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Text function
REGEXREPLACE
Replaces text matching a regular expression.
OccasionalDifficulty 1550 · AdvancedUsage rank #233 of 520
When to use it
Replaces text matching a regular expression, with $1-style references to capture groups.
The shape of it
- Syntax
=REGEXREPLACE(text, pattern, replacement, ...)
Worked examples
Digits only
=REGEXREPLACE("555-123-4567","\D","") → 5551234567
Remove every non-digit.
Collapse spaces
=REGEXREPLACE("a b c","\s+"," ") → a b c
Collapse whitespace.
Reorder with groups
=REGEXREPLACE("Ekelund, Blake","(\w+), (\w+)","$2 $1") → Blake Ekelund
Swap the two captured words.
Worth knowing
- Occurrence 0 (default) replaces all; a positive number replaces only that match.
- Clean phone numbers, SKUs, and addresses in one pass instead of chained SUBSTITUTEs.
- Requires Microsoft 365 (2024).
Where it goes wrong
- A pattern that matches empty strings can insert the replacement everywhere.
- #VALUE! for an invalid pattern.
Related
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