Some text strings may include unwanted letters or extra characters that we don’t need. In order to remove letters from string, we will make use of the RIGHT or LEFT function, combined with the LEN function.
Figure 1. Final result: Remove letters from string
Syntax of RIGHT, LEFT and LEN functions
RIGHT function returns the last characters in a text string,where num_chars is the number of characters
=RIGHT(text,[num_chars])
LEFT function returns the first characters in a text string,where num_chars is the number of characters
=LEFT(text,[num_chars])
LEN function – returns the number of characters in a text string
=LEN(text)
How to remove first character?
In order to delete the first character in a text string, we simply enter the formula using the RIGHT and LEN functions:
=RIGHT(B3,LEN(B3)-1)
Figure 2. Output: Delete first character
The RIGHT function returns the last characters, counting from the right end of the text string. The number of characters is given by the LEN function.
LEN(B3)-1 means we remove 1 character from the value in B3 which is T6642. The resulting string minus the first character is 6642.
Remove first 3 characters
In order to remove three characters from a string, we still use the same formula but instead of 1, we subtract 3 characters. The formula becomes:
=RIGHT(B3,LEN(B3)-3)
The resulting text string is 42, as shown in C3 below.
Figure 3. Output: Remove first 3 characters
How to remove last character?
In order to remove the last character, we will be using the LEFT and LEN functions:
=LEFT(B3,LEN(B3)-1)
Figure 4. Output: Remove last character
The LEFT function returns the first characters, counting from the left end of the text string. The number of characters is given by the LEN function.
LEN(B3)-1 means we remove 1 character from the value in B3 which is T6642. The resulting string minus the last character is T664.
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