Excel Functions – Text Functions in Excel

Text Functions in Excel are a set of functions that allow you to manipulate text data in your worksheets. They can be used to find, replace, extract, and format text, as well as to convert text to numbers and vice versa.

Introduction

There are over 20 Text Functions in Excel, each with its own specific purpose. Some of the most commonly used Text Functions include:

• FIND: Finds the position of a specific text value within a string.
• SEARCH: Finds the position of a specific text value within a string, but is not case-sensitive.
• REPLACE: Replaces a specific text value with another text value within a string.
• LEFT: Extracts the leftmost characters from a string.
• RIGHT: Extracts the rightmost characters from a string.
• MID: Extracts a specific number of characters from a string, starting at a specified position.
• TEXT: Converts a number to text, or formats a text string.
• UPPER: Converts all characters in a text string to uppercase.
• LOWER: Converts all characters in a text string to lowercase.

Application of Text Functions

Text Functions can be used to perform a wide variety of tasks, such as:

• Validating data: You can use Text Functions to validate data entered into your worksheets. For example, you could use the FIND function to make sure that a phone number entered into a cell contains only numbers.
• Formatting data: You can use these Functions to format data in your worksheets. For example, you could use the TEXT function to format a date in a specific way, such as “MM/DD/YYYY.”
• Combining data: You can use these Functions to combine data from different cells or ranges into a single cell. For example, you could use the CONCAT function to combine a customer’s first name and last name into a single cell.
• Analyzing data: You can use these Functions to analyze data in your worksheets. For example, you could use the SEARCH function to find the number of times a specific word appears in a text string.

These Functions are a powerful tool that can be used to manipulate text data in your Excel worksheets. By understanding how to use these functions, you can save time and improve the accuracy of your work.

Text Function

Excel has many functions to offer when it comes to manipulating text strings. Here are some examples of TEXT Functions:

Join Strings

To join strings, use the & operator.

Note: instead of using the & operator, use the CONCATENATE function in Excel.

Left

To extract the leftmost characters from a string, use the LEFT function.

Right

To extract the rightmost characters from a string, use the RIGHT function.

Mid

To extract a substring, starting in the middle of a string, use the MID function.

Note: started at position 5 (p) with length 3.

Len

To get the length of a string, use the LEN function.

Note: space (position 8) included!

Find

To find the position of a substring in a string, use the FIND function.

Note: string “am” found at position 3. Visit our page about the FIND function for more examples.

Substitute

To replace existing text with new text in a string, use the SUBSTITUTE function.