Using REPLACE and SUBSTITUTE functions in Excel - formula examples

The tutorial explains the Excel REPLACE and SUBSTITUTE functions with examples of uses. See how to use the REPLACE function with text strings, numbers and dates, and how to nest several REPLACE or SUBSTITUTE functions within one formula.

Last week we discussed various ways of using FIND and SEARCH functions within your Excel worksheets. Today, we will be taking a deeper look at two other functions to replace text in a cell based on its location or substitute one text string with another based on content. As you may have guessed, I am talking about the Excel REPLACE and SUBSTITUTE functions.

Excel REPLACE function

The REPLACE function in Excel allows you to swap one or several characters in a text string with another character or a set of characters.

REPLACE(old_text, start_num, num_chars, new_text)

As you see, the Excel REPLACE function has 4 arguments, all of which are required.

  • Old_text - the original text (or a reference to a cell with the original text) in which you want to replace some characters.
  • Start_num - the position of the first character within old_text that you want to replace.
  • Num_chars - the number of characters you want to replace.
  • New_text - the replacement text.

For example, to change the word "sun" to "son", you can use the following formula:

=REPLACE("sun", 2, 1, "o")

And if you put the original word in some cell, say A2, you can supply the corresponding cell reference in the old_text argument:

=REPLACE(A2, 2, 1, "o")
Excel REPLACE function

Note. If the start_num or num_chars argument is negative or non-numeric, an Excel Replace formula returns the #VALUE! error.

Using Excel REPLACE function with numeric values

The REPLACE function in Excel is designed to work with text strings. Of course, you can use it to replace numeric characters that are part of a text string, for example:

=REPLACE(A2, 7, 4, "2016")
Replacing numeric characters that are part of a text string

Notice that we enclose "2016" in double quotes as you usually do with text values.

In a similar manner, you can replace one or more digits within a number. For example:

=REPLACE(A4, 4, 4,"6")

And again, you have to enclose the replacement value in double quotes ("6").
Be sure to enclose the replacement value in double quotes.

Note. An Excel REPLACE formula always returns a text string, not number. In the screenshot above, notice the left alignment of the returned text value in B2, and compare it to the right-aligned original number in A2. And because it's a text value you won't be able to use it in other calculations unless you convert it back to number, for example by multiplying by 1 or by using any other method described in How to convert text to number.

Using Excel REPLACE function with dates

As you have just seen, the REPLACE function works fine with numbers, except that it returns a text string :) Remembering that in the internal Excel system, dates are stored as numbers, you may try to use some Replace formulas on dates. Results would be quite embarrassing.

For instance, you have a date in A2, say 1-Oct-14, and you want to change "Oct" to "Nov". So, you write the formula REPLACE(A2, 4, 3, "Nov") that tells Excel to replace 3 chars in cells A2 beginning with the 4th char… and got the following result:
A wrong way to use the REPLACE function on dates

Why's that? Because "01-Oct-14" is only a visual representation of the underlying serial number (41913) that represents the date. So, our Replace formula changes the last 3 digits in the above serial number to "Nov" and returns the text string "419Nov".

To get the Excel REPLACE function to correctly work with dates, you can convert dates to text strings first by using the TEXT function or any other technique demonstrated in How to convert date to text in Excel. Alternatively, you can embed the TEXT function directly in the old_text argument of the REPLACE function:

=REPLACE(TEXT(A2, "dd-mmm-yy"), 4, 3, "Nov")
The right way to use the REPLACE function on dates

Please remember that the result of the above formula is a text string, and therefore this solution works only if you are not planning to use the modified dates in further calculations. If you do need dates rather than text strings, use the DATEVALUE function to turn the values returned by the Excel REPLACE function back to dates:

=DATEVALUE(REPLACE(TEXT(A2, "dd-mmm-yy"), 4, 3, "Nov"))

Nested REPLACE functions to do multiple replacements in a cell

Quite often, you may need to do more than one replacement in the same cell. Of course, you could do one replacement, output an intermediate result into an additional column, and then use the REPLACE function again. However, a better and more professional way is to use nested REPLACE functions that let you perform several replacements with a single formula. In this context, "nesting" means placing one function within another.

Consider the following example. Supposing you have a list of telephone numbers in column A formatted as "123456789" and you want to make them look more like phone numbers by adding hyphens. In other words, your goal is to turn "123456789" into "123-456-789".

Inserting the first hyphen is easy. You write a usual Excel Replace formula that replaces zero characters with a hyphen, i.e. adds a hyphen in the 4th position in a cell:

=REPLACE(A2,4,0,"-")

The result of the above Replace formula is as follows:
The REPLACE formula to add a hyphen in the 4th position in a cell

Okay, and now we need to insert one more hyphen in the 8th position. To do this, you place the above formula within another Excel REPLACE function. More precisely, you embed it in the old_text argument of the other function, so that the second REPLACE function will handle the value returned by the first REPLACE, and not the value in cell A2:

=REPLACE(REPLACE(A2,4,0,"-"),8,0,"-")

As the result, you get the phone numbers in the desired formatting:
Using nested REPLACE functions in Excel

In a similar manner, you can use nested REPLACE functions to make text strings look like dates by adding a forward slash (/) where appropriate:

=(REPLACE(REPLACE(A2,3,0,"/"),6,0,"/"))
A nested REPLACE formula to make text strings look like dates

Moreover, you can convert text strings into real dates by wrapping the above REPLACE formula with the DATEVALUE function:

=DATEVALUE(REPLACE(REPLACE(A2,3,0,"/"),6,0,"/"))

And naturally, you are not limited in the number of functions you can nest within one formula (the modern versions of Excel 2010, 2013 and 2016 allow up to 8192 characters and up to 64 nested functions in a formula).

For example, you can use 3 nested REPLACE functions to have a number in A2 appear like date and time:

=REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(A2,3,0,"/") ,6,0,"/"), 9,0, " "), 12,0, ":")
The nested REPLACE functions make a number look like date and time

Replacing a string that appears in a different position in each cell

So far, in all the examples we have been dealing with values of a similar nature and have made replacements in the same position in each cell. But real-life tasks are often more complicated than that. In your worksheets, the characters to be replaced may not necessarily appear in the same place in each cell, and therefore you will have to find the position of the first character that should be replaced. The following example will demonstrate what I'm talking about.

Supposing you have a list of email addressing in column A. And the name of one company has changed from "ABC" to, say, "BCA". So, you have to update all of the clients' email addressing accordingly.

But the problem is that the client names are of different length, and that is why you cannot specify exactly where the company name begins. In other words, you do not know what value to supply in the start_num argument of the Excel REPLACE function. To find it out, use the Excel FIND function to determine the position of the first char in the string "@abc":

=FIND("@abc",A2)

And then, supply the above FIND function in the start_num argument of your REPLACE formula:

=REPLACE(A2, FIND("@abc",A2), 4, "@bca")

Tip. We include "@" in our Excel Find and Replace formula to avoid accidental replacements in the name part of email addresses. Of course, there's a very slim chance that such matches will occur, and still you may want to be on the safe side.

As you see in the following screenshot, the formula has no problem with finding and replacing the old text with the new one. However, if the text string to be replaced is not found, the formula returns the #VALUE! error:
The Excel FIND and REPLACE formula to change the domain name in email addresses

And we want the formula to return the original email address instead of the error. So, let's enclose our FIND & REPLACE formula in the IFERROR function:

=IFERROR(REPLACE(A2, FIND("@abc",A2), 4, "@bca"),A2)

And this improved formula works perfectly, doesn't it?
The improved FIND / REPLACE formula

Another practical application of the REPLACE function is to capitalize the first letter in a cell. Whenever you deal with a list of names, products, and the like, you can use the above-linked formula to change the first letter to UPPERCASE.

Tip. If you want to make the replacements in the original data, an easier way would be using the Excel FIND and REPLACE dialog.

Excel SUBSTITUTE function

The SUBSTITUTE function in Excel replaces one or more instances of a given character or text string with a specified character(s).

The syntax of the Excel SUBSTITUTE function is as follows:

SUBSTITUTE(text, old_text, new_text, [instance_num])

The first three arguments are required and the last one is optional.

  • Text - the original text in which you want to substitute characters. Can be supplied as a test string, cell reference, or a result of another formula.
  • Old_text - the character(s) you want to replace.
  • New_text - the new character(s) to replace old_text with.
  • Instance_num - the occurrence of old_text you want to replace. If omitted, every occurrence of the old text will be changed to the new text.

For example, all of the below formulas substitute "1" with "2" in cell A2, but return different results depending on which number you supply in the last argument:

=SUBSTITUTE(A2, "1", "2", 1) - Substitutes the first occurrence of "1" with "2".

=SUBSTITUTE(A2, "1", "2", 2) - Substitutes the second occurrence of "1" with "2".

=SUBSTITUTE(A2, "1", "2") - Substitutes all occurrences of "1" with "2".
Excel SUBSTITUTE function

In practice, the SUBSTITUTE function is also used for removing unwanted characters from cells. For real-life examples, please see:

Note. The SUBSTITUTE function in Excel is case-sensitive. For example, the following formula replaces all instances of the uppercase "X" with "Y" in cell A2, but it won't replace any instances of the lowercase "x".

A case-sensitive Excel SUBSTITUTE formula

Substitute multiple values with a single formula (nested SUBSTITUTE)

As is the case with the Excel REPLACE function, you can nest several SUBSTITUTE functions within a single formula to do several substitutions at a time, i.e. substitute several characters or substrings with a single formula.

Supposing you have a text string like "PR1, ML1, T1" in cell A2, where "PR" stands for "Project, "ML" stands for "Milestone" and "T" means "Task". What you want is to replace the three codes with full names. To achieve this, you can write 3 different SUBSTITUTE formulas:

=SUBSTITUTE(A2,"PR", "Project ")

=SUBSTITUTE(A2, "ML", "Milestone ")

=SUBSTITUTE(A2, "T", "Task ")

And then nest them into each other:

=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A2,"PR","Project "),"ML","Milestone "),"T","Task ")

Notice that we've added a space at the end of each new_text argument for better readability.
Using nested SUBSTITUTE functions in Excel

To learn other ways to replace multiple values at a time, please see How to do mass find and replace in Excel.

Excel REPLACE vs. Excel SUBSTITUTE

The Excel REPLACE and SUBSTITUTE functions are very similar to each other in that both are designed to swap text strings. The differences between the two functions are as follows:

  • SUBSTITUTE replaces one or more instances of a given character or a text string. So, if you know the text to be replaced, use the Excel SUBSTITUTE function.
  • REPLACE changes characters in a specified position of a text string. So, if you know the position of the character(s) to be replaced, use the Excel REPLACE function.
  • The SUBSTITUTE function in Excel allows adding an optional parameter (instance_num) that specifies which occurrence of old_text should be changed to new_text.

This is how you use the SUBSTITUTE and REPLACE functions in Excel. Hopefully, these examples will prove useful in solving your tasks. I thank you for reading and hope to see on our blog next week!

Download practice workbook

REPLACE and SUBSTITUTE formula examples (.xlsx file)

Table of contents

301 comments

  1. F1ENGW/A_ALUM_TANK.LI_301A.MEAS
    F1ENGW/A_ALUM_TANK.P5033RUNTIME.OUT
    F1ENGW/A_ALUM_TANK.P5034RUNTIME.OUT
    F1ENGW/A_ALUM_TANK.TE_5221.PNT
    F1ENGW/A_ALUM_TANK.TI_303A.MEAS
    F1ENGW/A_BURNER.TI_AH_D9.PNT
    F1ENGW/A_DI_WATER.DI_ON_A.PNT
    F1ENGW/A_DI_WATER.DI_ON_B.PNT
    F1ENGW/A_DI_WATER.FCV_3149.OUT
    F1ENGW/A_DI_WATER.FIC_3149.MEAS
    F1ENGW/A_DI_WATER.FIC_3149.OUT
    F1ENGW/A_DI_WATER.FIC_3149.SPT
    F1ENGW/A_DI_WATER.P3152RUNTIME.OUT
    F1ENGW/A_DI_WATER.P3153RUNTIME.OUT
    F1ENGW/A_DI_WATER.P3154RUNTIME.OUT
    F1ENGW/A_DI_WATER.TI_3148.MEAS

    I'm trying to replace just the first periods in a list of 4000 tag names with commas and there is no specific amount of characters in the tag name. Any ideas?

    1. Hi! To replace only the first occurrence of a character in a text string, use the [instance_num] = 1 argument in the SUBSTITUTE function. Read the function description carefully.

      =SUBSTITUTE(A1,".",",",1)

  2. How can I replace below:
    A1: I need you
    to
    B1: "I" "need" "you"

    Best regards,

    1. Hi! If I understand your task correctly, the following SUBSTITUTE formula should work for you:

      =""""&SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""" """)&""""

  3. Hi!

    I used following function to replace a "-" in to 3 places. It works but when already available a "-", then it comes twice in to the same place.

    I want skip if available a "-" in B column. Can you please give a solution.

    =REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(B2101,7,0,"-"),10,0,"-"),12,0,"-")

    E.g.
    B2101 C2101
    Saman2B3P056 Saman2-B3-P-056
    Saman2B2P226 Saman2-B2-P-226
    Saman2-B2-P-222 Saman2--B-2--P-222
    Saman2-B3-P-011 Saman2--B-3--P-011

    Thanks.

    1. Hi! Remove all "-" signs from the text using the SUBSTITUTE function and use that value in your formula. If I understand your task correctly, the formula might look something like this:

      =REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(SUBSTITUTE(B2,"-",""),7,0,"-"),10,0,"-"),12,0,"-")

  4. Thank you! Happy Friday! Assalamualaikum!!!

  5. I have a (big) list of prices for items. Some cells have multiple values depending on the pack size of the product:

    2 = $20
    1 = $35.95, 2 = $57.95, 3 = $71.95

    I need to generate the same table but with a 20% increase in price. So, my result table will have:
    2 = $24
    1 = $43.14, 2 = $69.54, 3 = $86.34

    Could you please assist how to do this one using excel? Thanks in advanced.

  6. I have an employer who generates Excel reports from a third-party application, listing numbers as like (for example):
    1
    11
    1743
    2
    2247
    321
    The problem with this is that it's quite impossible to sort these numbers in numerical order. In order to solve for this issue, I would like to add "0" or "00" prefix to any of the numbers until they all have the same length. The outcome would have to be:
    0001
    0011
    1743
    0002
    2247
    0321
    (which can then be sorted in numerical order)

    Is there a way to do this?

  7. Hi.

    I have what appears to be a simple request. I'd like a number that appears in a list to be removed if entered elsewhere.

    For example, cell A10 contains a small list of numbers like 3 6 7 11 12 17.
    Cells A1 - A9 are blank, but if I enter any of these numbers individually into one of these cells that number is removed from the list.
    So say I enter "3" in A5, "11" in A2 and "12" in A8 then I'd like A10 to automatically show 6 7 17.

    Is it possible?

    Thanks

    Michael

  8. Hi!,

    I'm having trouble trying to come up with an excel formula for a macro i've created for the below.

    I have a date column which will always the current days date in the below format

    28/11/2023

    I then have a ref column which needs to be yesterdays date but it includes letters

    RT.27.11

    So tomorrow for example I will have the date column as 29/11/2023 but im wondering is there a formula that can be used to change AB.27.11 to AB.28.11? I need to keep the Ref letters at the beginning so =Today()-1 isn't an option unless there is a combination I'm unaware of

    Apologies if this isn't explained very well I've hit a dead end!

    Thanks!

  9. Hello!

    Thanks for this helpful page.

    In the screenshot of the example replacing 2014 to 2016, should the formula be
    =REPLACE(A24,4,1,"6")
    instead of
    =REPLACE(A24,4,4,"6") ?

    The second formula works, but just because there doesn't happen to be any characters after "4." It seems like the goal is just to replace one character.

    Thanks again!

  10. I have file paths of differing lengths and I want to remove the file name so I just have the folder path. So it would always be replacing the last "\" character with a "|" so I could then do a text to columns using the "|" character. I can count the number of times the "\" occurs in the string, in this case 13 times. But can I replace the 13th occurrence of the "\" with "|"?
    Change this:
    \\pzijasdks28.corp.friend.co.au\shared-fri12\dark\comms - lans\00 archive all\00 finding information\00 archive\2002 comms\campaigns - pre 2002\kisland\mj3k\letter to alan.doc

    to this:
    \\pzijasdks28.corp.friend.co.au\shared-fri12\dark\comms - lans\00 archive all\00 finding information\00 archive\2002 comms\campaigns - pre 2002\kisland\mj3k|letter to alan.doc

    1. Hi! Please read this manual carefully. In the SUBSTITUTE function, you can specify the character occurrence number to be replaced. Try this formula:

      =SUBSTITUTE(A1,"\","|",13)

  11. I have tried to add comma in between First and Last name and to remove Jr. using =SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",", "),"Jr."," ") but it turned out to be Lemon , , Watermelon (original was Lemon Jr. Watermelon). What formula to help returning this name to be Lemon Watermelon ?

  12. Hi, Can someone help me i have 1000+ entries in which formula is =SUM(ColorCnt(Assir!A1,Assir!AC2:AC110)) i want to replace it with =SUM(Assir!AC2:AC110)) and can i remove colorcnt formula once for all in entire sheet? PLEASE heklp/

  13. Hi Can someone help me come up with a formal that removes all the words except for the numbers? I have 1000 plus data and I don't have time to do this one by one. Here are some sample data below, thanks!

    Medium Grey 37 Change to 37
    Medium Grey 38 Change to 38
    Silver 41 Change to 41
    Silver 42 Change to 42
    Light/Pastel Grey 51 Change to 51
    Light/Pastel Grey 52 Change to 51

  14. Hello , can anyone recommend formula or power query way for copy data in a column based on value which can change
    example
    Cell A2 have name John in it
    Cells A3 - A50 have dates
    Cell A51 have name Terry in it
    Cell A52 - A150 have dates

    I want to replace all the dates with names which are above in 10000 rows spreadsheets

    any help will be much appreciated

  15. Hello, I'm trying to do a conditional substitution. For example is cell A1 has "John" in it, I want A2 to read "J001", but if cell A1 has "Don" in it, I want cell A2 it to read "D004", etc. Can that be done?
    THANK YOU

  16. Imagine if you will that cell A1 has the following content: Abba was a great band.

    Cell 2 is supposed to use Replace and/or Substitute to change the six occurrences of a to the replacements in cell 3

    Cell 3 has the following: 123456

    So cell 2 should come up and look like: 1bb2 w3s 4 gre5t b6nd.

    I could probably use Left to slowly strip down A1 into individual characters, run a check, replace if they are an a (or A) to the next in A3 and use left on A3 to slowly reduce it.. but it seems a lot of extra cells when I am already planning a worksheet that should stress test my gaming laptop...

    1. Hi!
      Use a nested SUBSTITUTE function

      =SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"a",1,1),"a",2,1),"a",3,1),"a",4,1),"a",5,1),"a",6,1)

      I hope this will help.

  17. I created an email from one cell containing first/ last name ie. Ralph M Waters using formula =right(A26,8)&left(a26,1)&lower("@yhospital.com")). this resulted in M WatersR@yhospital.com. I feel as though I've tried every possible formula to include the "_" after the M with no successful results.

  18. Hi I have the texts below in the column A1 to A3, how can convert them to decimals?

    E.g.

    AFL 1⅛ 03/15/2026 --> AFL 1.125 03/15/2026
    AFL 2 ⅞ 10/15/26 --> AFL 2.875 10/15/26
    AFL 4 ¾ 01/15/49 --> AFL 4.75 01/15/49

      1. Thank you Alexander!

    2. Just to clarify, my goal is to automate this. If I have a list of 300 similar text, I want to drag the solution down to apply to other cells too.

      The formula: =REPLACE(A5,5,2,"1.125") gives me the output AFL 1.125 03/15/2026 Corp, but the parameter "1.125" would be to manual.

      I appreciate any hint or tips!

  19. If I have the following formula...

    =+('\\Fileserv\sharedfiles\Safety Reports\OSHA Recordkeeping\[OSHA Reporting Hours.xlsx]2022'!$AR4*200000)/('\\Fileserv\sharedfiles\Safety Reports\OSHA Recordkeeping\[OSHA Reporting Hours.xlsx]2022'!$AS$4)

    How can I replace the "2022" in the formula to "2023" easily?

    I have a formula that is pages long just like the one above and I need to change approximately 40 "2022's" with "2023".

  20. Hi, how can replace BO and 80 to B0 and replace the O and I with 0 and 1. Examples are with * hope you can help me. TYIA

    BOIOIOI*
    B010102
    8010103*
    B010104
    B010105
    B010106
    8010107*
    8010108*
    B010109
    BOIOIIO*
    BOIOIII*
    8010112*
    B010113
    B010114
    B010115
    8010116*
    8010117*
    B010118

    1. Hi!
      Have you tried the ways described in this blog post? If they don't work for you, then please tell me which formulas you used. I’ll try to suggest a solution.

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