Left Function

Laurie Bearden

In the Left function, is there a way to grab just the letters, not another character, such as a dash?

I have a column of numbers that include 2-3 letters, a dash, a number, dash, then 1-3 letters.

Example: XX-10000-WQA, XXX-10000-WQA.

I would like to have a column that just shows the first 2-3 letters, without the dash, if that is possible.

Please, and thank you ☺️

prime_nathaniel

Laurie Bearden

If I understand your request correctly, you will want to use find to find the first instance of "-". Then just return the substring before that position.

=FIND("-", [Primary Column]@row)

=LEFT([Primary Column]@row, [Find the -]@row - 1)

Or combined

=LEFT([Primary Column]@row, FIND("-", [Primary Column]@row) - 1)

Solution explained:

You want to find the - so you use the FIND formula. Once you know where the dash is you now have your number of character parameter for left. You then need to subtract 1 so you don't get the - in your result.