Excel Text 3 of 4: Using SEARCH, MID & CELL to Display Sheet Name

Linking the worksheet name to a cell in the spreadsheet is easily accomplished using Excel’s CELL function. Once joined by the MID and SEARCH functions, you need only change the sheet’s name and the linked cell will update to match.

Displaying the Sheet Name in a Cell

Type (or copy and paste) the following formula into a cell

=MID(CELL(“filename”),SEARCH(“]”,CELL(“filename”))+1,100)

Note

• The file must be saved; the CELL function will not return a value on an unsaved file.
• Press F9 (if necessary) to update the cell after a renaming a sheet.

MID	returns a portion of text based on starting position and number of characters.	=MID(“Task Quickly”,2,5) returns “ask Q”; starting with the 2nd char, 5 charachters long.
CELL	returns info about the cell, file or sheet.	=CELL(“filename”) returns the path, filename and sheet. E.g., C:\[Balance.xlsx]Sheet1
SEARCH	returns  the number where the first occurrence of the search text is found, regardless of case.*	=SEARCH(“A”,”Quantity”) returns 3;  ‘A’ is the 3rd character.

*The FIND function works similar to SEARCH but is case-specific.

To learn more about each function and understand why this works, watch this ~2½ minute video:

Cheers!

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Additional reading:

• Excel Text Functions 1 of 4: =LEFT() & =RIGHT()
• Excel Text Functions 2 of 4: Change Case with UPPER, LOWER & PROPER
• More Excel Tips