Use Excel's Left, Mid & Right Functions to extract text

Sometime you will need to extract part of a cell's contents - e.g. the 1st 3 characters of a part number or the last 4 digits in a Social Security Number.

Excel's Text Functions (Left, Mid & Right) are "just the ticket" to use.

Watch this short Excel Video Lesson to learn how to do this.

To view all of my Excel Video Training Lessons, I invite you to visit my website -
http://thecompanyrocks.com/excels

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Excel
• Text
• Functions
• Extract
• Spreadsheets

[kevinfgao]

Hi,

I was trying out the midfunction, and it doesn't seem to work for a social that starts with 0. For example, 012-34-5678. When I key in the formula =mid(A1, 4, 2), it give me 45 instead of 34. Please advise. Thanks.

[DannyRocksExcels]

@kevinfgao

The "key" here is to understand the difference between what is "stored" by Excel and what Excel "displays" in the cell.

How have you "formatted" this Social Security Number? There are two possibilities:

1) Preferred Method is to "type" in 012345678 and then format the cell using the Special SS Formatting on the Numbers tab. In this case, your formula will produce 34.

2) Not recommended - Tying in the "Dashes" - e.g. 012-34-5678.Now, the 4th character is the "Dash."

[tirathmistry]

awesome tutorial your explanation is so superb.