{"id":444618,"date":"2022-05-09T18:00:33","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T15:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-to-truncate-text-in-microsoft-excel\/"},"modified":"2022-05-09T18:00:33","modified_gmt":"2022-05-09T15:00:33","slug":"how-to-truncate-text-in-microsoft-excel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-to-truncate-text-in-microsoft-excel\/","title":{"rendered":"#How to Truncate Text in Microsoft Excel"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2e06c99ecbf\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2e06c99ecbf\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-to-truncate-text-in-microsoft-excel\/#%E2%80%9CHow_to_Truncate_Text_in_Microsoft_Excel%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;How to Truncate Text in Microsoft Excel&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-to-truncate-text-in-microsoft-excel\/#Truncate_Text_in_Excel_with_RIGHT_or_RIGHTB\" >Truncate Text in Excel with RIGHT or RIGHTB<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-to-truncate-text-in-microsoft-excel\/#Truncate_Text_in_Excel_with_LEFT_or_LEFTB\" >Truncate Text in Excel with LEFT or LEFTB<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-to-truncate-text-in-microsoft-excel\/#Truncate_Text_in_Excel_with_MID_or_MIDB\" >Truncate Text in Excel with MID or MIDB<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CHow_to_Truncate_Text_in_Microsoft_Excel%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;How to Truncate Text in Microsoft Excel&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"type:primaryImage alignnone size-full wp-image-757715\" data-pagespeed-lazy-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/microsoft_excel_hero_1200x675.jpg?width=398&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1 400w, https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/microsoft_excel_hero_1200x675.jpg?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, 400w, 1200w\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/microsoft_excel_hero_1200x675.jpg?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Microsoft Excel logo on a green background\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>If text is a big part of the data in your spreadsheet, you may need to adjust it to fit properly. The TRUNC function in Microsoft Excel works only with numbers. So if you want to truncate text, here\u2019s how.<\/p>\n<p>There are many useful functions for working with text in Excel. Three of those functions help you truncate text in a cell. These are RIGHT, LEFT, and MID, and each has a variation for using bytes instead of characters.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Truncate_Text_in_Excel_with_RIGHT_or_RIGHTB\"><\/span>Truncate Text in Excel with RIGHT or RIGHTB<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The RIGHT function uses the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/761991\/how-to-count-characters-in-microsoft-excel\/\">number of characters for a single-byte character set (SBCS) while RIGHTB uses a number of bytes for a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/DBCS\">double-byte character set (DBCS)<\/a>. Both functions work the same way with only that difference. So, you can use whichever works best for you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <strong><em>How to Count Characters in Microsoft Excel<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The syntaxes are <code>RIGHT(text, number_characters)<\/code> and <code>RIGHTB(text, number_bytes)<\/code> with the first argument for each formula required. You can enter the cell reference and keep what\u2019s on the right.<\/p>\n<p>To keep 12 characters on the right from the text string in cell A2, you would use this formula:<\/p>\n<pre>=RIGHT(A2,12)<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-798908\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/RIGHT12-ExcelTruncateText.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Keep 12 characters on the right\" width=\"600\" height=\"220\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>As another example, we want to keep only the last word and punctuation. This formula retains the last eight characters on the right.<\/p>\n<pre>=RIGHT(A2,8)<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-798909\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/RIGHT8-ExcelTruncateText.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Keep eight characters on the right\" width=\"600\" height=\"220\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Truncate_Text_in_Excel_with_LEFT_or_LEFTB\"><\/span>Truncate Text in Excel with LEFT or LEFTB<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The LEFT and LEFTB functions work like the RIGHT and RIGHTB functions where you use either the number of characters or bytes respectively. But with these <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/765624\/basic-excel-functions-everybody-should-know\/\">functions, you\u2019re shortening your text string from the opposite side.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <strong><em>12 Basic Excel Functions Everybody Should Know<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The syntaxes are <code>LEFT(text, number_characters)<\/code> and <code>LEFTB(text, number_bytes)<\/code> with the first argument for each formula required. Again, insert the cell reference for the text and keep what\u2019s on the left side.<\/p>\n<p>To keep 32 characters on the left from the text string in cell A2, you would use this formula:<\/p>\n<pre>=LEFT(A2,32)<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-798912\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/LEFT32-ExcelTruncateText.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Keep 32 characters on the left\" width=\"600\" height=\"220\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>For another example, we want to keep only the first word in the string. This formula retains only the first four characters on the left.<\/p>\n<pre>=LEFT(A2,4)<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-798913\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/LEFT4-ExcelTruncateText.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Keep four characters on the left\" width=\"600\" height=\"220\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Truncate_Text_in_Excel_with_MID_or_MIDB\"><\/span>Truncate Text in Excel with MID or MIDB<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/759780\/how-to-shrink-or-expand-cells-to-fit-text-in-microsoft-excel\/\">text that you want to keep is in the middle of a text string, you\u2019ll use the MID or MIDB functions. These functions are like the other two in that you enter a number or characters for MID and number of bytes for MIDB.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <strong><em>How to Shrink or Expand Cells to Fit Text in Microsoft Excel<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The syntaxes are <code>MID(text, start, number_characters)<\/code> and <code>MIDB(text, start, number_bytes)<\/code> with all arguments for each formula required. You can use a cell reference for the first argument, the number of the starting character or byte for the second, and the number to keep for the third.<\/p>\n<p>Here, we\u2019ll remove everything from the string except for a middle portion. With this formula, the text is in cell A2, we want to start with the 35th character, and keep only 24 characters.<\/p>\n<pre>=MID(A2,35,24)<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-798914\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/MID35-ExcelTruncateText.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Keep 24 characters in the middle\" width=\"600\" height=\"220\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>As another example, using the following formula you can shorten the text in cell A2 and keep only the second word. We use 6 for the <code>start<\/code> argument and 3 for the <code>number_characters<\/code> argument.<\/p>\n<pre>=MID(A2,6,3)<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-798915\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/MID6-ExcelTruncateText.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Keep three characters in the middle\" width=\"600\" height=\"220\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Shortening text in your sheet may be necessary or simply something you prefer. These functions and formulas help you truncate text in Excel from the right, left, or middle, as you need it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n setTimeout(function(){\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s) } (window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n   fbq('init', '335401813750447');\n   fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  },3000);\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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The TRUNC function in Microsoft Excel works only with numbers. So if you want to truncate text, here\u2019s how. There are many useful functions for working with&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":444619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/microsoft_excel_hero_1200x675.jpg?height=200p&trim=2,2,2,2","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}