Formula to Extract the Nth word in Excel
Extract the Nth Word in Excel
The formula:=MID(A1,FIND(“*”,SUBSTITUTE(A1,” “,”*”,3))+1,17-FIND(“*”,SUBSTITUTE(A1,” “,”*”,3))-1)
When I say nth, that means the second, third or fourth or any other words that are not the first or last. Extracting the nth word is similar to extracting the the last word but the MID function is used instead of the RIGHT one and doing this one is less complicated.
Formula to Extract the Nth word in Excel – A Step-by-Step process
Let us assume cell A1 contains “This is an excel formula tutorial on how to extract the nth word.” Our goal is to create a formula to return “excel” which the fourth word. The formula above will do the trick but I’d rather want you to understand how this works so the next time you do this you’ll most likely know what to do already. Read the rest of this entry »
Formula to Extract the Last Word in Excel
Extract the Last Word in Excel
How to extract the last word in Excel is pretty similar to my other tutorial Formula to extract the first or second word in Excel. Similar. But not the same. If there were only two words in a cell, it would be just the same but what if you had three or more?
In this tutorial, I’ll be using the following functions: LEN, SUBSTITUTE and RIGHT. If you do not know how these function works, it would be best to visit the List of Excel Formulas/Function in this site. If you have done so or are familiar with these functions, then we’re off to go.
Let us assume that cell A1 contains “I love you.” As you can see, there are three words and our goal is to create a formula to return only the last word which is “you.” The formula to achieve this result would be =RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND(“*”,SUBSTITUTE(A1,” “,”*”,LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,” “,”"))))).
Pretty complicated right? Don’t worry, we’ll dissect it.
Extract the Last Word in Excel- Step by Step Tutorial to Create the Formula.
When I first encountered a very nested formula to the one above, it was like reading the alphabet for the first time. But once I knew how this formula was formed, I understood the logic behind all those quotes and asterisks. Read the rest of this entry »
Concatenate in Excel – How to Combine Cells
Concatenate in Excel
How to concatenate in Excel can be done in two ways: by using an ampersand (&) and the CONCATENATE function.
What happens when we concatenate cells?
By concatenating, we join or combine up to 255 text strings into one text string like A and B to AB. The joined items can be text, numbers, cell references, or a combination of those items. For example, if your worksheet contains a person’s first name in cell A1 and the person’s last name in cell B1, you can combine both in a new cell which will contain the values from the two cells. Read the rest of this entry »
Formula to Find the Highest Number in Excel
Find the highest number in excel
Finding the highest or largest number or value in excel is pretty easy.
MAX function is the solution. Its syntax is =MAX(number1,[number2],…) and so on and so forth. That syntax is according to Microsoft Excel. It is pretty confusing but, again, to find the highest number in excel is simple. If rewritten ,the MAX function’s structure is simply MAX=(range) where range is a group or block of cells in a worksheet that have been selected or highlighted. When cells have been selected they are surrounded by a black outline or border. You know what that means.
Find the largest number in Excel using an example
Using the worksheet above, let us find the largest value from range A1 to A12. To do this, our formula would be =MAX(A1:A12) and this should 989 as the highest number.
There is also another way to find the highest value in excel. First highlight your range. Then go to Formulas tab (Excel 2007). Click AutoSum and choose max. This should automatically insert the same formula as above after your range.
Simple, isn’t it?
Formula to extract the first or second word in Excel
In my previous post I about Excel LEFT, RIGHT and MID functions I discussed that these functions can be used to truncate a text in excel but did not elaborate as how they can be used to return just the first or second word in excel.
So what is the formula to return or extract the first or second word in Excel?
Just a note before we proceed: this tutorial works only on two-word cells. Extracting a word from a text that contains three or more words will involve a complicated formula.
In this tutorial, we will be using the SEARCH, LEN, LEFT and RIGHT functions ( If you don’t know yet how to use these functions, please refer to my previous tutorials). Read the rest of this entry »
Excel LEFT, RIGHT and MID functions
Excel LEFT, RIGHT and MID functions return a specific number of characters from a text string, starting at the position you specify, based on the number of characters you specify. Apparently, the difference among the three is on whether you want to extract a number of characters from the left, middle or right. Read the rest of this entry »
What the Dollar ($) Sign in Excel Formulas Means
You might have been making Excel Formulas for quite some time but until now still wonder the dollar ($) sign/symbol in Excel Formula means.
So what is it for?
Nothing special. It is just something that limits (if that is the correct word) Excel formulas when you copy or drag them onto other cells. Read the rest of this entry »
The Difference between the SEARCH and FIND function in Excel
The Excel tutorial on FIND and SEARCH functions starts here…
If we were to consider “find” and “search” as words per se, they would be considered synonyms. However, in Microsoft Excel, this is not necessarily the case. They may be similar in the sense that both find the location of a substring in a string (or in plain english, the position/location of a character or group of characters in a given cell) but they are also different from each other.
What?
Okay, to be better understand, let’s have Read the rest of this entry »
Excel TRUE or FALSE conditional function without using IF
Oftentimes, when we say conditional formula, the first thing that comes to our mind is the IF function? But did you know that you can still make conditional formulas without using IF?
The trick I’m going to discuss about is limited only to a TRUE or FALSE answer.
So how do we do this? We just need the following: Read the rest of this entry »
How to remove timestamps in Excel
For some timestamps in Excel are something that can just be ignored. However, if you are dealing with dates, you might have a problem with this.
Let me just repost what I wrote in my tumblr blog.
Illustration: (refer to the image/worksheet below) You are trying to find out using excel conditional formula which cells have values ess than or equal a particular date. A1 which contains 1/1/11 equals A2 which contains 1/1/11 (=A1=A2) returns False, meaning the values you are trying to compare are not equal. Weird. The result of the formula should have been True because are just the same. Not necessarily. Read the rest of this entry »
