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Excel LEFT, RIGHT, MID: Extract Text by Position

Pull characters from the start, end, or middle of text. Essential for parsing product codes, IDs, and fixed-format data.

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The formula

Prompt

"Extract the year, month, and day from an 8-digit date code like 20260215"

Excel

=LEFT(A2, 4) & "-" & MID(A2, 5, 2) & "-" & RIGHT(A2, 2)

LEFT(A2, 4) grabs the first 4 characters (year). MID(A2, 5, 2) grabs 2 characters starting at position 5 (month). RIGHT(A2, 2) grabs the last 2 characters (day). Ampersands join them with dashes.

Step-by-step breakdown

LEFT(text, num_chars) returns characters from the start
MID(text, start_num, num_chars) returns characters from any position
RIGHT(text, num_chars) returns characters from the end
& concatenates the pieces with dash separators
Result: '20260215' becomes '2026-02-15'

Edge cases & warnings

If num_chars exceeds the text length, the full text is returned (no error)
MID with start_num beyond text length returns empty string
These functions count characters, not bytes — emoji and accented characters count as 1
For dynamic extraction, combine with FIND or SEARCH to locate delimiters

Examples

Prompt

"20260215"

Excel

2026-02-15

Prompt

"=LEFT("Hello World", 5)"

Excel

Hello

Prompt

"=MID("ABCDEF", 3, 2)"

Excel

CD

Frequently asked questions

How do I extract text before a specific character?

Use LEFT with FIND: =LEFT(A2, FIND("-", A2)-1) extracts everything before the first dash.

What if the position varies?

Combine with FIND or SEARCH to locate characters dynamically. Example: =MID(A2, FIND("@", A2)+1, 100) extracts text after the @ sign.

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