LEFT, RIGHT, MID in Google Sheets - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

📊 Formula Result

intermediate

Extracting a substring with LEFT function

Given cell A1 contains the text "Spreadsheet", what is the result of the formula =LEFT(A1, 5)?

A "Sheet"

B "Sprea"

C "aerpS"

D "Spread"

💡 Hint

LEFT extracts characters starting from the beginning of the text.

LEFT(A1, 5) takes the first 5 characters from the left of "Spreadsheet", which are "Sprea".

📊 Formula Result

intermediate

Using RIGHT to get last characters

If cell B2 contains "DataAnalysis", what does =RIGHT(B2, 4) return?

A "sisy"

B ysis"

C "ysis"

D "ysis

💡 Hint

RIGHT extracts characters from the end of the text.

RIGHT(B2, 4) extracts the last 4 characters of "DataAnalysis", which are "ysis".

📊 Formula Result

advanced

Extracting middle text with MID

Cell C3 contains "Information". What is the output of =MID(C3, 4, 5)?

A "tamro"

B "rmat"

C "tamr"

D "ormat"

💡 Hint

MID extracts characters starting at a position for a given length.

MID(C3, 4, 5) starts at the 4th character of "Information" (which is 'o') and extracts 5 characters: "ormat".

🎯 Scenario

advanced

Combining LEFT and RIGHT to extract parts

You have a cell D4 with the text "Report2024Final". Which formula extracts the year "2024" from this text?

A =MID(D4, 7, 4)

B =RIGHT(D4, 4)

C =MID(D4, 8, 4)

D =LEFT(D4, 4)

💡 Hint

Count characters to find where the year starts.

The year "2024" starts at the 7th character in "Report2024Final". MID(D4, 7, 4) extracts 4 characters starting at position 7.

❓ Function Choice

expert

Choosing the correct function for dynamic substring extraction

You want to extract the last 3 characters from a text in cell E5, but the text length varies. Which formula will always return the last 3 characters regardless of text length?

A =MID(E5, LEN(E5)-2, 3)

B =MID(E5, LEN(E5)-3, 3)

C =RIGHT(E5, 3)

D =LEFT(E5, 3)

💡 Hint

Remember that MID's start position is 1-based and you must adjust for length.

To get the last 3 characters, start at position LEN(E5)-2 (because LEN(E5)-2, LEN(E5)-1, LEN(E5) are the last 3 characters). RIGHT(E5, 3) also works but the question asks for a formula that uses MID dynamically.