For 60 second video, click here:
During the next series of posts I will demonstrate some commonly used Text functions. In the illustrated example we populate a CustomerCode column by combining
- the first letter of the first name,
- the first 4 letters of the last name, and
- the last 4 digits of the phone number
=LEFT
Returns the leftmost character(s) of a cell, as specified by the optional Num_chars argument.

Using the LEFT function to copy the leftmost characters of a cell
- Select cell to display the result.
- On the Formulas tab, in the Function Library group, click Text drop-down and select LEFT.
- In Text field select or type cell containing text.
- In the Num_chars field enter the number of characters to copy. When left blank the result is only the leftmost character.
- Click OK.
Concatenate using ‘&’
Use the Ampersand (&) to concatenate (combine) text. For example, with “North” in A1 and “West” in B1, the formula =A1&B1 returns “NorthWest”
=RIGHT
Returns the rightmost character(s) of a cell, as specified by the optional Num_chars argument.
Using the RIGHT function to copy rightmost character(s) of a cell
- Select cell to display the result.
- On the Formulas tab, in the Function Library group, click Text drop-down and select RIGHT.
- In Text field select or type cell containing text.
- In the Num_chars field enter number of characters to copy. When left blank the result is only the rightmost character.
- Click OK.
Cheers!
hɔuᴉnb
Additional reading:
Comments and questions are always welcome!
5 thoughts on “Excel Text Functions 1 of 4: =LEFT() and =RIGHT()”