Tracy van der Schyff

#Office365Challenge The next couple of posts will be all about the various functions available in Excel to help you clean data you’ve received from other sources etc. Today we’ll take a look at the Left, Mid and Right Function with the Search and Len Formulas to cut text from a string without having a defined length.

Related posts:

Data Clean-up in Excel – Left Mid and Right

Yesterday we looked at using Left, Mid and Right formulas to “cut” text from a string, but what if you don’t always know the length it must cut? The below formulas show you how to cut text from the beginning, middle and end of a text string, without defining the length. The formulas uses Search + Len to find spaces and then to determine the length to cut. You’ll notice that I used the same formulas for text of different length – and it still worked:

Note:  Very important to make sure you know the separator to use in Excel, refer to a previous blog about this:  Around the Office in 365 Days: Day 44 – Excel / SharePoint Formulas using Commas or Semicolons. Excel will give you a preview of what the formula will look like – this is where you can see it whether it uses a semicolon or comma.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at using Left, Mid and Right when you don’t have a specified length of characters.

Overview of my challenge: As an absolute lover of all things Microsoft, I’ve decided to undertake the challenge, of writing a blog every single day, for the next 365 days. Crazy, I know. And I’ll try my best, but if I cannot find something good to say about Office 365 and the Tools it includes for 365 days, I’m changing my profession. So let’s write this epic tale of “Around the Office in 365 Days”. My ode to Microsoft Office 365.

Keep in mind that these tips and tricks do not only apply to Office 365 – but where applicable, to the overall Microsoft Office Suite and SharePoint.