Extracting numbers before string characters start

[Rachwar30]

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!

[#2 · Accepted solution]

@Rachwar30 

Presuming your text is in A2, you might use:

=LEFT(A2,MIN(IFERROR(SEARCH(CHAR(SEQUENCE(26,,65,1)),A2),""))-1)

[#3]

This worked, thank you!

[#4]

Glad it worked. Have a great weekend!

[#5]

@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!

[#6]

@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) )
        ) );

[#7]

This will fail if the string is only numeric, correct?

[#8]

@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.

[#9]

@Patrick2788 Or we could use the NOT of the NOT approach to define what we want to keep and hence not restrict the exclusion to just capital letters:

numbers before:

=LET(in,A1,
nums, SEQUENCE(10,,0),
noNums, INDEX(TEXTSPLIT(in, nums,,1),1),
TEXTBEFORE(in,noNums,1))

all numbers:

=LET(in,A1,
nums, SEQUENCE(10,,0),
noNums, TEXTSPLIT(in, nums,,1),
CONCAT(TEXTSPLIT(in,noNums)))