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How to show only first nth characters in a cell string?

Author: Sun Last Modified: 2020-05-22

Have you ever tried to only show the first nth characters of a string in Excel as below screenshot shown? In this article, I introduce some tricks to help you show only the first nth characters in a cell string for you.
doc show first character 1

Show only first nth characters with formula

arrow blue right bubble Show only first nth characters with formula

In this case, I show only the first 3 characters in a string.

Select a blank cell which you will only show first 3 characters of the given string, and enter this formula =LEFT(A1,3), drag fill handle down to over the cells you want to show only first 3 characters. See screenshot:
doc show first character 2

Note: If there are some spaces in your strings which you want to ignore when show only nth characters, you can apply this formula =LEFT(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""),3).

Tip.If you want to quickly remove characters by position, please try to use the Kutools for Excel’s Remove by Position as shown in the following screenshot. It’s full function without limitation in days, please download and have a free trial now.

doc remove by position

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