How to Use LEFT Until Specific Character in Excel

To use LEFT until a specific character in Excel, you need to use a combination of the LEFT and FIND functions. The LEFT function extracts a given number of characters from the left side of a text string, while the FIND function locates a specific character or substring within the text string.

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to do this:

1. Open Microsoft Excel and enter your data in the appropriate cells.
2. In an empty cell, type the following formula:

=LEFT(text, FIND(character, text) - 1)

• Replace text with the cell reference containing the text string you want to extract from.
• Replace character with the specific character you want to search for, enclosed in double quotes.

For example, if you have the following data in cell A1:

John Doe - Sales Manager

And you want to extract the text to the left of the hyphen (-), you would enter the following formula in an empty cell:

=LEFT(A1, FIND("-", A1) - 1)

3. Press Enter to apply the formula. The result will be displayed in the cell where you entered the formula.

Example

A1: John Doe - Sales Manager
B1: =LEFT(A1, FIND("-", A1) - 1)

The result in cell B1 will be:

John Doe

In this example, the LEFT function extracts the characters from the left side of the text in cell A1, up until the specific character (-) is found. The FIND function locates the hyphen (-) and returns its position, which is then used to specify the number of characters to extract using the LEFT function.