Excel Formula: Trim text to n words

This tutorial introduces a formula which combine LEFT, FIND and SUBSTITUTE functions to extract first n words from a long string in Excel cell, and also explains how to use the formula.

Generic formula:

=LEFT(txt,FIND("~",SUBSTITUTE(txt," ","~",n))-1)

Arguments

txt: the text string or cell you want to trim.

N: the number of words you want to extract from left side of the given text string.

How this formula work

Take an instance, you want to extract part of words from left side in each cell of range B3:B6 to D3:D6, the number of words decided by the value in C3:C6. Please use below formula in D3.

=LEFT(B3,FIND("~",SUBSTITUTE(B3," ","~",C3))-1)

Press Enter key, then drag fill handle down to D6.

Explanation

SUBSTITUTE function: this function replaces a specific text with another one. Here, using this formula SUBSTITUTE(B3," ","~",C3) to replace space “ “ to “~” in the nth position.

FIND function: to get the location of a specific text. Here FIND("~",SUBSTITUTE(B3," ","~",C3) finds the location of “~” in B3.

LEFT function: this function is used to extract text from left side of a given text string. Here the formula LEFT(B3,FIND("~",SUBSTITUTE(B3," ","~",C3))-1) can be seen as LEFT(B3,54-1) which will extract 53 characters from left side of the text in cell B3.

Sample File

Click to download sample file

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Relative Formulas

• Convert Letter To Number
  This tutorial provides some formulas for solving the problems on translating letters to numbers in Excel.
• Remove From Right Of Text
  Here introduces the formula to remove characters from right side of a text string in Excel.
• Extract The Last Word From Text String In Excel
  This tutorial provides a formula to extract last word from the give text string.
• Extract The First Word From Text String In Excel
  This tutorial provides a formula to extract first word from the give text string.

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Relative Functions

• SUBSTITUTE function
  Replace a text in a specific position with another one.
• FIND function
  Find the location of a character in the text string.
• LEFT function
  Extract part of text from left side.
• MID
  Return the specific characters from the middle of text string.