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Advanced Text Manipulation

Learn how to extract, combine, and manipulate text in Excel using powerful text functions.

Extracting Text Between Delimiters

A common challenge in data processing is extracting a portion of text between two delimiters, such as hyphens or other characters. For example, extracting the middle part of a product code like "ABC-12345-XYZ".

The Formula Solution

=MID(A2,FIND("-",A2)+1,FIND("-",A2,FIND("-",A2)+1)-FIND("-",A2)-1)

This formula works by:

  • FIND("-",A2) - Finds the position of the first hyphen
  • FIND("-",A2,FIND("-",A2)+1) - Finds the position of the second hyphen
  • MID(text, start_position, length) - Extracts the text between the two positions

The formula calculates the starting position (after the first delimiter) and the length (distance between delimiters) to extract exactly the text you need.

Other Useful Text Functions

Combine Text

=CONCAT(A2," - ",B2)

Combines text from A2 and B2 with a separator

Extract First Word

=LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2&" ")-1)

Extracts the first word from a text string

Format Phone Numbers

=TEXT(A2,"(000) 000-0000")

Formats 10-digit numbers as phone numbers

Clean Text Data

=TRIM(CLEAN(A2))

Removes extra spaces and non-printable characters

This is a placeholder for an interactive example of text manipulation formulas.

Future implementation will include an interactive Excel-like interface to try these formulas with sample data.

Real-World Applications

Advanced text manipulation is valuable for many business tasks:

  • Cleaning and standardizing imported data
  • Parsing emails, addresses, or product codes
  • Creating standardized naming conventions
  • Generating report titles or descriptions dynamically

How ExcelGPT Can Help

ExcelGPT can assist you with text manipulation by:

  • Creating complex text formulas based on your specific patterns
  • Helping you break down text parsing problems into solvable steps
  • Suggesting the most efficient function combinations for your needs
  • Troubleshooting errors in complex text formulas
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