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How to replace first n character or nth occurrence of character with another in Excel?

Author Sun Last modified

In Excel, we usually find and replace a string by the Find and Replace function, but if you are in one of below cases, the Find and Replace function cannot help you.

Replace first n char with another

Replace nth occurrence of specific char with anothe

In this article, I introduce some simple formulas to solve above questions.

Replace first n char with another

To replace the first n characters with another string, you just need the Replace function.

Select a cell you will place the formula, and type this =REPLACE(A1,1,3,"KTE"), then drag fill handle over the cells you need.
enter a formula to replace the first n characters with another string

In the formula, A1 is the cell you use, 1 and 3 indicate to replace the first 3 characters, KTE is the new string. If you want to replace 3 characters from the second character, use the formula like this =REPLACE(A1,2,3,"KTE").
replace characters from the second character by using another formula

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Replace nth char with another

If you just want to replace nth occurrence of a specific character with another string, you can apply the SUBSTITUE function.

Select a cell you will place the formula, and type this =SUBSTITUTE(A2, "T", "Task", 2), then drag fill handle over the cells you need.
apply a formula to replace the nth char with another string

The formula is case sensitive.

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