Excel MID function to extract text from the middle of a string

MID is one of the Text functions that Microsoft Excel provides for manipulating text strings. At the most basic level, it is used to extract a substring from the middle of the text string. In this tutorial, we will discuss the syntax and specificities of the Excel MID function, and then you will learn a few creative uses to accomplish challenging tasks.

Excel MID function - syntax and basic uses

Generally speaking, the MID function in Excel is designed to pull a substring from the middle of the original text string. Technically speaking, the MID function returns the specified number of characters starting at the position you specify.

The Excel MID function has the following arguments:

MID(text, start_num, num_chars)

Where:

  • Text is the original text string.
  • Start_num is the position of the first character that you want to extract.
  • Num_chars is the number of characters to extract.

All 3 arguments are required.

For example, to pull 7 characters from the text string in A2, starting with the 8th character, use this formula:

=MID(A2,8, 7)

The result might look something similar to this:
Using the MID function in Excel

5 things you should know about Excel MID function

As you have just seen, there's no rocket science in using the MID function in Excel. And remembering the following simple facts will keep you safe from most common errors.

  1. The MID function always returns a text string, even if the extracted substring contains only digits. This may be critical if you wish to use the result of your Mid formula within other calculations. To convert an output into a number, use MID in combination with the VALUE function as shown in this example.
  2. If start_num is greater than the overall length of the original text, an Excel Mid formula returns an empty string ("").
  1. If start_num is less than 1, a Mid formula returns the #VALUE! error.
  2. If num_chars is less than 0 (negative number), a Mid formula returns the #VALUE! error. If num_chars is equal to 0, it outputs an empty string (blank cell).
  3. If the sum of start_num and num_chars exceeds the total length of the original string, the Excel MID function returns a substring starting from start_num and up to the last character.

Excel MID function - formula examples

When dealing with real-life tasks in Excel, you will most often need to use MID in combination with other functions as demonstrated in the following examples.

How to extract first and last name

If you've had a chance to read our recent tutorials, you already know how to pull the first name using the LEFT function and get the last name with the RIGHT function. But as is often the case in Excel, the same thing can be done in a variety of ways.

MID formula to get the first name

Assuming the full name is in cell A2, first and last names separated with a space character, you can pull the first name using this formula:

=MID(A2,1,SEARCH(" ",A2)-1)

The SEARCH function is used to scan the original string for the space character (" ") and return its position, from which you subtract 1 to avoid trailing spaces. And then, you use the MID function to return a substring beginning with the fist character and up to the character preceding the space, thus fetching the first name.

MID formula to get the last name

To extract the last name from A2, use this formula:

=TRIM(MID(A2,SEARCH(" ",A2),LEN(A2)))

Again, you use the SEARCH function to determine the starting position (a space). There is no need for us to calculate the end position exactly (as you remember, if start_num and num_chars combined is bigger than the total string length, all remaining characters are returned). So, in the num_chars argument, you simply supply the total length of the original string returned by the LEN function. Instead of LEN, you can put a number that represents the longest surname you expect to find, for example 100. Finally, the TRIM function removes extra spaces, and you get the following result:
Excel MID formulas to extract the first and last names

Tip. To extract the first and last word from a string with a simpler formula, you can use the custom ExtractWord function.

How to get substring between 2 delimiters

Taking the previous example further, if besides first and last names cell A2 also contains a middle name, how do you extract it?

Technically, the task boils down to working out the positions of two spaces in the original string, and you can have it done in this way:

  • Like in the previous example, use the SEARCH function to determine the position of the first space (" "), to which you add 1 because you want to start with the character that follows the space. Thus, you get the start_num argument of your Mid formula: SEARCH(" ",A2)+1
  • Next, get the position of the 2nd space character by using nested Search functions that instruct Excel to start searching from the 2nd occurrence of the space character: SEARCH(" ",A2,SEARCH(" ",A2)+1)

    To find out the number of characters to return, subtract the position of the 1st space from the position of the 2nd space, and then subtract 1 from the result since you don't want any extra spaces in the resulting substring. Thus, you have the num_chars argument: SEARCH (" ", A2, SEARCH (" ",A2)+1) - SEARCH (" ",A2)

With all the arguments put together, here comes the Excel Mid formula to extract a substring between 2 space characters:

=MID(A2, SEARCH(" ",A2)+1, SEARCH (" ", A2, SEARCH (" ",A2)+1) - SEARCH (" ",A2)-1)

The following screenshot shows the result:
Mid formula to get substring between 2 spaces

In a similar manner, you can extract a substring between any other delimiters:

MID(string, SEARCH(delimiter, string)+1, SEARCH (delimiter, string, SEARCH (delimiter, string)+1) - SEARCH (delimiter, string)-1)

For example, to pull a substring that is separated by a comma and a space, use this formula:

=MID(A2,SEARCH(", ",A2)+1,SEARCH(", ",A2,SEARCH(", ",A2)+1)-SEARCH(", ",A2)-1)

In the following screenshot, this formula is used to extract the state, and it does the job perfectly:
Mid formula to extract a substring separated by a comma and a space.

How to extract Nth word from a text string

This example demonstrates an inventive use of a complex Mid formula in Excel, which includes 5 different functions:

  • LEN - to get the total string length.
  • REPT - repeat a specific character a given number of times.
  • SUBSTITUTE - replace one character with another.
  • MID - extract a substring.
  • TRIM - remove extra spaces.

The generic formula is as follows:

TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(string," ",REPT(" ",LEN(string))), (N-1)*LEN(string)+1, LEN(string)))

Where:

  • String is the original text string from which you want to extract the desired word.
  • N is the number of word to be extracted.

For instance, to pull the 2nd word from the string in A2, use this formula:

=TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",REPT(" ",LEN(A2))), (2-1)*LEN(A2)+1, LEN(A2)))

Or, you can input the number of the word to extract (N) in some cell and reference that cell in your formula, like shown in the screenshot below:
Excel Mid formula to extract Nth word from a text string

How this formula works

In essence, the formula wraps each word in the original string with many spaces, finds the desired "spaces-word-spaces" block, extracts it, and then removes extra spaces. To be more specific, the formula works with the following logic:

  • The SUBSTITUTE and REPT functions replace each space in the string with multiple spaces. The number of additional spaces is equal to the total length of the original string returned by LEN: SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",REPT(" ",LEN(A2)))

    You can think of an intermediate result as of "asteroids" of words drifting in space, like this: spaces-word1-spaces-word2-spaces-word3-… This "spacious" string is supplied to the text argument of our Mid formula.

  • Next, you work out the starting position of the substring of interest (start_num argument) using the following equation: (N-1)*LEN(A1)+1. This calculation returns either the position of the first character of the desired word or, more often, the position of some space character in the preceding space separation.
  • The number of characters to extract (num_chars argument) is the easiest part - you simply take the overall length of the original string: LEN(A2). At this point, you are left with spaces-desired word-spaces substring.
  • Finally, the TRIM function gets rid of leading and trailing spaces.

The above formula works fine in most situations. However, if there happen to be 2 or more consecutive spaces between words, it yields wrong results. To fix this, nest another TRIM function inside SUBSTITUTE to remove excess in-between spaces except for a single space character between words, like this:

=TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(A2)," ",REPT(" ",LEN(A2))), (B2-1)*LEN(A2)+1, LEN(A2)))

The following screenshot demonstrates the improved formula in action:
An improved Mid formula to extract Nth word from text string

If your source strings contain multiple spaces between words as well as very big and very small words, additionally embed a TRIM function into each LEN, just to keep you on the safe side:

=TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(A2)," ",REPT(" ",LEN(TRIM(A2)))), (B2-1)*LEN(TRIM(A2))+1, LEN(TRIM(A2))))

I agree that this formula looks a bit cumbersome, but it impeccably handles all kinds of strings.

Tip. See how to extract any Nth word from text using a more compact and straightforward formula.

How to extract a word containing a specific character(s)

This example shows another non-trivial Excel Mid formula that pulls a word containing a specific character(s) from anywhere in the original text string:

TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(string," ",REPT(" ",99)),MAX(1,FIND(char,SUBSTITUTE(string," ",REPT(" ",99)))-50),99))

Assuming the original text is in cell A2, and you are looking to get a substring containing the "$" character (the price), the formula takes the following shape:

=TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",REPT(" ",99)),MAX(1,FIND("$",SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",REPT(" ",99)))-50),99))
Mid formula to extract a word containing a specific character

In a similar fashion, you can extract email addresses (based on the "@" char), web-site names (based on "www"), and so on.

How this formula works

Like in the previous example, the SUBSTITUTE and REPT functions turn every single space in the original text string into multiple spaces, more precisely, 99 spaces.

The FIND function locates the position of the desired character ($ in this example), from which you subtract 50. This takes you 50 characters back and puts somewhere in the middle of the 99-spaces block that precedes the substring containing the specified character.

The MAX function is used to handle the situation when the desired substring appears in the beginning of the original text string. In this case, the result of FIND()-50 will be a negative number, and MAX(1, FIND()-50) replaces it with 1.

From that starting point, the MID function collects the next 99 characters and returns the substring of interest surrounded by lots of spaces, like this: spaces-substring-spaces. As usual, the TRIM function helps you eliminate extra spaces.

Tip. If the substring to be extracted is very big, replace 99 and 50 with bigger numbers, say 1000 and 500.

How to force an Excel Mid formula to return a number

Like other Text functions, Excel MID always returns a text string, even if it contains only digits and looks much like a number. To turn the output into a number, simply "warp" your Mid formula into the VALUE function that converts a text value representing a number to a number.

For example, to extract a 3-char substring beginning with the 7th character and convert it to a number, use this formula:

=VALUE(MID(A2,7,3))

The screenshot below demonstrates the result. Please notice the right-aligned numbers pulled into column B, as opposed to the original left-aligning text strings in column A:
Use the Excel MID function together with VALUE to return a number

The same approach works for more complex formulas as well. In the above example, assuming the error codes are of a variable length, you can extract them using the Mid formula that gets a substring between 2 delimiters, nested within the VALUE function:

=VALUE(MID(A2,SEARCH(":",A2)+1,SEARCH(":",A2,SEARCH(":",A2)+1)-SEARCH(":",A2)-1))
Nest a Mid formula in the VALUE function to turn the output into a number.

This is how you use the MID function in Excel. To better understand the formulas discussed in this tutorial, you are welcome to download a sample workbook below. I thank you for reading and hope to see you on our blog next week!

Download practice workbook

Excel MID function - formula examples (.xlsx file)

More examples of using the MID function in Excel:

285 comments

  1. Is there a way to use a mid function if you do not know the location of the number you are looking to pull?
    For example, I am uploading email confirmations for an excel file. I need to pull out the order number from the subject column for each line. However, I do know the numbers I am looking for are 7 digits long and begin with a 9. Is there a way to use a mid function to pull a number if it meets that criteria?

    • Hello Cate!
      You can extract the account number from the text -
      like text

      =IF(ISNUMBER(--MID(E1,SEARCH("9",E1,1),7)), MID(E1,SEARCH("9",E1,1),7),"")

      or as a number

      =IF(ISNUMBER(--MID(E1,SEARCH("9",E1,1),7)), --MID(E1,SEARCH("9",E1,1),7),"")

  2. Hi,

    I have one excel like this value 0+11+21+32+45+112+37,
    i want to split using formula to like 0,11,21,32,45,112,37 in different cells.
    I found first 2 values,
    =LEFT(A3,SEARCH("+",A3,1)-1) (First number)
    =MID(A3, SEARCH("+",A3) + 1, SEARCH("+",A3,SEARCH("+",A3)+1) - SEARCH("+",A3) - 1) (second number)
    but I am unable to get next number onwards.

    Could you help me

  3. 10001_PRV01
    10001_PI03
    10001_F01
    How can I get the only "PRV";"PI"& "F" by using one formula from the data?

    • Hello
      Using the MID function to extract only text without numbers

      =SUBSTITUTE((CONCAT(IF(NOT(ISNUMBER( --MID(A1,ROW($1:$93),1))), MID(A1,ROW($1:$93),1),"")))," ","")

      I hope it’ll be helpful.

  4. Hi, Fantastic Article!
    I love this formula.
    =TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",REPT(" ",99)),MAX(1,FIND("$",SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",REPT(" ",99)))-50),99))
    I got a question, how to change to formula if we want to extract more than 2 $ in A2
    Thanks in advance.
    Brilliant Formula.

    • Hello!
      If I understand your task correctly, you would like to extract the second number from the text that starts with the $ sign. If so,
      from text
      "This item costs $50 and you get a discount of $15"
      we extract "$15".

      =TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(REPLACE(A2,FIND("$",A2,1),1,"")," ",REPT(" ",99)), MAX(1,FIND("$",SUBSTITUTE(REPLACE(A2,FIND("$",A2,1),1,"")," ",REPT(" ",99)))-50),99))

      Hope this is what you need.

      • Thanks for your quick reply. Brilliant!!
        "This item costs $50 and you get a discount of $15"
        Actually, I would like to extract the $50 and $15, both of them. And also if possible to extract the word of $ 15 (there is space between the $ and 15 or any word ($ xx) (xx=number))

        Thanks in advance.

        • To get both numbers in one cell, you can combine the results of the first and second formulas using the & operator.
          Something like
          =C1 & " " & C2
          I hope this will help

      • What if we want to extract up to 5 set of number in a text? For example $50, &23, $45, $56 and %60.

  5. Je voudrai un algorithme avec la fonction mid qui peut calculer le nombre de mots d'un document entier s'il vous plaît

  6. Hi
    Thank you in advance for helping me with formula.
    I need to get the middle section of the id number and if the number is smaller than 4999 it should show F for Female if it is bigger than 5000 it should show M for Male. I am using the following formula but I am doing something wrong. The ID number is 5711261588092 and the middle part is 1588 so it should return F.
    =IF(MID(F2,7,4)<=4999,"V","M")

    • Hello Reinette!
      The formula below will do the trick for you:

      =IF(--(MID(F2,7,4))<=4999,"F","M")

      The MID function returns the text that you are comparing with a number. Therefore, you get the wrong result. I have converted your text to a number.
      I hope this will help, otherwise please do not hesitate to contact me anytime.

  7. Hello Vince!
    For me to be able to help you better, please describe your task in more detail. It’ll help me understand it better and find a solution for you. Thank you.

  8. I have data set with US and Canadian addresses in one column. I tried using the text to columns functions in order to break everything, but it's inconsistent. Is there any way of using these formulas to pull out the US states and Canadian territories?

  9. this function =REPT("0",4-LEN(A1))&A1 use for Len sent
    Result
    1
    0001
    But how to use for 1 to extend 1000.

    • Hello Vivek!
      If you want to add 0 at the end of the value in cell A1, please use this formula:
      =A1 & REPT("0",4-LEN(A1))
      If you want to increase the length of a string, please change number “4” in the formula to the necessary number, e.g. 5,6,7, etc.
      If you mean something different, then please describe your problem in more detail.

  10. Apple iPhone 6 Space Grey 16 GB RAM ROM
    Model Name
    Model
    Ram
    Rom
    Alag kesa kr sakte h

  11. I am using the MID function to concatenate three columns. Similar to this formula
    =MID(A1,6,1)&MID(A1,8,1)&MID(A1,9,6).
    The formula works, but there is a space between the concatenations. How do i remove these spaces?

    • Hello,
      Hello Gregg!
      The formula below would help you get rid of the spaces in your text:
      =SUBSTITUTE(A2," ","")

      There is also a ready-made solution for your task called Remove Characters tool that will delete the necessary characer in tyour range in a click. Check out the tool's manual here

  12. Hi.
    I have a rather complex formula and one portion of it is not working. Basically, one cell (C17) Has wording that shows how many boxes in a bundle there is. However, this item has 2 parts to the box. The cell says "375 TOP450 BOTTOM" which represents that the top portion of the box comes 375 in a bundle and the bottom portion comes 450 in a bundle. It uses the Char(10) function to place it in 2 lines within the same box. In another box (B17) is the amount of cases that are needed for a run. What I need to return in a separate box is a calculation of how many bundles are needed for the top and bottom rounded up to the nearest number. Essentially, if we need 1875 cases total it should return "5 TOP 5 BOTTOM". The first half of the formula works fine. The second half is not recognizing the extracted number as a number which is making it return a VALUE# error. I tried to wrap the function as a number but that still down't work.
    Here is the part of the formula that works and returns 450 as expected:
    =MID(C17,SEARCH("P",C17)+2,ABS((SEARCH("P",C17,SEARCH("P",C17)-1)-SEARCH("B",C17)+2)))
    It is when I try to divide the total cases needed by that number extracted extracted that I get the error.
    1875/(MID(C17,SEARCH("P",C17)+2,ABS((SEARCH("P",C17,SEARCH("P",C17)-1)-SEARCH("B",C17)+2)))) should return 4.16
    If I add the Value function like below, I get a value error.
    1875/value(MID(C17,SEARCH("P",C17)+2,ABS((SEARCH("P",C17,SEARCH("P",C17)-1)-SEARCH("B",C17)+2))))
    How can I get the mid function depicted to recognize the return as a number?

    To be clear, the first portion of my formula worked. So I was able to extract the 375 and divide 1875 by 375 and return the expected value as 5. It's only this second half I am having trouble with. Can anyone please help?

  13. =IF(MID(J2,2,1)="O","OO","RT") --- i have this formula correctly.

    However, i need to add another criteria MID(J2,3,1)="O"
    Please help.

    Thank you!

  14. Great article!
    I'm trying to do a complex string and struggling to get the final output:
    Original=C:\zeddn\AI01653_-W_DER8ZZ13.pdf
    Formula Output= \AI01653_-W (close - but I don't want the \ in the result.
    '=MID(A30,SEARCH("\",A30,SEARCH("\",A30)+1),SEARCH("_",A30,SEARCH("_",A30)+1)-SEARCH("\",A30,SEARCH("\",A30)+1))

    Using your example with a -1 at the end, doesn't work either:
    Original=C:\zeddn\AI01653_-W_DER8ZZ13.pdf
    Formula Output= \AI01653_-W_DER8Z (not close, do not want anything from the second underscore on in the result.
    '=MID(A30,SEARCH("\",A30,SEARCH("\",A30)+1),SEARCH("_",A30,SEARCH("_",A30)+1)-SEARCH("\",A30,SEARCH("\",A30)-1))

  15. Hi I have a query, i have to search multiple 8-10 Character strings from one cell example A1 like SAM1, SAM2, SAM3, SAM4, ZOP1, ZOP2, ADS1, ADS2.... and need to update the matching value example B2 SAM12345. Kindly advise me how could this be achieved. I have used the below formula but it has not worked, kindly provide your assistance....
    IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH({"SAM0","SAM1","SAM2","SAM3","SAM4","SAM5","SAM6","SAM7","SAM8","SAM9"},$A1,8))=TRUE,MID($A1,SEARCH({"SAM0","SAM1","SAM2","SAM3","SAM4","SAM5","SAM6","SAM7","SAM8","SAM9"},$A1)+9,7)

  16. Hi,
    i want to "HSBC - Any domestic business banking relationships - Please now think about your personal banking relationships and the business' domestic banking relationships in Australia" this text as "Please now think about your personal banking relationships and the business' domestic banking relationships in Australia - Any domestic business banking relationships - HSBC", please help me how i can do this.

  17. Hi!
    I am using the following to extract "ES" text from a cell. How can I edit the formula to extract additional text, i.e. "ES", "MS", and "HS"? Thanks a lot in advance!
    =TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(F19," ",REPT(" ",99)),MAX(1,FIND("ES",SUBSTITUTE(F19," ",REPT(" ",99)))-50),99))

  18. Can i make mid function start from the right direction and select the number on the left side of the spesfic number with out use right function ?

  19. HI, I used this formula =TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(E4991," ",REPT(" ",99)),MAX(1,FIND("IL",SUBSTITUTE(E4991," ",REPT(" ",99)))-50),99)), which worked well with my case 2 and 3 below but did not give the desired result for case 1 and 4 due to the fact that there are no space in the case 1.
    Result i need is 16 characters starting with IL included.
    Case 1 : MF20020011111IL11000NG0000001
    case 2 : MF20020022222 IL11000NG0000002 revalued
    case 3 : IL11000NG0000002 MF20020022222 revalued
    Case 4 : MF20020033333IL11000NG0000003revalued
    Thanks

  20. trying to get it to use an IF function along with a MID in extracting numbers withing a string of both text and numbers.

    PBQ4X5 - using =MID(A2, SEARCH("Q",A2)+1, 1) to return the "4" and the same with "X" to return the number associated with it. Unfortunately when it runs across a sequence that doesn't include either the X or the Q (PBI5G3), I get "#VALUE!". I also get "#VALUE when trying to "sum" the number columns that the formula returns. Trying to come up with an IF formula to incorporate with the MID and SEARCH so that it will return a "0" when it can't find the particular text (Q or X). Any help would be appreciated, I've been working on this for quite a while.

  21. Hi, Fantastic Article!
    Is there any way to search for additional data within the same cell and have all the data that is pulled out, separated by a comma?
    I have a cell with 1 to 5 user names and ID's. The ID's are in parenthesis and I want to pull the ID's out to be separated by a comma.
    My worksheet is setup like the data below in a single column, but with 240 rows.
    Smith,Jim A (123456)Doe,John (789123)
    Doe,Jane(393027)
    Boss,Tim (293029)Deer,Fred(001289)Stern,Greg(148900)
    I'm trying to get the data to return like this:
    123456,789123
    393027
    293029,001289,148900

  22. Hello,
    I am looking to rearrange a date using Left, Mid and Right; unless someone has a better way to do this. Mt date is for example 20190101 ... I want to reformat the call to look like 01/01/2019. I am trying =RIGHT(A1,2),MID(A1,4,2),LEFT(A1,4)

    • I don't know how to delete my comment but as I was about to give up I figured it out!
      =MID(A1,5,2)&"/"&RIGHT(A1,2)&"/"&LEFT(A1,4)
      20190101 changes to 01/01/2019

  23. Hi there, I need help.
    Lets say I have a series starting with A until V
    Lets say I have a sequence that reads "ABCDEFGHIJK", now I need something that can say TRUE when my series contains more than 7 letters from the group A to K, and false when my series contains less than 7 letters from the group A to K.

    For example.
    ABCDEFGHIJK = TRUE
    ABCDEFGLMNO = FALSE
    ABCDELMNOPQ = FALSE
    ABCDEFGHRST = TRUE

    Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)

  24. HI I AM RAVI ,
    I NEED ONLY 5 WORDS IN THIS FORMAT,CAN ANY ONE HELP ME TO SUPPURATE IN FORMALS BASE,
    S5235/ACHYUTH

    • Dear Mr Ravi
      Please use this formula to find the 5 charecter in specified cell.

      =MID(A1,FIND("S",A1,1),5)
      Note : A1 is the example cell reference for your requirement.

  25. how to extract only the number say suppose there are 100 of rows.. in one row it will be abcd - 2571818 & in second row abcd (173897).
    please help

  26. Hi,
    So I've downloaded your add in for excel, text toolkit, did what i had to do and was done in half an hour.

    Thank you! One qestion, is this add in in excel 365 online free?

  27. I tryed different things, gor to that function to and it worked until I came across a cell with 6 digit nummer starting with 3XX XXX. I wish I could find VBA code like the one for the extracting e-mail from string, it saved me days of work, unlike this phone number problem.

    Function ExtractEmailFun(extractStr As String) As String
    'Update 20130829
    Dim CharList As String
    On Error Resume Next
    CheckStr = "[A-Za-z0-9._-]"
    OutStr = ""
    Index = 1
    Do While True
    Index1 = VBA.InStr(Index, extractStr, "@")
    getStr = ""
    If Index1 > 0 Then
    For p = Index1 - 1 To 1 Step -1
    If Mid(extractStr, p, 1) Like CheckStr Then
    getStr = Mid(extractStr, p, 1) & getStr
    Else
    Exit For
    End If
    Next
    getStr = getStr & "@"
    For p = Index1 + 1 To Len(extractStr)
    If Mid(extractStr, p, 1) Like CheckStr Then
    getStr = getStr & Mid(extractStr, p, 1)
    Else
    Exit For
    End If
    Next
    Index = Index1 + 1
    If OutStr = "" Then
    OutStr = getStr
    Else
    OutStr = OutStr & Chr(10) & getStr
    End If
    Else
    Exit Do
    End If
    Loop
    ExtractEmailFun = OutStr
    End Function

    • Hello, Kata,

      We are always ready to help you, but we do not cover the programming area (VBA-related questions).
      You may try to find the solution in VBA sections on mrexcel.com or excelforum.com

      I wish I could assist you better.

  28. Hi, I have this formula: =MID(F3;FIND("09";F3;1);14)

    to exract phone number from text string, but it shows #VALUE! when there is no number in the string. I htere a way to insert this funtion into some other to get just an empty cell?

    I'm no excel expert so any help is welcome.

    THX

  29. Hi Anna,

    I'm trying to use MID within a SUMPRODUCTS function, but I want to compare the result to a number value, not a string. I tried wrapping the MID array in a VALUE function, but it returns an error. Do you know if there's any way around this?

    Essentially my code looks like this:
    SUMPRODUCT(A1:A100,--VALUE(MID(B1:B100,3,2))<18)

    Thanks

  30. Very useful at work! Thank you very much for making this article. Much appreciated!

  31. I created a Mid formula to pull out a letter of a number sequence, so I could determine an agency (18N12345 = mid formula pulls out the "N"). However, when I have 18F12345, the F turns red, and the cell color turns pink. The first few times I did it, it crashed excel. Any idea why the "F" has that effect? I have no conditional formats created for these cells.

  32. PO=65777570000 ASN=7266271

    I need to extract the mid value of the above line that is "65777570000"

    • Guna:
      A formula to extract 65777570000 uses the MID function.
      Using your sample where it is in K6 the formula is:
      =MID(K6,4,11) It says, "In K6 go four characters from the left and extract the next 11 characters."

  33. I have a worksheet with text in column A. I need to find the 2nd time a phrase occurs and extract the number from the right of the common word.
    I can extract the entire line, but need the 2 characters from the second occurrence. Can't figure out how to do this.

  34. HI,

    Please advise me.

    As shown below,i want to divide only regional name (mark in ===) in excel sheet.
    is it possible or not, If it is possible could you please let me know.

    859 - KANINS - KANINS JAKARTA 2 - KANINS JAKARTA 2
    ===============

    Thank You

  35. Hai,
    This is beyond from the subject.
    I wants to know how to include (value) for each records which are indicating with minus figures. Eg -50 = (50).

  36. What If I Have Like A $ Sign Followed By Space Then The Number I Want ? Can U Help Me ?

  37. Thank you Svetlana for the great article! It's awesome!

    I would really appreciate some help, I have been going crazy trying to find the solution. Could someone please help me with a formula to extract the name, Barack Obama from the string below?

    [{"account_id":555,"name":"Barack Obama "}]

    Thank you very much!

    • My answer:

      I placed your code in cell C4 then added:
      =IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(E4,C4)),"Found - "&E4,"* No Match *")

      to cell D4 and in cell E4 I added the text "Barack Obama"

      The formula will look in cell C4 for whatever text you have in cell E4 and if it is found, the cell D4 will reflect what was searched or it will return
      * No Match *
      A nice feature of SEARCH is that it is not case sensitive.

  38. please help me.
    want to extract text and numbers from one cell to different rows with function.
    each of the following line should be extracted to different rows.
    following is in only one cell.
    vb61-152262
    fg2004-229550
    ert2005-065548
    df2010-104283
    we63-313541
    wer2009-100693
    r2002-017302
    as07-008164

    • Hello,

      If I understand your task correctly, please try the following formulas:

      1. To extract text:
      =SUBSTITUTE(A1,RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-MIN(SEARCH({0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9},A1&"0123456789"))+1),"")

      2. To extract numbers:
      =RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-MIN(SEARCH({0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9},A1&"0123456789"))+1)

      Hope this will help you with your task.

      • Hi, can you please explain how the A1&"0123456789" this part in the formula

  39. I am trying to use the Mid/Find function on this problem but I can't seem to get it correctly.

    SNACKNATION 310-845-7744 CA
    CANDLEWOOD SUITES ST SOUTHFIELD MI
    SUBURBAN IMPORTS OF FARMINGTN HLS MI
    EGENFEE* 866-397-2677 WA
    KROGER #710 00000071 HARPER WOODS MI

    I need to separate these on each column but I'm always getting the #VALUE :(

    can someone please help me?

  40. Hi! Thank you for this very informative article.

    Still i have some problems I wonder if you can help me out with

    I have this string and many other similar to this:
    "1000Miglia 047 7,5x17 5-108 ET45 CB63,4"
    And I want to extract the numbers infront of "x" from the second " ".
    That means in this text i want to extract the number "7,5"

    Is there any simple formula for that?

  41. Hi Svetlana,
    This is exactly what I looking for. In the TRIM formula where a dollar amount was extracted, I replaced the "$" with two characters "V-" and no matter the length of the work (ie: V-1234 or V-1234A), the correct information was extracted. How would you build this in an IF function where the characters being searched vary. Example: T-1234, P-1234, V-1234, C-1234, D-1234, E-1234; IF "T-", IF "P-", IF "V-", so forth.
    Thank you for the formula, I just need to build on it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    • Hi, Shelia,

      would it be possible for you to send us your workbook with the source data and the result you expect to get to support@ablebits.com? Our technical specialist would take a look into your task to advise you better.
      Don't forget to include the link to this comment to your email.

      Thanks!

  42. Hi Svetlana!
    Nice info! I have a question. I try to extract some characters from a cell twice. Let me explain:
    I have some words I need to eliminate from the original cell. Example:
    "My Dog is a beatiful black animal" to become "My Dog is a black animal".
    Is there a way to apply the MID function twice in the same cell who let me extract "My Dog is a" and then "black animal"? And if is not possible... Is there a way to do?
    Thanks a lot!!!

  43. HI,

    Please advise me.

    As shown below,i want to divide only period in excel sheet.
    is it possible or not, If it is possible could you please let me know.

    AKASH ALLAMUNENI 05/01/17-05/31/17 176 HRS 73

  44. Hi,

    So I have used the MID function for various financial data, but when the data has 1 or 2 zeros as the first decimals, it gives faulty readings (4..2 and "VALUE!" respectively). I assume this has something to do with "NUM_CHARS" and the fact that excel does not recognize a zero at the end. When I use this function: "=MID(40.20,1,LEN(40.20)-3)&"."&MID(40.20,LEN(40.20)-1,2)&"%"" it gives "4..2" rather than "40.20%".

    I tried to change the "40.20" to custom rather than "number" but it wouldn't stick. When I went back into format cells, it was back on "number".

    If there is a brilliant geek somewhere out there, I would appreciate it sooo much

  45. Awesome thanks a lot..very helpful article.

  46. thanks a lot.very very good

  47. =1+LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2,",",""))

  48. Hi Svetlana.
    I have a column for dates and I want to count how many dates are there? if there are more than one date in a single cell, separated by a comma
    (eg.in cell A2=08/02/17,09/02/17,10/02/17). it should come 3.how can i count it using 'countif'formula?
    I tried
    =countif (a2:a10,"*"&",")
    but it doesn't work.
    can u help me on this?

    • =1+LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2,",",""))

  49. Great article. Find your sight so helpful.
    I'm trying to pull specific digits from a string - WC5-39S-311704-022
    I need 6th, 8th & 9-14th, so 9-311704.
    Trying for a few days to figure this out.
    Any help is appreciated.

    • Hi Chuck,

      You can concatenate 3 Mid functions, like this:
      =MID(A1,6,1)&MID(A1,8,1)&MID(A1,9,6)

      • Thank you so much svetlana cheusheva, I am tried to find the above formula tip from many URL's, finally I got it. Thanks my solution solve now! Great help

      • 2020;01;10;00;00;21.08;74.00;1013.70;27.00
        The question is how can I get the values after each ";" all in different columns

        • Use Excel Text to Columns feature with ; as the delimiter

  50. wOW Svetlana!!!! Very Nice Article.

      • You are genius!

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