How to Remove Characters in Excel: 5 Methods (From Left, Right, Specific)

Cleaning up messy text is one of the most common Excel tasks. Whether you need to remove the first 3 characters, strip specific symbols, or delete extra spaces, this guide covers every method with examples.

Method 1: Remove first N characters (RIGHT + LEN)

Use RIGHT combined with LEN to remove characters from the start:

=RIGHT(A2, LEN(A2) - 3)

This removes the first 3 characters from cell A2. Change "3" to any number. Use our Remove First Characters Formula Generator to build this instantly.

Method 2: Remove last N characters (LEFT + LEN)

=LEFT(A2, LEN(A2) - 3)

Removes the last 3 characters. Same logic as Method 1 but using LEFT instead of RIGHT. This is useful for removing file extensions (.pdf, .csv), trailing codes, or suffixes.

Method 3: Remove specific characters (SUBSTITUTE)

Use SUBSTITUTE to remove every occurrence of a specific character:

=SUBSTITUTE(A2, "-", "")

This removes all hyphens from the text. Replace "-" with any character. For case-insensitive removal, nest with UPPER or LOWER. Generate this with our SUBSTITUTE formula generator.

Method 4: Remove extra spaces (TRIM)

=TRIM(A2)

TRIM removes all extra spaces except single spaces between words. Essential for cleaning data imported from CSV files, web forms, or other systems. Use our TRIM formula generator.

Method 5: Remove all non-numeric characters (advanced)

For Excel 365, use TEXTJOIN with MID and ISNUMBER to keep only digits:

=TEXTJOIN("", TRUE, IF(ISNUMBER(--MID(A2, ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A2))), 1)), MID(A2, ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A2))), 1), ""))

This is an array formula (enter with Ctrl+Shift+Enter in older Excel). For Google Sheets, use REGEXREPLACE:

=REGEXREPLACE(A2, "[^0-9]", "")

Quick reference table

Task	Formula
Remove first 3 characters	=RIGHT(A2, LEN(A2) - 3)
Remove last 3 characters	=LEFT(A2, LEN(A2) - 3)
Remove specific character	=SUBSTITUTE(A2, "-", "")
Remove extra spaces	=TRIM(A2)
Remove non-numeric (Sheets)	=REGEXREPLACE(A2, "[^0-9]", "")