Summary
This chapter explains how to extract substrings from the beginning, end, or a specified position within a text value using LEFT, RIGHT, and MID functions.

General domain of usage
Parsing and transforming structured identifiers (e.g., product codes)

Sometimes you don't need to split the entire text into columns. Instead, you may want to extract only a specific part of a value. This is very common when working with structured text like product codes, IDs, or formatted strings.

For example, a product code like `PRD-001` contains two parts: a prefix (`PRD`) and a number (`001`). Instead of splitting everything manually, you can extract exactly the part you need using functions.

## LEFT, RIGHT, MID Functions

Excel provides three functions for extracting text:

- `LEFT` → extracts characters from the beginning;
- `RIGHT` → extracts characters from the end;
- `MID` → extracts characters from the middle.

If a cell contains:

```
"PRD-001"
```

Then: 

```
=LEFT(A2, 3) → "PRD"
=RIGHT(A2, 3) → "001"
=MID(A2, 5, 3) → "001"
```

`=LEFT(A2, 3)` returns the first 3 characters from the beginning of the text, `=RIGHT(A2, 3)` returns the last 3 characters from the end, and `=MID(A2, 5, 3)` extracts 3 characters starting from position 5 in the string.

Create two new columns: `Product Prefix`, `Product Number`

**Extract:**

- The first part (`PRD`) using `LEFT`;
- The numeric part (`001`) using `RIGHT` or `MID`.

Apply the formulas to all rows.

Use `=LEFT(D2,3)` for the prefix and `=RIGHT(D2,3)` or `=MID(D2,5,3)` for the number, then apply the formulas to all rows.

Which function extracts text from the middle of a string?

Study how to clean, organize, and prepare data in Excel to ensure accuracy and reliability in your analysis. You'll understand why raw data is often messy and how improper formatting or errors can lead to incorrect results.

Dive deeper into the most common types of data issues, such as missing values, duplicates, inconsistent formats, extra spaces, and invalid characters. You’ll learn how to identify these problems and prevent them from occurring.

Learn how to clean and standardize text data in Excel to ensure consistency and accuracy in your datasets. You'll understand why messy text can lead to errors in analysis and how to fix it efficiently.

Learn how to work with numerical and date data in Excel, ensuring values are accurate, properly formatted, and ready for analysis. You'll understand how incorrect formats can break calculations and lead to misleading results.

Study how to identify and remove duplicate data in Excel to ensure your dataset remains accurate and reliable. You'll learn why duplicates can distort analysis and how to handle them effectively.

Extracting Text with LEFT, RIGHT, MID

LEFT, RIGHT, MID Functions