{"id":4911,"date":"2019-11-11T16:14:46","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T16:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/?p=4911"},"modified":"2024-03-28T13:33:06","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T13:33:06","slug":"remove-the-first-character","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/examples\/remove-the-first-character\/","title":{"rendered":"Remove the First Character in Excel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The REPLACE function<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The easiest way to remove the first character from a cell is to use the <a href=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/en\/functions\/replace\">REPLACE<\/a> function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>=REPLACE(A1,1,1,\"\")<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>This function replaces a part of a string with a different\nstring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"433\" height=\"126\" src=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/11\/replace-example.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4913\" srcset=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/11\/replace-example.png 433w, https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/11\/replace-example-300x87.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 433px) 100vw, 433px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Explanation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>=REPLACE( <strong>old_text<\/strong>,\n<strong>start_num<\/strong>, <strong>num_chars<\/strong>, <strong>new_text<\/strong> )<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>old_text<\/strong> &#8211; The function\ntakes &#8220;!This is text&#8221; as the first argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>start_num<\/strong> &#8211; Which\ncharacter to replace. In our case, it&#8217;s the first one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>num_chars<\/strong> &#8211; The\nnumber of characters to replace. We want only 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>new_text<\/strong> &#8211; The\ntext to replace the portion of the text. In our case is empty space, because we\nwant the first character to be deleted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">RIGHT and LEN functions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to use a different approach, you can use <a href=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/en\/functions\/right\"><strong>RIGHT<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/en\/functions\/len\"><strong>LEN<\/strong><\/a> functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>RIGHT<\/strong>\nfunction returns the number of characters from the right of the string.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>LEN<\/strong> function\nreturns the length of the string.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following formula will return all characters &#8211; 1 from the <strong>RIGHT<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>=RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-1)<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s check it inside the worksheet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"433\" height=\"126\" src=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/11\/right-len-functions.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4914\" srcset=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/11\/right-len-functions.png 433w, https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/11\/right-len-functions-300x87.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 433px) 100vw, 433px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">VBA Code<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You can use this simple function to remove the first character from a string. It will take one argument, which is a string.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>Function RemoveFirstCharacter(rng As String)\n    RemoveFirstCharacter = Right(rng, Len(rng) - 1)\nEnd Function<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Insert this function into a new module and use it as a\nnormal function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"497\" height=\"126\" src=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/11\/remove-first-character.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4915\" srcset=\"https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/11\/remove-first-character.png 497w, https:\/\/officetuts.net\/excel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/11\/remove-first-character-300x76.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 497px) 100vw, 497px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The REPLACE function The easiest way to remove the first character from a cell is to use the REPLACE function. This function replaces&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[190],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Remove the First Character in Excel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how to remove the first character from an Excel cell using the REPLACE function or the RIGHT and LEN functions. 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