Excel Formula: Extract text from right until character

In this tutorial, it provides a formula to extract text from right of the given text until it meets a specified character, and explains the arguments of each formula.

Generic formula:

IFERROR(RIGHT(txt,LEN(txt)-SEARCH("$",SUBSTITUTE(txt," char","$",LEN(txt)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(txt,"char",""))))), txt)

Arguments

Txt: the cell reference or text string you use.

Char: the character you want to extract text from right until meet.

Remark

If the formula does not find the specified character, it returns the original data.

How this formula work

For example, you need to extract the text from right of the text string in cell B3 until space, please use below formula:

=IFERROR(RIGHT(B3,LEN(B3)-SEARCH("$",SUBSTITUTE(B3," ","$",LEN(B3)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B3," ",""))))), B3)

Press Enter key to extract the text.

Explanation

SUBSTITUTE functionis used to replace a text or character with a new one. Here the formula SUBSTITUTE(B3," ","") in the long formula replace the space with nothing, and returns “Gotolastcell”.

LEN function counts the number of characters in the given text. Now the LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B3," ","")) can be seen as LEN(“Gotolastcell”) returns 12.

Then the formula LEN(B3)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B3," ","")) returns 3. Then the formula SUBSTITUTE(B3," ","$",LEN(B3)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B3," ",""))) can be seen as SUBSTITUTE(B3," ","$",3), returns “Go to last$cell”.

SEARCH function find the location of text in a given text. The formula SEARCH("$",SUBSTITUTE(B3," ","$",LEN(B3)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B3," ",""))))) can be seen as SEARCH("$","Go to last$cell") returns 11.

RIGHT function extract text from right side of text. Here RIGHT(B3,LEN(B3)-SEARCH("$",SUBSTITUTE(B3," ","$",LEN(B3)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B3," ",""))))) can be seen as
RIGHT(B3,LEN(B3)-11)
=RIGHT(B3,3)
=”cell”

IFERROR function is used to trap and deal with errors. Here if the formula does not found the character “ “, it returns the original data.

Sample File

Click to download sample file

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Relative Formulas

• First letter lower case
  Here introduces the formula to add new text to a certain position of the text string.
• Trim Text To N Words
  Here introduces the formula to extract n words from left side of a text string.
• Add leaing zeros to fix length
  This tutorial provides formulas to add leading zero to make the text at the same length.
• Add dashes to phone number
  To add dashes to phone number, you can use a formula to solve it in Excel.

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Relative Functions

• RIGHT function
  Extract text from right side.
• SUBSTITUTE function
  Replace old text with new one.
• LEN function
  Get the number of characters in the text.
• SEARCH function
  Find the position of a specific character or substring from the given text string.
• FIND function
  Find a string within another string