Text Excel Functions

Manipulate and format text strings

Most used text formulas

  • Join cells → [TEXTJOIN](/functions/textjoin/), [CONCAT](/functions/concat/), or [CONCATENATE](/functions/concatenate/)
  • Extract substrings → [LEFT](/functions/left/), [RIGHT](/functions/right/), [MID](/functions/mid/)
  • Find & replace in formulas → [FIND](/functions/find/), [SEARCH](/functions/search/), [SUBSTITUTE](/functions/substitute/)
  • Clean spaces → [TRIM](/functions/trim/) and [CLEAN](/functions/clean/)
  • Change case → [UPPER](/functions/upper/), [LOWER](/functions/lower/), [PROPER](/functions/proper/)

Before VLOOKUP or XLOOKUP

  • Hidden spaces cause #N/A → run [TRIM](/functions/trim/) on keys first
  • Text vs number → [VALUE](/functions/value/) or Text to Columns
  • Lookup errors → [#N/A guide](/errors/na/) and [VLOOKUP #N/A fix](/problems/vlookup-returning-na/)

Functions in this category

  • CONCAT: Joins two or more text strings into one string.
  • LEFT: Returns the specified number of characters from the start of a text string.
  • RIGHT: Returns the specified number of characters from the end of a text string.
  • MID: Returns a specific number of characters from a text string, starting at a specified position.
  • LEN: Returns the number of characters in a text string.
  • FIND: Finds one text string within another and returns the starting position (case-sensitive).
  • SEARCH: Finds one text string within another and returns the starting position (case-insensitive, supports wildcards).
  • SUBSTITUTE: Replaces occurrences of old text with new text in a string.
  • TRIM: Removes extra spaces from text, leaving only single spaces between words.
  • UPPER: Converts text to uppercase.
  • LOWER: Converts text to lowercase.
  • PROPER: Capitalizes the first letter of each word in a text string.
  • TEXT: Converts a value to text in a specified number format.
  • TEXTJOIN: Joins text from multiple ranges with a delimiter, with option to ignore empty cells.
  • CHAR: Returns the character specified by a number (ASCII or Unicode code).
  • CODE: Returns the numeric code for the first character in a text string.
  • CLEAN: Removes all non-printable characters from text.
  • EXACT: Compares two text strings and returns TRUE if they are exactly the same (case-sensitive).
  • FIXED: Formats a number as text with a fixed number of decimals.
  • REPT: Repeats text a specified number of times.
  • REPLACE: Replaces part of a text string with a different text string, based on the number of characters you specify.
  • DOLLAR: Converts a number to text in currency format.
  • TEXTAFTER: Returns text that occurs after a specified delimiter.
  • TEXTBEFORE: Returns text that occurs before a specified delimiter.
  • TEXTSPLIT: Splits text into rows or columns using delimiters.
  • REGEXTEST: Returns TRUE if text matches a regular expression pattern, otherwise FALSE.
  • REGEXEXTRACT: Extracts text that matches a regular expression pattern, optionally from a capture group.
  • REGEXREPLACE: Replaces text that matches a regular expression pattern with replacement text.
  • UNICHAR: Returns the Unicode character for a given number.
  • UNICODE: Returns the Unicode code point for the first character of a text string.
  • NUMBERVALUE: Converts text to a number in a locale-independent way.
  • ASC: Changes full-width (double-byte) characters to half-width (single-byte) characters.
  • ARRAYTOTEXT: Returns an array of text values from any specified range.
  • BAHTTEXT: Converts a number to Thai text and adds the suffix Baht.
  • CONCATENATE: Joins several text strings into one string.
  • VALUETOTEXT: Returns text from any specified value.
  • T: Returns the text referred to by value.
  • PHONETIC: Extracts the phonetic (furigana) characters from a text string.
  • JIS: Changes half-width (single-byte) characters to full-width (double-byte) characters.
  • LEFTB: Returns the leftmost characters from a text value based on bytes.
  • RIGHTB: Returns the rightmost characters from a text value based on bytes.
  • MIDB: Returns a specific number of characters from a text string based on bytes.
  • LENB: Returns the number of bytes used to represent the characters in a text string.
  • DBCS: Converts half-width (single-byte) characters to full-width (double-byte) characters in a text string.
  • VALUE: Converts a text string that represents a number to a number.

Mastering Text functions end-to-end

  • Manipulate and format text strings — use this category page as a map before diving into individual function syntax pages.
  • Functions indexed here: CONCAT, LEFT, RIGHT, MID, LEN, FIND, SEARCH, SUBSTITUTE, TRIM, UPPER, LOWER, PROPER and more.
  • Pick one function per week for your team, copy the examples into a practice workbook, and spot-check against manual math.
  • When functions in this category feed lookups or aggregates, read the related comparison and problem guides linked from function pages.
  • Small categories still matter in specialized models — document which niche functions your template depends on for auditors.
  • Confirm Excel version requirements: dynamic array and cube functions may not open in Excel 2019 even if other category members do.

Category troubleshooting patterns

  • #NAME? often means a niche function name typo or a locale mismatch — compare spelling to this English directory.
  • #VALUE! in specialized functions usually means wrong argument type — review each parameter description on the function page.
  • When results differ from documentation, verify regional settings, unit assumptions, and whether the workbook opened in compatibility mode.
  • Cross-link to fix-excel-formula-errors when multiple function types in this category fail after a bulk find-replace.

Function deep dives in this category

  • CONCAT (/functions/concat/): Joins two or more text strings into one string. Syntax: =CONCAT(text1, [text2], ...).
  • LEFT (/functions/left/): Returns the specified number of characters from the start of a text string. Syntax: =LEFT(text, [num_chars]).
  • RIGHT (/functions/right/): Returns the specified number of characters from the end of a text string. Syntax: =RIGHT(text, [num_chars]).
  • MID (/functions/mid/): Returns a specific number of characters from a text string, starting at a specified position. Syntax: =MID(text, start_num, num_chars).
  • LEN (/functions/len/): Returns the number of characters in a text string. Syntax: =LEN(text).
  • FIND (/functions/find/): Finds one text string within another and returns the starting position (case-sensitive). Syntax: =FIND(find_text, within_text, [start_num]).
  • SEARCH (/functions/search/): Finds one text string within another and returns the starting position (case-insensitive, supports wildcards). Syntax: =SEARCH(find_text, within_text, [start_num]).
  • SUBSTITUTE (/functions/substitute/): Replaces occurrences of old text with new text in a string. Syntax: =SUBSTITUTE(text, old_text, new_text, [instance_num]).