REPLACE Function in Excel: Replace Characters by Position

REPLACE Function in Excel: Replace Characters by Position featured illustration

📎 This article includes 1 downloadable practice file ↓

⏱ 2 min readUpdated 28 September 2026

TextLevel: IntermediateAvailable in: Excel 2007+

In this article
  1. Syntax
  2. Examples
  3. Example 1
  4. REPLACE in practice
  5. Where you will use it
  6. Worked example
  7. Mistakes people make
  8. Related functions
  9. Continue learning

REPLACE swaps characters at a given position — useful for masking.

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Syntax

=REPLACE(old_text, start_num, num_chars, new_text)
Argument What it means
start_num First character to replace.
num_chars How many to replace.

Examples

Example 1

=REPLACE(A2, 1, 6, "XXXXXX")

Mask the first six digits of a 10-digit mobile number.

REPLACE in practice

Where you will use it

  • Mask phone numbers
  • Replace a fixed position in a code
  • Change a year inside an invoice number

Worked example

TextFormulaResult
9876543210=REPLACE(A2,3,4,"****")98****3210
INV-2025-145=REPLACE(A3,3,4,"****")IN****25-145
ABCDE1234F=REPLACE(A4,3,4,"****")AB****234F

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

MistakeWhat to do instead
Using REPLACE to swap wordsUse SUBSTITUTE for find-and-replace
NumbersResult is text

SUBSTITUTE · MID

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All Text guides →
REGEXREPLACE Function in Excel: Find and Replace With PatternsREGEXREPLACE replaces text matching a pattern — strip every non-digit, collapse repeated spaces, mask…T Function in Excel: Keep Text, Blank Out NumbersT returns text unchanged and anything else as an empty string. Rarely needed alone,…NUMBERVALUE Function in Excel: Convert Text Numbers With Any SeparatorsNUMBERVALUE converts text to a number using separators you specify — essential for European-style…VALUE Function in Excel: Convert Text to a NumberVALUE turns text that looks like a number into a real number, so SUM…

📎 Practice files for this article

  • 📗
    Practice workbook: Text & cleaning24 tasks on realistic sales data — type your formula, the Check column turns green when it is right. Answers sheet included.
    ⬇ XLSX · 35 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.

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