LEFT, RIGHT, MID extraction in Excel - Step-by-Step Guide

Introduction

These functions help you pull out parts of text from a cell. LEFT gets characters from the start, RIGHT from the end, and MID from the middle. They are useful when you want to separate or analyze pieces of text like names, codes, or dates.

When you want to get the first few letters of a product code to identify its category.

When you need to extract the last four digits of a phone number for quick reference.

When you want to pull a specific part of a text string, like the middle three letters of a code.

When you have full names in one cell and want to get just the first name or last name.

When you want to separate date parts stored as text, like extracting the month from '20230415'.

Steps

Step 1: Click

- a blank cell where you want the extracted text

The cell is selected and ready for formula input

Step 2: Type

- the formula bar

Formula appears in the cell and formula bar

💡 Start with =LEFT(text, number_of_characters) to get characters from the start

Step 3: In the formula, replace 'text' with the cell reference containing your text, for example A2

- formula bar

Formula updates to =LEFT(A2, number_of_characters)

Step 4: Replace 'number_of_characters' with how many characters you want to extract, for example 3

- formula bar

Formula looks like =LEFT(A2, 3)

Step 5: Press Enter

- keyboard

Cell shows the first 3 characters from the text in A2

Step 6: Repeat steps 2 to 5 using =RIGHT(text, number_of_characters) to get characters from the end

- formula bar

Cell shows the last specified characters from the text

Step 7: Use =MID(text, start_position, number_of_characters) to get characters from the middle

- formula bar

Cell shows characters starting at the position you specify for the length you choose

Before vs After

Before

Cell A2 contains 'ExcelFun2024'

After

Using =LEFT(A2,5) shows 'Excel'; using =RIGHT(A2,4) shows '2024'; using =MID(A2,6,3) shows 'Fun'

Settings Reference

text

📍 formula argument

The text you want to extract characters from

Default: none

number_of_characters

📍 formula argument

How many characters to extract

Default: none

start_position

📍 MID formula argument

The position in the text where extraction begins

Default: none

Common Mistakes

Using a number_of_characters larger than the text length

Excel will just return the whole text, which might confuse you if you expect an error

Check the text length with LEN() before extracting or use a smaller number

For MID, starting position is zero or negative

MID requires start position to be 1 or more; zero or negative causes an error

Always use a start position of 1 or higher

Not using quotes around text strings in formulas

Excel treats unquoted text as cell references and will show errors if they don't exist

Put text strings inside double quotes, like =LEFT("Hello", 2)

Summary

LEFT, RIGHT, and MID extract parts of text from the start, end, or middle.

You specify the text, how many characters to extract, and for MID, where to start.

Make sure numbers are within the text length and text strings are quoted.