Comments on: Excel LEFT function with formula examples

The tutorial shows how to use the LEFT function in Excel to get a substring from the beginning of the text string, extract text before a certain character, force a Left formula to return a number, and more. Continue reading →

Comments page 2. Total comments: 91

  1. Kindly help me,

    I want to find a formula for if the cell starts with some character, I want to return some text, if it starts with something else I want to return something else. Like this I want to apply this to multiple starts with values in cells. How to do it.

  2. Hi there.

    Thank you for the clear explanation on the left function. May I ask you to help me out on this one. If I want to omitted the company code in my data, in this case "A050" and just want the company name "AC Property Holidng Pty Ltd". Example as follow:

    A050 - AC PROPERTY HOLDINGS PTY LTD

    How could you still embedded with the left function in this exercise? Could someone assist me on this.

    Thank you kindly.

  3. E F

    400-100-230 - F11 [A] - ITEM 11 400-100-230 - F11 [A] - ITEM 11.pdf
    400-100-230 400-100-230.pdf

    In column F I have a directory listing of pdf files. In column E I have used LEFT function to remove the file extension. Now I want to use an IF function if there are less than 15 characters in column F, to return an empty cell in Column E. Can anyone help
    I've tried using =IF(LEN(F14>20),LEFT(F19,LEN(F19)-4),0), but it just returns the same value in the cell as shown "400-100-230"

    1. Hello!
      Please try the following formula:

      =IF(LEN(F14)>20,LEFT(F14,LEN(F14)-4),"")

      This should solve your task.

  4. I need to select all characters to the left of the second (or final dash ) '-'

    AAA-B900-42 data
    AAA-B900 desired result

    The following is sort of working, but is leaving off the final one or two characters in each case:

    =LEFT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND("-",A2))

    All suggestions appreciated..

    1. Hello!
      Please try the following formula:

      =LEFT(A1,SEARCH("-",SUBSTITUTE(A1,"-","#",1))-1)

      Hope this is what you need.

      1. use this formula,

        =LEFT(A1,FIND("-",A1,FIND("-",A1)+1)-1)

  5. I want to get only text from cell expecting any formula to get it for large list..
    Cell value >>> Result
    ABC123qw1234ss >>> ABC
    ABCDEF1234bbb>>ABCDEF
    ABCD123 >>> ABCD
    in above example only left text extracted from given cell I used LEFT(A2,3) for first it is not generalize every time I have to change length.
    Any optimal solution will help

    1. Hello!
      To extract text up to the first digit, use the formula

      =LEFT(A1,MIN(IFERROR(SEARCH({1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0},A1,1),10000))-1)

      Hope this is what you need.

  6. Hi Everyone!

    Good Afternoon!

    Please help me.

    I want to create a formula in excel.

    The formula must be If the cell contains "3037","3032","3092","3050", the answer must be the first 10 characters from the left of that cell.

    1. Hello!
      If I got you right, the formula below will help you with your task:

      =IF(SUM(--(D1={3037,3032,3092,3050})) > 0, LEFT(INDIRECT(ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN()-1)),10),"")

      I hope I answered your question. If something is still unclear, please feel free to ask.

  7. Hello,

    I have numbers begins with zeros on the left, when I use the LEFT function, excel ignores them and brings the digits after the zeros.

    So how to make this function considers the zeros as numbers?

    Thanks

  8. Hi guys,
    I am really struggling with splitting a 12 character text in 4 in the same cell , can someone help me with a formula please.

    ex: 1234567890AB in 123 456 789 0AB.

    Thank you

    1. Hello!
      To insert a space after every third character, use the LEFT and MID functions:

      =LEFT(A2,3)&" "&MID(A2,4,3)&" "&MID(A2,7,3)&" "&MID(A2,10,3)&" "&MID(A2,13,3)&" "&MID(A2,16,3)&" "&MID(A2,19,3)

      I hope my advice will help you solve your task.

  9. Hi,
    I take my blood pressure each day (Systolic/Diastolic), each time I take 3 readings to get the average and enter them separately into each cell:-
    A1: 152/97
    A2: 137/97
    A3: 135/96
    I would like to use Excel to automatically extract the Systolic (the three numbers before the "/") add them together and divide by 3, to get the average - result will be populated in cell A4.
    The same with the Diastolic - take the two numbers after the "/" add together, divide by 3 and enter the results in A5.
    I tried using Len, but can't work out how to use it with multipole cells - can anyone help?

    1. Hello!
      The first three digits can be extracted using the LEFT function.

      =LEFT(A1,3)

      The last two digits can be extracted using the RIGHT function.

      =RIGHT(A1,2)

      To convert from to a number, add a double minus before the formula:

      =--LEFT(A1,3)

      I hope it’ll be helpful.

  10. I would like to separate the TB, GB, PB, MB, KB, etc. from cells in a column see below which contain a mask format (e.g. #,##0.0 "TB").
    46.4 TB
    5.9 TB
    1.9 TB
    423.8 GB
    188.0 GB
    188.0 GB
    60.9 GB
    60.2 GB
    56.4 GB
    37.5 GB
    36.4 GB
    1.1 GB
    1.3 MB
    1.3 MB
    16.0 GB
    16.0 GB
    4.5 GB
    4.0 GB
    2.1 GB
    1.3 GB
    430.6 MB
    191.3 MB
    2.5 GB
    1.7 GB
    1.2 GB
    617.5 MB
    608.7 MB
    571.3 MB
    571.3 MB
    180.7 MB
    34.6 MB
    3.8 MB
    Just about everything I have tried fails. We are wanting to sort the rows (603,000 rows) by file size.

    1. Hello!
      If I understand your task correctly, to convert 1.9 TB, 423.8 GB to MB, you can use the formula LEFT and INDEX+MATCH:

      =VALUE(SUBSTITUTE(H2,RIGHT(H2,2),"")) * INDEX({1,1024,1048576},MATCH(RIGHT(H2,2), {"MB","GB","TB"},0))

      I hope this will help, otherwise please do not hesitate to contact me anytime.

      1. I have the same question, but I want my results in 2 columns with number value and units.
        Can I use the Left fx to split the invisible units to a new column?
        Thank you.

  11. If my data (number) has consistency:
    (1) Problem Descriptions
    2. Problem Descriptions
    4 Problem Descriptions
    5, Problem Descriptions

    How can I just return a number? Please advise.
    1
    2
    4
    5

    1. inconsistency***

  12. I have this type of line "1400000172 D.S.ACHARYA" in excel and want to copy first 10 digit in one column and ain another column want name copy than how can i make it with formulas in excel

    1. Hi Ritesh Parmar,
      You can use the left and wright function including Find Function as per below:
      for the 10 digit you use left and find function as =LEFT(C15,FIND(" ",C15)-1) also for the name you use right and find function as =RIGHT(C15,LEN(C15)-FIND(" ",C15))
      I hope this could solve your problem.
      Thank you

  13. I want to use the left formula to extract the name of country from the first 1-3 in the phone number column.

    for example:
    A B
    1| 61438223476 |
    2| 972548484847 |
    3| 447724545487 |

    In column A we have the list of numbers,
    I want to be able to return a right value/text, 61 = Australia, 972 = Israel, 44 = United Kingdom:

    A B
    1| 61438223476 | Australia
    2| 972548484847 | Israel
    3| 447724545487 | United Kingdom

    What can I do?
    Thanks

  14. Hello,

    I want to sum in a raw (let's say F10:AJ10) numbers and something like this:

    7, 9, 11, I7, 5, I9, 3, 10, I2.

    So I want to sum all numbers and the digits after the "I" (7,9,2). These may appear random, no exactly place.

    1. Dan:
      I found this formula on the Microsoft site. I think it is what you're looking for.
      Where the data is in I29:R29 this is entered in an empty cell as an array. This means, in the formula bar enter this formula then with the cursor somewhere in the formula click CTRL Shift Enter together. This action will tell Excel this is an array and you'll see the curly brackets surrounding the formula.
      =SUM(IF(I29:R29"",IF(NOT(ISNUMBER(--LEFT(I29:R29,1))),--MID(I29:R29,2,256))))+SUM(I29:R29)

  15. Clarification:
    If I have a list of numbers, all with various amounts of digits (some 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 digits long) and I want them all uniform in format, with a prefix (example below), what formula would I use?

    48492 = P00048492
    23 = P00000023
    600 = P00000600
    110291 = P00110291

    1. Hi Lori

      Please use below formula. I'm Assuming the length should be 9, you change it for your requirement.
      =IF(LEN(B2)<9,CONCATENATE("P",REPT(0,8-LEN(B2)),B2))

  16. If I have a list of numbers, all with various amounts of digits (some 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 digits long) and I want them all to be uniform and add a prefix (like a P in front) so they are all P00000000, what formula would I use?

    1. You can use Concatenate function.

      =concatenate("P",A1)

  17. I have a column with names

    John Robbins
    Alok singh
    Rohit
    Raghu Prabhu

    if I use =LEFT(A2, SEARCH(" ", A2)-1)

    it is working fine with records 1,2 and 4 but with 3 it is showing an error. how do i incorporate this?

    regards

    Raghu Prabhu

    1. Raghu:
      I think this is what you're looking for:
      Sample ## will show #ERROR because there is no space in that record. So, you might want to add the IFERROR function in front of the formula like this:
      =IFERROR(LEFT(A5,SEARCH(" ",A5)-1),"No Space")
      The IFERROR function will return a message such as "No Space" if the formula would otherwise return #ERROR.
      I suppose you could use this formula:
      =IFERROR(LEFT(A5,SEARCH(" ",A5)-1),"A5")
      which would return the value of A5. If you copy this down the column you will see the A5 will change to the relative cell address.
      Other than this, I guess you'll need to add a space to the record.

  18. I wants to know whether is there any function in excel to limit a cell to one text character only and string completed and cursor automatically moves to other right cell in excel to write in that cell, just as in form filling with one character in one cell and the other in the other cell,

    1. Hello,

      Please try using a VBA macro. We are always ready to help you, but we do not cover the programming area (VBA-related questions).
      You may try to find the solution in VBA sections on mrexcel.com or excelforum.com.

      Sorry we can’t assist you better.

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