Welcome toExcel.Tips.Net
Tips.Net Home
ExcelTips Home
Ask an Excel Question
Make a Comment
ExcelTips FAQ
ExcelTips Premium
Beauty Tips
Car Tips
Cleaning Tips
College Tips
Cooking Tips
Excel2007 Tips
ExcelTips
Family Tips
Gardening Tips
Health Tips
Home Tips
Money Tips
Organizing Tips
Pest Tips
Pet Tips
Wedding Tips
Word2007 Tips
WordTips
Advertise on the
ExcelTips Site
Assigning a Macro to a Keyboard Combination
Hiding Rows Based on a Cell Value
Sometimes you may need to create a worksheet formula that examines the left-most characters in a different cell. To allow for this need, Excel provides the LEFT worksheet function. You use it by specifying the cell or value to use, along with the number of character to return. For instance, the following formula returns the three left-most characters in cell A7:
=LEFT(A7,3)
If the value in A7 is not text, then LEFT still treats it as if it is. Thus, if A7 contains 12345, then the above formula returns the text value 123.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2488) applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Save Time! ExcelTips has been published weekly since late 1998. Past issues of ExcelTips are available in convenient ExcelTips archives. Have your own enhanced archive of ExcelTips at your fingertips, available to use at any time!