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LEFT / RIGHT / MID

Text & cleanup

Pull characters off the start, the end, or the middle of a text string by position.

Difficulty

Amateur
Excel file

1What is it?

LEFT returns a set number of characters from the start of a string, RIGHT from the end, and MID from a position you choose in the middle. They slice by count and position rather than by a delimiter, which makes them the go-to for fixed-format codes — the first two letters of a SKU, the last four digits of an account, characters five through eight of a reference. When the split depends on a marker (a space, an @) rather than a fixed position, TEXTBEFORE/TEXTAFTER are the better tool.

2What it looks like

MID(text, start_num, num_chars)
text
The string to pull from.
num_chars
How many characters to take (for LEFT and RIGHT).
start_num
For MID: which character to start at, counting from 1.

3When you use it

  • First N characters of a code: =LEFT(A2, 3).
  • Last N characters, like a year suffix or check digit: =RIGHT(A2, 4).
  • A slice from the middle of a fixed-format reference: =MID(A2, 4, 4).

4See it in action

Change the inputs — the formula and result update live. Prefer the real thing? Download the Excel file and open it in Excel.

Pull characters off the start, end, or middle of the SKU in B2. Change the function and the counts.

C2
fx
=LEFT(B2, 2)"AA"
ABC
1FieldValueResult
2SKUAA-1024-X"AA"

The lime cell holds the formula — click it (or any cell) to see its contents in the bar above, just like Excel. Edit the blue cells to watch it recompute.

5Common errors

Wrong pieceThe string isn't a fixed width, so a hard-coded count misses.

Fix: When the split depends on a marker, use TEXTBEFORE/TEXTAFTER or pair with FIND to locate it.

Result is textYou sliced digits and now can't do math on them.

Fix: Wrap in VALUE() or multiply by 1 to turn the extracted text back into a number.

MID off by onestart_num counted from 0 instead of 1.

Fix: Excel counts characters from 1 — the first character is position 1, not 0.

6Better functions & alternatives

  • TEXTBEFORE / TEXTAFTER — Split by a delimiter instead of a fixed count (Microsoft 365).
  • FIND / SEARCH — Locate a marker first, then feed its position into LEFT/MID.
  • Flash Fill — Ctrl+E extracts by example for a quick one-off — see the tip.

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