Excel substring: how to extract text from cell

The tutorial shows how to use the Substring functions in Excel to extract text from a cell, get a substring before or after a specified character, find cells containing part of a string, and more.

Before we start discussing different techniques to manipulate substrings in Excel, let's just take a moment to define the term so that we can begin on the same page. So, what is a substring? Simply, it's part of a text entry. For example, if you type something like "AA-111" in a cell, you'd call it an alphanumeric string, and any part of the string, say "AA", would be a substring.

Although there is no such thing as Substring function in Excel, there exist three Text functions (LEFT, RIGHT, and MID) to extract a substring of a given length. Also, there are FIND and SEARCH functions to get a substring before or after a specific character. And, there are a handful of other functions to perform more complex operations such as extracting numbers from a string, replacing one substring with another, looking up partial text match, etc. Below you will find formula examples to do all this and a lot more.

How to extract substring of a certain length

Microsoft Excel provides three different functions to extract text of a specified length from a cell. Depending on where you want to start extraction, use one of these formulas:

  • LEFT function - to extract a substring from the left.
  • RIGHT function - to extract text from the right.
  • MID function - to extract a substring from the middle of a text string, starting at the point you specify.

As is the case with other formulas, Excel substring functions are best to learn from an example, so let's look at a few ones.

Extract substring from start of string (LEFT)

To extract text from the left of a string, you use the Excel LEFT function:

LEFT(text, [num_chars])

Where text is the address of the cell containing the source string, and num_chars is the number of characters you want to extract.

For example, to get the first 4 characters from the beginning of a text string, use this formula:

=LEFT(A2,4)
LEFT formula to extract a substring from the start of a string

Get substring from end of string (RIGHT)

To get a substring from the right part of a text string, go with the Excel RIGHT function:

RIGHT(text, [num_chars])

For instance, to get the last 4 characters from the end of a string, use this formula:

=RIGHT(A2,4)
RIGHT formula to extract a substring from the end of a string

Extract text from middle of string (MID)

If you are looking to extract a substring starting in the middle of a string, at the position you specify, then MID is the function you can rely on.

Compared to the other two Text functions, MID has a slightly different syntax:

MID(text, start_num, num_chars)

Aside from text (the original text string) and num_chars (the number of characters to extract), you also indicate start_num (the starting point).

In our sample data set, to get three characters from the middle of a string beginning with the 6th character, you use the following formula:

=MID(A2,6,3)
MID formula to extract text from the middle of a string

Tip. The output of the Right, Left and Mid formulas is always text, even when you are extracting a number from a text string. If you want to operate on the result as a number, then wrap your formula in the VALUE function like this:

=VALUE(MID(A2,6,3))

Extract substring before or after a given character

As shown in the above examples, the Left, Right and Mid functions cope nicely with uniform strings. When you are dealing with text strings of variable length, more complex manipulations shall be needed.

Note. In all of the below examples, we will be using the case-insensitive SEARCH function to get the position of a character. If you want a case-sensitive formula, use the FIND function instead.

How to extract text before a specific character

To get a substring preceding a given character, two things are to be done: first, you determine the position of the character of interest, and then you pull all characters before it. More precisely, you use the SEARCH function to find the position of the character, and subtract 1 from the result, because you don't want to include the character itself in the output. And then, you send the returned number directly to the num_chars argument of the LEFT function:

LEFT(cell, SEARCH("char", cell)-1)

For example, to extract a substring before the hyphen character (-) from cell A2, use this formula:

=LEFT(A2, SEARCH("-",A2)-1)

No matter how many characters your Excel string contains, the formula only extracts text before the first hyphen:
Extracting text before a specific character

How to extract text after character

To get text following a specific character, you use a slightly different approach: get the position of the character with either SEARCH or FIND, subtract that number from the total string length returned by the LEN function, and extract that many characters from the end of the string.

RIGHT(cell,LEN(cell)-SEARCH("char", cell))

In our example, we'd use the following formula to extract a substring after the first hyphen:

=RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-SEARCH("-",A2))
Extracting text after a specific character

How to extract text between two instances of a character

To get a substring between two occurrences of a certain character, use the following generic formula:

MID(cell, SEARCH("char", cell)+1, SEARCH ("char", cell, SEARCH ("char", cell)+1) - SEARCH ("char", cell)-1)

The first two arguments of this MID formula are crystal clear:

Text is the cell containing the original text string.

Start_num (starting point) - a simple SEARCH formula returns the position of the desired character, to which you add 1 because you want to start extraction with the next character.

Num_chars (number of chars to extract) is the trickiest part:

  • First, you work out the position of the second occurrence of the character by nesting one Search function within another.
  • After that, you subtract the position of the 1st occurrence from the position of the 2nd occurrence, and subtract 1 from the result since you don't want to include the delimiter character in the resulting substring.

For example, to extract text surrounded by two hyphens, you'd use this formula:

=MID(A2, SEARCH("-",A2) + 1, SEARCH("-",A2,SEARCH("-",A2)+1) - SEARCH("-",A2) - 1)

The screenshot below shows the result:
Extracting text between two hyphens

If you are looking to extract text between 2nd and 3rd or 3nd and 4th occurrences of the same character, you can use a more compact SEARCH SUBSTITUTE combination to get the character's position, as explained in How to find Nth occurrence of a character in a string:

FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE(cell,character,CHAR(1),Nth occurrence))

In our case, we could extract a substring between the 2nd and 3rd hyphens with the following formula:

=MID(A2, FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE(A2,"-",CHAR(1),2))+1, FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE(A2,"-",CHAR(1),3)) - FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE(A2,"-",CHAR(1),2))-1)
Extracting a substring between the 2nd and 3rd hyphens

How to find substring in Excel

In situations when you don't want to extract a substring and only want to find cells containing it, you use the SEARCH or FIND function as shown in the above examples, but perform the search within the ISNUMBER function. If a cell contains the substring, the Search function returns the position of the first character, and as long as ISNUMBER gets any number, it returns TRUE. If the substring is not found, the search results in an error, forcing ISNUMBER to return FALSE.

ISNUMBER(SEARCH("substring", cell))

Supposing, you have a list of British postcodes in column A and you want to find those that contain the substring "1ZZ". To have it done, use this formula:

=ISNUMBER(SEARCH("1zz", A2))

The results will look something similar to this:
Finding cells that contain a specific substring

If you'd like to return your own message instead of the logical values of TRUE and FALSE, nest the above formula into the IF function:

=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("1zz", A2)), "Yes", "")

If a cell contains the substring, the formula returns "Yes", an empty string ("") otherwise:
Formula to identify cells that contain a certain substring

As you may remember, the Excel SEARCH function is case-insensitive, so you use it when the character case does not matter. To get your formula to distinguish the uppercase and lowercase characters, opt for the case-sensitive FIND function.

For more information on how to find text and numbers in Excel, please see If cell contains formula examples.

How to extract text from cell with Ultimate Suite for Excel

As you have just seen, Microsoft Excel provides an array of different functions to work with text strings. In case you are unsure which function is best suited for your needs, commit the job to our Ultimate Suite for Excel. With these tools in your Excel's arsenal, you just go to Ablebits Data tab > Text group, and click Extract:
Extract Text tool in Excel

Now, you select the source cells, and whatever complex strings they contain, a substring extraction boils down to these two simple actions:

  1. Specify how many characters you want to get from the start, end or middle of the string; or choose to extract all text before or after a given character.
  2. Click Insert Results. Done!

For example, to pull the domain names from the list of email addresses, you select the All after text radio button and type @ in the box next to it. To extract the user names, you select the All before text radio button, as shown in the screenshot below.
Define the substring you want to extract.

And you will get the following results in a moment:
Parts of email addresses are extracted in separate columns.

Apart from speed and simplicity, the Extract Text tool has extra value - it will help you learn Excel formulas in general and substring functions in particular. How? By selecting the Insert as formula checkbox at the bottom of the pane, you ensure that the results are output as formulas, not values.

In this example, if you select cells B2 and C2, you will see the following formulas, respectively:

  • To extract username:

    =IFERROR(LEFT(A2,SEARCH("@",A2)-1),"")

  • To extract domain:

    =IFERROR(RIGHT(A2, LEN(A2)- SEARCH("@",A2) - LEN("@") + 1),"")

How much time would it take you to figure out these formulas on your own? ;)

Since the results are formulas, the extracted substrings will update automatically as soon as any changes are made to the original strings. When new entries are added to your data set, you can copy the formulas to other cells as usual, without having to run the Extract Text tool anew.

If you are curious to try this as well as many other useful features included with Ultimate Suite for Excel, you are welcome to download evaluation version.

More formulas for substrings in Excel

In this tutorial, we have demonstrated some classic Excel formulas to extract text from string. As you understand, there can be almost infinite variations of these basic scenarios. Below you will find a few more formula examples where the Text functions come in handy.

Available downloads

Excel substring functions - practice workbook (.xlsx file)
Ultimate Suite - trial version (.exe file)

Table of contents

441 comments

  1. I want to extract the flat and Tower in this example is denoted by TL which comes right after the cheques from the left. Is there anyways to get it right?

    CLEARING CHEQUESIN-HOUSE CHEQUE TRANSFER CHQ. NO: 007747~902620102 CHQ. NO:007747 23062026972504242645 - AE0190095
    CLEARING CHEQUESIN-HOUSE CHEQUE TRANSFER CHQ. NO: 007746~902620102 CHQ. NO:007746 23062026972504242643 - AE0189708
    CLEARING CHEQUESIN-HOUSE CHEQUE TRANSFER CHQ. NO: 007724~902620102 CHQ. NO:007724 23062026972504242638 - AE0189619
    CLEARING CHEQUESIN-HOUSE CHEQUE TRANSFER CHQ. NO: 007723~902620102 CHQ. NO:007723 23062026972504242626 - AE0189194
    CLEARING CHEQUESF1203 TL19 DEFAULT - CHQ. NO: 000131~302620177 23062026023062001250 - AE0173816
    CLEARING CHEQUESF408 TL7 DEFAULT - CHQ. NO: 000097~102620128 23062026023062001249 - AE0173462
    CLEARING CHEQUESIN-HOUSE CHEQUE TRANSFER CHQ. NO: 007722~902620102 CHQ. NO:007722 23062026972504242630 - AE0141381
    CLEARING CHEQUESIN-HOUSE CHEQUE TRANSFER CHQ. NO: 007720~902620102 CHQ. NO:007720 23062026972504242633 - AE0141371
    CLEARING CHEQUESIN-HOUSE CHEQUE TRANSFER CHQ. NO: 007726~902620102 CHQ. NO:007726 23062026972504242605 - AE0141335
    OUTWARD CLEARINGF603 TL5 DEFAULT - ~2549518001 CHQ. NO: 000017~804020101 23061026023061001594 - AE0060948
    CLEARING CHEQUEINWARD CLEARING CHQ. NO: 007717~902620102 CHQ. NO:007717 23061100000012570428 - AE0012593

  2. I have a list of TEXT, over 90,000 lines . I copied from a webpage, approx 25,000 names and added it to my list. Now when I sort the list alphabetically, it does not work properly. For example the following is an extract
    ABLAZING GRACE
    ABLE BEAUTY
    ABLE HIT
    ABLE IVY
    ABLE LASS
    ABLE LOTTY
    ABLE MAGPIE
    ABLE MILLIE
    ABLE QUEST
    ABLE RAMON
    ABLE SABLE
    ABLE TO RUN
    ABLE VIVA
    ABLE BONNIE
    ABLE CUSTOMER
    ABLE FAME
    ABLE LANE
    ABLEBE

    You will see that ABLE BONNIE, ABLE CUSTOMER, ABLE FAME and ABLE LANE are not in the correct order. These are what I added from a webpage. Interestingly, if I retype the name and resort my list, the retyped value is sorted correctly.

    I cannot possibly spend the hours to retype all these names - does anyone have a solution - I have tried everything I know ! Thank you

  3. Hi,

    I am trying to extract the Last Name - "Twain" from this data:

    Shania Twain\ShanTw00

    Is there an easy way to do this with a formula?

    • Hi!
      Please read the above article carefully. Try to use information in this article: How to extract text before a specific character and How to extract text after character.

      =RIGHT(LEFT(A2, SEARCH("\",A2)-1), LEN(LEFT(A2, SEARCH("\",A2)-1))-SEARCH(" ", LEFT(A2, SEARCH("\",A2)-1)))

  4. Hi! I have the following data set and I need to extract weather the model is "RHS" or "LHS" using only =SEARCH

    RHS FRONT SEAT ASY 2WAY COMP
    FRONT SEAT ASY COMP RHS 2WAY
    FRONT SEAT ASY COMP LHS 4WAY
    RHS FRONT SEAT ASY COMP 6WAY

    Many thanks!

    • Hi!
      I don't quite understand what you want to extract. Give me an example of the result you want to get. But in any case, you need to use other Excel functions besides the SEARCH function. Please read the above article carefully.

  5. 23.13 1/17/2023 P64634 01 DOE, JOHN
    123.14 1/27/2023 6463401 DOE, JASON ALLEN
    3.14- 12/15/2023 F 6463401 DOE, JASON ALLEN

    Could use some help if anyone can. Needing a macro or formula that will put this one cell of data usually in Column A into five different columns. Each line of data is a dollar (sometimes a negative after the value), date, account number (sometimes the is a letter that is separated in front or there is a digit or two separated at the end), and then a name. Always Last, First (sometimes the middle name or initial is there). Text to column won't work since there are not always the same width in between the different data types and sometimes the account number has the space in the beginning and/or the end. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! :)

    • Hi!
      Your text strings do not have a single pattern or a single unique delimiter with which to separate text by columns. I'm really sorry, we cannot help you with this.

  6. Hi,
    I wondering if you could help me out with this.

    I have a column with alphabets "A","B","U" and blanks . "A" means Main part ; "B" means Sub Part; "U" means Miscellaneous.
    I want the descriptions of the alphabets in the next column. Is there a way?

    Many thanks!

  7. Hi ! Thank you for all the information.

    My case is a bit tricky.

    I want to extract the address of a string of many different characters.
    Eg - From:

    “ [ { code: “ABC” } ; { value : “123” } ; { name : “ABC” } ; { code: “XYZ” } ; { value : “&$)
    ” } ; { Address : “5 Conrad Street 2710” } ; { code dit : “JDI<-” } ; { value : “123” } ; { name : “$;&;7:?” } ;] “

    I want to only have the address - 5 Conrad Street 2710.

    Note that the number of characters of the address will vary. But the characters right before and after will be the same
    Before : Address : “
    After : ” } ; { code dit :

    Is there a way to do that ? Thank you !

    • Hello!
      Use the advice from the article above. Extract text after certain characters. Then, in the resulting text string, extract the text before certain characters.
      Try this formula:

      =LEFT(RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-SEARCH("Address : ",A2)-10), SEARCH("} ; { code dit :",RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-SEARCH("Address : ",A2)-10))-3)

  8. I have a cell A2 that has ABC COMPANY #332; DEF COMPANY #254. I need to extract the 4 character numbers #332 and #254. I would like multiple columns to pull in each instance. I can successfully get the 1st instance using the formula

    =TRIM(LEFT(SUBSTITUTE(MID(A2,FIND("#",A2),LEN(A2))," ",REPT(" ",4)),4)) will result in #332

    How can i pull in the 2nd instance #254 in another column?

  9. Please help on how to extract or split if the start of the characters are the same?
    Example I want to extract only the words after the second "20L" which is ERASE on below.
    9D21461T5580739.11PHMC1020LP4ETR20LERASE

    • Hi!
      If I got you right, the formula below will help you with your task:

      =MID(SUBSTITUTE(A2,"20L","#",2), SEARCH("#",SUBSTITUTE(A2,"20L","#",2))+1,50)

  10. What about if the two characters are different? Which character do you put where?
    For example I am looking to to pull out just "240" from the string "200- COGS : 240 - Prof Services Mgmt" in a different cell. In this example, I'm looking for the section of the string between the "-" character and ":" character.

    I'm using the formula =MID(F2, SEARCH(":",F2) + 1, SEARCH("-",F2,SEARCH("-",F2)+1) - SEARCH(":",F2) - 1), but I think I need to change around the "-" and ":", but not sure where. I am always needing to break out these 4 pieces of information from a string like this and it takes forever. So if someone could tell me the best formula to use to get each of the pieces of information (200, COGS, 240, Prof Services Mgmt), that would be really helpful!
    Thanks!

  11. Hi,
    Can you please help in excel?
    I want to extract the date from a cell and is it possible the word "Date" would be appearing every time just before the date.
    I extracted the last 8 characters that contains date (Example of that text --> JSB-EPP-005253-23052022) but the requirement of the format is not achieved. Last 8 characters should be displayed in the assigned cell as "Date: 23.05.2022)".
    If this is possible, so please guide me how it would be implemented.
    Appreciate your great work,

    Thanks & Warm Regards,
    Ali

      • Thank you very very much...this Formula worked great and fulfilled my all requirement :)
        I once again appreciate and bundle of thanks Dear Sir..

  12. if I have sentence in one cell, for example :
    1. I want to got to "Market"
    2. Yesterday, "Old lady" passed away
    3. "Car" is expensive

    How do you take only the word in between " " sign and copy to other cell (in this case word : Market, Old lady, Car)

    Thank you

    • Hi!
      Pay attention to the following paragraph of the article above – How to extract text between two instances of a character. It covers your case completely.

  13. I'm needing to use this for a set of data that sometimes has multiple words in a cell, but not always. I've tried nesting it in an IF formula, but I've gone wrong somewhere. What I have works if there are spaces, but not if there aren't.

    Sample data set:
    Cat
    Brown dog
    Mixed-breed dog

    I would like to get the following results:
    Cat
    Brown
    Mixed-breed

    This formula (where A16 is the original cell) works for the second two, but not the first.
    =IF(SEARCH(" ",A16),LEFT(A16,SEARCH(" ",A16)-1),A16)

  14. Hi...!!
    I want to check a cell by formula "if a cell contains FORMULA in itself or not".
    I am using Excel 2010 so "ISFORMULA" function is not workable for me.

    Please advise.

    • Please advise

  15. Hi

    I hope you can help me with this kind sir

    In column one, I have a list of tracking numbers that looks like this:

    123456
    123456
    123456
    123456
    12345678
    12345678
    12345678
    1234567
    1234567
    12345
    12345
    12345

    Suppose all FedEx trackings are 7 digit numbers, USPS are 8 digits length, DHL are 6 and XPO are the ones with 5 digits.
    What I'm trying to do is finding all USPS trackings and extract em from colum 1 to column 2, then, find all FedEx trackings and extract em to column 3, then find all the DHL tracking numbers to column 4 and so on.
    Is there a formula for that? Like, one that find all values of a given amount of digits (or characters) in a column and list em in a different column?

    Thanks in advance!

    (Sorry for the spam, I wasn't sure if I have replied to someone's comment lol)

  16. I am looking to extract the text after MA_

    RURAL_BUILD_FTTP_28B_FTTP_MA_PCPV9135_ON69848_AGN_SPN_CBT_RURAL_VA1
    RURAL_BUILD_28B_FTTP_MA_PCPV9152_POLING_CIVILS_VA1
    RURAL BUILD FTTP 30A_FTTP_MA_PCPV9058_MICS_CIVILS_VA1
    RURAL BUILD_29A_FTTP_MAIDSTONE_MA_PCPV9027_TEST ROD AND ROPE

    Ideally I would like a return of only the V*** after PCP

    Any help would be greatly appreciated

  17. Please How do i extract group of numbers appearing in in different positions of a different cells.
    Example;
    A
    ABSTV234 K:50s
    sg789nvhn092h
    satcads15qw20

    B(outcome)
    234
    789
    15

  18. "1970000.
    00"
    how to remove 1st and last 4th char in excel. i excel sheet it is hot showing same.
    in excel is display as 1970000.00
    i have tried right, left, char, find & replace, int, roundup & etc.
    pls help me it is taking lot of time.

  19. Hi Dear,

    Can you please help me to extract the text using excel logic

    791541213823202211Towage10120
    80292721355020228Charts/Publications10.11
    80292721355020228Class Certificates / Survey fee (DNV, Lloyd's, GL) / ISM250
    80292721355020228Port Costs1897
    80292721355020228Port Costs2116.8
    80292721355020228Port Costs4.7
    80292721355020228Port Costs66.69
    80292721355020228Waste Disposal1639.28
    90301491169020229Mooring Unmooring1003.89
    903643010118Federal Goods and Services Taxes (GST)1633.41
    903643010118Federal Goods and Services Taxes (GST)1834.4
    903643010118Federal Goods and Services Taxes (GST)2035.4
    903643010118Federal Goods and Services Taxes (GST)218.28
    903643010118Federal Goods and Services Taxes (GST)230.02

  20. Hi All,
    not even sure if this is possible. But i need to return the first 5 digit number from the below alphanumeric text in a cell. the answers should be
    Example 1: 93423
    Example 2: 87952

    Example 1: "**02.06 return updated in SPA** ordered 93423 BR 4PNS PCFC A RK 495L 1X1 x 2 delivered 2 x 4Pns Pl Al 94253 1300353110"
    Example 2: noted with d Short delivered multiple invoices - 2 x BR Vct Br NGB 750 4x3 87952 12 x BR PI N A 5.1% NGB 330ML 4X6IMP 94152

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