LEFT Function in Excel: Take Characters From the Start of Text

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⏱ 1 min readUpdated 28 September 2026

TextLevel: BeginnerAvailable in: Excel 2007+

In this article
  1. Syntax
  2. Examples
  3. Example 1
  4. Example 2
  5. Power combo
  6. Related functions

LEFT returns the first characters of a text. RIGHT takes them from the end.

Syntax

=LEFT(text, [num_chars])
Argument What it means
text The text.
num_chars How many characters (1 if omitted).

Examples

Example 1

=LEFT(A2, 2)

State code from a GSTIN (first two digits).

Example 2

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

First name: everything before the first space.

Power combo

=MID(A2, 3, 10)

PAN from a GSTIN: characters 3 to 12.

RIGHT · MID · FIND · LEN

📚 Part of the free Excel course: Beginner → Expert · Try it in the Formula Lab or ask the AI Helper.

📎 Practice files for this article

  • 📗
    Text-cleaning scenarios workbookExtract and clean text (GSTIN, PAN, emails, names) with PASS/FAIL checks, plus the 3 mistakes that break text formulas.
    ⬇ XLSX · 8 KB

Free to use for learning. Files with macros (.bas) are plain text — import them with Alt+F11 → File → Import File, and always test on a copy.

Keep reading

Excel Functions A–ZIF Function in Excel: Make Decisions in a FormulaExcel Functions A–ZREPLACE Function in Excel: Replace Characters by PositionExcel Functions A–ZCOUNTBLANK Function in Excel: Count Empty Cells
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