{"id":3246,"date":"2018-10-29T08:42:54","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T08:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/?p=3246"},"modified":"2024-03-29T14:24:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T14:24:54","slug":"get-the-first-x-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/formulas\/get-the-first-x-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"Get the First x Characters in Excel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-0c3bba27-d9c3-4c4a-9187-6a7679447350\" href=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/Get-the-First-x-Characters.xlsx\">Get-the-First-x-Characters<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/Get-the-First-x-Characters.xlsx\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-0c3bba27-d9c3-4c4a-9187-6a7679447350\">Download File<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether you want to display the first x characters from the identification card or a zip code there are a few ways you can achieve this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Get the first x characters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In this case, we deal with an identification number that always starts with three letters and six numbers after that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"166\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/10\/identification-number.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3247\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>To get the first three letters use this formula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">=LEFT(A2,3)<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>For the numbers, we are going to use the <strong>RIGHT<\/strong> function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">=RIGHT(A2,6)<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"298\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/10\/letters-and-numbers.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3248\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Get the first x characters before a character<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, we are going to deal with a more complicated problem. The example below shows numbers separated by dashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"307\" height=\"160\" src=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/10\/numbers-separated-by-dashes.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3249\" srcset=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/10\/numbers-separated-by-dashes.png 307w, https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/10\/numbers-separated-by-dashes-300x156.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 307px) 100vw, 307px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We want to get the first part of the number. We can\u2019t get the first x numbers because the number of characters before the dash is not constant. But we can modify the formula to do the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">=LEFT(A2,FIND(\"-\",A2)-1)<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>FIND<\/strong> method returns the position of the first dash minus 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Get the first x characters after a character<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In the previous example, we could see how to get the first characters before a specific character. Now we are going to get a fixed number of characters after a character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">=RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2) - FIND(\"-\",A2))<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"387\" height=\"160\" src=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/10\/second-part-separated-by-commas.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/10\/second-part-separated-by-commas.png 387w, https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/10\/second-part-separated-by-commas-300x124.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 387px) 100vw, 387px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>LEN<\/strong> function gets the number of characters minus the first occurrence of the dash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>11 \u2013 4 = 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, the formula gets 7 characters from the <strong>RIGHT<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether you want to display the first x characters from the identification card or a zip code there are a few ways you&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[170,190],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Get the First x Characters in Excel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how to get the first x characters from an identification number or zip code in Excel. Download the file and use LEFT and RIGHT functions.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/formulas\/get-the-first-x-characters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Get the First x Characters in Excel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn how to get the first x characters from an identification number or zip code in Excel. 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