How to extract all but first/last character from string in Excel?

In Excel, extracting the first n or last n characters may be easy for most Excel users, but if you want to extract all characters but the first or last character, how could you solve it? Here I tell some ways for quickly extracting all characters but firs/last character in Excel.

Extract all but first/last n characters from string with formula

Extract all but first/last n characters from string with Kutools for Excel

Extract all but first/last n characters from string with formula

Extract all but first one character from string

Select a blank cell and type this formula =MID(A1, 2, LEN(A1)) (A1 is the cell you want to extract all but the first one character from, the number 2 is the character's order you want to begin extracting at, in this case, I extract all but first character so I extract character from the second character), press Enter button and fill the range you want. See the result screenshot:

Extract all but last one character from string

Select a blank cell and type this formula =LEFT(A1,LEN(A1)-1) (A1 is the cell you want to extract all but the last one character from, the number 1 is the number you do not want to extract from right of the string), press Enter button and fill the range you want. See the result screenshot:

Extract all but first/last n characters from string with Kutools for Excel

If you have Kutools for Excel installed in your computer, you can use the Remove by Position feature to extract all characters but first or last n characters in Microsoft Excel.

Kutools for Excel includes more than 300 handy Excel tools. Free to try with no limitation in 30 days. Get it Now

1. Select the range cells you want to extract, and click Kutools > Text > Remove by Position. 

2. In the Remove by Position dialog, specify the number you do not want to extract from the string in the Numbers text box, and check From left. See screenshot:

3. Click Ok or Apply, the first n characters are remove from each string.

If you want to extract all characters but last n characters, check From right check box in step 2.

Tip: Applying this feature will change your original data, you’d better copy them firstly.

Click to know more about Remove by Position.

Relative Articles:

• Extract first/last n characters in Excel