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Rachwar30's avatar
Rachwar30
Copper Contributor
Sep 02, 2022
Solved

Extracting numbers before string characters start

Hi all,

 

I am looking for an excel formula that can help me to extract numbers only from a mix of numbers and characters ONLY before the first character starts (i.e sometimes there are numbers after letters but I dont want those numbers).

 

Example:

I want the following:

4400B-E

5148A1-E

7006B3-E

 

To look like this:

4400

5148

7006

 

Thank you in advance!

excel
Formulas and Functions
  • Patrick2788's avatar
    Patrick2788
    Sep 02, 2022

    Rachwar30 

    Presuming your text is in A2, you might use:

     

    =LEFT(A2,MIN(IFERROR(SEARCH(CHAR(SEQUENCE(26,,65,1)),A2),""))-1)
  • PeterBartholomew1's avatar
    PeterBartholomew1
    Silver Contributor
    Sep 02, 2022

    Rachwar30 

    Or, just because I find it difficult ...

    WorksheetFormula
= SelectNumλ(@target);

SelectNumλ 
= LAMBDA(t, [s],
     LET(
        n, LEN(t),
        x, LEFT(t, 1),
        y, RIGHT(t, n - 1),
        d, ISNUMBER(VALUE(x)),
        IF(d, SelectNumλ(y, s & x), s)
     )
  );

    a recursive Lambda!

     

    • SergeiBaklan's avatar
      SergeiBaklan
      MVP
      Sep 02, 2022

      PeterBartholomew1 

      In general optional parameter is not required, something like

      getNumber=
LAMBDA( str,
    IF( ISERROR( --LEFT(str,1) ), "",
        LEFT(str,1) &
        getNumber( RIGHT( str, LEN(str) - 1) )
        ) );
  • Patrick2788's avatar
    Patrick2788
    Silver Contributor
    Sep 02, 2022

    Rachwar30 

    Presuming your text is in A2, you might use:

     

    =LEFT(A2,MIN(IFERROR(SEARCH(CHAR(SEQUENCE(26,,65,1)),A2),""))-1)
    • CourtneyTX's avatar
      CourtneyTX
      Copper Contributor
      Dec 11, 2024

      Patrick2788I just used this to help me extract numbers from a difficult text string today! I'd love to understand how these functions are working together. Can you explain?

    • Chris1's avatar
      Chris1
      Copper Contributor
      Aug 04, 2023
      This will fail if the string is only numeric, correct?
      • Patrick2788's avatar
        Patrick2788
        Silver Contributor
        Aug 04, 2023

        Chris1 

        This formula satisfies the OP's original request. It's a bit smaller than the previous solution:

        =LET(
    letters, CHAR(SEQUENCE(26, , 65)),
    1 * TEXTBEFORE(A2, letters, , , , A2)
)

         

        This formula pulls all numbers from a string, regardless of position:

        =LET(
    n, LEN(A2),
    arr, 1 * MID(A2, SEQUENCE(n), 1),
    1 * TEXTJOIN(, , TOCOL(arr, 2))
)

         

        If you need something different, you could create a new discussion.

         

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