixed numeric and alphabetical and special characters, you just want to extract the numbers or alphabetical values, you can try Kutools for Excel’s Remove Characters utility. 1. Before you using the Remove Characters utility, you need
to have a copy of the data as below screenshot shown: 2. Then select this copy of data, click Kutools > Text > Remove Characters. 3. In the Remove Characters dialog, check Non-numeric option, click Ok. Now only the numeric characters have been left. To
extract alphabetical values only, check Non-alpha option in the Remove Characters dialog. Download sample file
Other Operations (Articles) Related To File ConversionExtract time from datetime string Extract rows that meet criteria Extract a nth character from string The Best Office Productivity ToolsKutools for Excel Solves Most of Your Problems, and Increases Your Productivity by 80%
Office Tab - brings tabbed interface to Office, and make your work much easier
How do I extract just letters from a cell in Excel?Here is how to do this:. Select the cells where you have the text.. Go to Data –> Data Tools –> Text to Columns.. In the Text to Column Wizard Step 1, select Delimited and press Next.. In Step 2, check the Other option and enter @ in the box right to it. ... . In Step 3, General setting works fine in this case. ... . Click on Finish.. How do I separate alphabets in Excel?Split text and numbers. Generic formula. =MIN(FIND({0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9},A1&"0123456789")). 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. ... . Overview.. How do I separate alphanumeric letters in Excel?How to separate numbers from text in Excel using "Text to Columns". Select the cells. ... . Locate the "Text to Columns" tool under the "Data" tab. ... . Select the data type from the menu. ... . Adjust the settings and options. ... . Format and place your columns. ... . Find the position of the number in the string. ... . Extract text with a RIGHT formula.. How do I view only alphabets in Excel?1. Select the column you want to limit the entry, and click Data > Data Validation > Data Validation. 3. Click OK, and then the selected column only allowed entry numeric characters.
|
