How to Cut Characters in Excel

Excel is an application that is widely used by people around the world to manage data, create charts, and much more. One frequent task when working with data in Excel is the need to cut characters from a cell. This could be necessary when dealing with data that has leading or trailing spaces, or when you need to extract specific portions of text from a cell. In this article, we will show you how to cut characters in Excel using several methods.

Using the Left Function in Excel

The Left function in Excel is a built-in function that allows you to cut a specified number of characters from the beginning of a cell. This function takes two arguments: the text you want to cut, and the number of characters you want to cut.

=LEFT(text, num_characters)

Here is an example of the Left function in action:

=LEFT(A2, 5)

In this example, A2 is the cell you want to cut characters from, and 5 is the number of characters you want to cut. This formula will return the first 5 characters from cell A2.

Using the Right Function in Excel

The Right function in Excel is similar to the Left function, but instead of cutting characters from the beginning of a cell, it cuts them from the end. This function also takes two arguments: the text you want to cut, and the number of characters you want to cut.

=RIGHT(text, num_characters)

Here is an example of the Right function in action:

=RIGHT(A2, 5)

In this example, A2 is the cell you want to cut characters from, and 5 is the number of characters you want to cut. This formula will return the last 5 characters from cell A2.

Using the Mid Function in Excel

The Mid function in Excel allows you to cut characters from the middle of a cell. This function takes three arguments: the text you want to cut, the starting position of the characters you want to cut, and the number of characters you want to cut.

=MID(text, start_position, num_characters)

Here is an example of the Mid function in action:

=MID(A2, 3, 5)

In this example, A2 is the cell you want to cut characters from, 3 is the starting position of the characters you want to cut, and 5 is the number of characters you want to cut. This formula will return 5 characters starting from the 3rd character in cell A2.

Using the Replace Function in Excel

The Replace function in Excel is used to replace a specified number of characters in a cell with a different set of characters. This function takes four arguments: the text you want to modify, the starting position of the characters you want to replace, the number of characters you want to replace, and the replacement text.

=REPLACE(text, start_position, num_characters, replacement_text)

Here is an example of the Replace function in action:

=REPLACE(A2, 3, 5, "new_text")

In this example, A2 is the cell you want to modify, 3 is the starting position of the characters you want to replace, 5 is the number of characters you want to replace, and “new_text” is the text you want to replace the characters with.

Using the Text to Columns Function in Excel

The Text to Columns function in Excel allows you to separate text in a cell into separate columns based on a delimiter character. This function can be used to cut characters from a cell if the characters you want to remove are located after a specific delimiter.

To use this function, select the cell or range of cells you want to separate, go to the Data tab, and select Text to Columns. In the Text to Columns Wizard, select Delimited, choose the delimiter character you want to use, and click Finish.

Conclusion

In this article, we have shown you several methods for cutting characters from a cell in Excel. Whether you need to remove leading or trailing spaces, extract a specific portion of text, or replace certain characters with something else, Excel has built-in functions and features that make it easy to accomplish these tasks. With a little bit of practice, you will be able to cut characters from your Excel data with ease.