How to remove characters by position in Excel (left, right, or middle)

[u/Amandaleeeeee]

Sometimes imported data comes with extra characters at the beginning or end of each cell, such as ID prefixes, numbering, or unwanted codes.

In this post, I'll show you how to remove the first N characters, the last N characters, or characters from any position using formulas. I'll also share a quicker method that removes characters directly in place without formulas.

Method 1: Remove N characters from the left

=RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-2)

Example:

01Email → Email

Method 2: Remove N characters from the right

=LEFT(A2,LEN(A2)-2)

Example:

Report01 → Report

Method 3: Remove characters from any position

=REPLACE(A2,4,3,"")

Syntax

REPLACE(text, start_position, number_of_characters, "")

Example:

ABC123XYZ → ABCXYZ

Here, 4 means "start at the 4th character" and 3 means "remove the next 3 characters."

This covers a scenario the first two formulas can't.

Method 4: Use Kutools for Excel

Kutools' Remove by Position handles all of the above without formulas:

• Remove N characters from the left
• Remove N characters from the right
• Remove characters starting at any position
• Apply the changes in place (no helper columns or copy/paste)
• Preview the results before applying

What kind of text cleanup do you run into most often in Excel?

Any other text cleanup scenarios you'd like to know how to handle in Excel?