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How to reverse text string or words order in Excel?

Author: Xiaoyang Last Modified: 2024-09-14

When you use the Excel worksheet, how do you reverse the text string or words order in Excel? For example, you want to reverse “Excel is a useful tool for us” to “su rof loot lufesu a si lecxE”. Or sometimes you may reverse the words order such as “Excel, Word, PowerPoint, OneNote” to “OneNote, PowerPoint, Word, Excel”. Normally this is somewhat difficult to solve this problem. Please look at the following methods:

Reverse text string with User Defined Function

Reverse words order separated by specific separator with VBA code

Reverse text string or words order with Kutools for Excel quickly and easily


arrow blue right bubble Reverse text string with User Defined Function

Supposing you have a range of text strings which you want to reverse, such as “add leading zeros in Excel” to “lecxE ni sorez gnidael dda”. You can reverse the text with following steps:

1. Hold down the ALT + F11 keys, and it opens the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. Click Insert > Module, and paste the following macro in the Modulewindow.

Function Reversestr(str As String) As String
    Reversestr = StrReverse(Trim(str))
End Function

3. And then save and close this code, go back to the worksheet, and enter this formula: =reversestr(A2) into a blank cell to put the result, see screenshot:

enter a user defined function formula

4. Then drag the fill handle down to copy this formula, and the text in the cells is revered at once, see screenshot:

drag and fill the formula to other cells

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arrow blue right bubble Reverse words order separated by specific separator with VBA code

If you have a list of cell words which are separated by commas as this “teacher, doctor, student, worker, driver”, and you want to reverse the words order like this “drive, worker, student, doctor, teacher”. You can also use follow VBA to solve it.

1. Hold down the ALT + F11 keys, and it opens the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. Click Insert > Module, and paste the following macro in the Module window.

Sub ReverseWord()
'Updateby Extendoffice
Dim Rng As Range
Dim WorkRng As Range
Dim Sigh As String
On Error Resume Next
xTitleId = "KutoolsforExcel"
Set WorkRng = Application.Selection
Set WorkRng = Application.InputBox("Range", xTitleId, WorkRng.Address, Type:=8)
Sigh = Application.InputBox("Symbol interval", xTitleId, ",", Type:=2)
For Each Rng In WorkRng
    strList = VBA.Split(Rng.Value, Sigh)
    xOut = ""
    For i = UBound(strList) To 0 Step -1
        xOut = xOut & strList(i) & Sigh
    Next
    Rng.Value = xOut
Next
End Sub

3. Then press F5 key, a dialog is displayed, please select a range to work with. See screenshot:

vba code to select a data range

4. And then press Ok, another dialog is popped out for you to specify the separator that you want to reverse the words based on, see screenshot:

vba code to specify the separator that you want to reverse the words based on

5. Then click OK, and you can see the words selected are reversed, see screenshots:

original data arrow right the words selected are reversed

arrow blue right bubble Reverse text string or words order with Kutools for Excel quickly and easily

The Kutools for Excel’s Reverse Text Order can help you quickly and conveniently to reverse various text strings. It can do following operations:

Reverse the text from right to left, such as “tap some words” to “sdrow emos pat”;

Reverse the text are separated by space or other specific characters, such as “apple orange grape” to “grape orange apple”;

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Reverse the text from right to left:

1. Select the range that you want to reverse.

2. Click Kutools > Text Tools > Reverse Text Order, see screenshot:

clcik Reverse Text Order feature of kutools

3. In the Reverse Text dialog box, select the proper option from Separator which are corresponding with the cell values. And you can preview the results from the Preview Pane. See screenshot:

select the proper Separator in the dialog box to get the result

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Reverse the text are separated by space or other specific characters:

This feature also can help you to reverse the text strings which are separated by specific characters.

1. Select the cells and apply this utility by clicking Kutools > Text > Reverse Text Order.

2. In the Reverse Text dialog box, choose the separator which separate the cell values that you want to reversed the words based on, see screenshot:

choose the separator which separate the cell values that you want to reverse

3. Then click Ok or Apply, the words in the cells have been reversed at once. See screenshots:

original data arrow right the words in the cells have been reversed

Note:Checking Skip non-text cells to prevent you reversing the numbers in selected range.

Download and free trial Kutools for Excel Now !


Related article:

How to flip the first and last name in cells in Excel?

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