When working with a large dataset, you probably may need to excel remove characters after. This may become necessary due to the size of the dataset. Excel’s “delete character after” function is a fantastic time-saver for this very reason. Unfortunately, the manual approach is a method that is both exceedingly inefficient and incredibly straightforward in its execution of this operation. Excel users have access to three distinct and highly effective techniques for deleting the text that appears after a certain character in their workbooks. In the most recent couple of postings, we had a look at a variety of methods that can be used to erase characters from strings in Excel. These methods may be utilized in a variety of different ways. One final use case will be discussed today, and that is the process of deleting everything that comes before or after a certain letter in a string of text.
Find And Replace For excel remove characters after
We will learn how to remove text after a certain character using the Find & Replace feature in Excel. This is the easiest way to delete any text after a specific character in Excel. Find and Replace is the right tool for data manipulations in multiple cells. For example, removing part of a string preceding or following a specific character is the steps to perform.
Step 1: Choose all of the cells containing text you wish to remove. To enter the Find and Replace dialog, use Ctrl + H on your keyboard. Then, in the box labeled “Find what,” type in one of the following combinations:
Entering the character followed by an asterisk (*char) will remove all of the content before the provided character.
To delete the text after a particular character, type the character, followed by an asterisk (char*).
Entering an asterisk surrounded by two characters (char*char) allows you to remove a substring between two characters.
Step 2: Do not enter anything into the Replace with box. Click the Replace All button.
Notes:
- To delete anything that comes after a comma, including the comma itself, for instance, use a comma and an asterisk sign (,*) in the Find what box. This will cause everything that comes after the comma to be removed.
- In order to remove a substring that comes before a comma, use the Find what box to enter an asterisk followed by a comma and a space (*,).
- In order to avoid having leading spaces appear in the results, please take note that we are substituting not just a comma but also a comma and a space. Use an asterisk followed by a comma (*,) if the data you are providing does not have any spaces between the commas that separate the individual pieces of information.
- Use an asterisk that is surrounded by commas (,*,) to erase the text that is located between two commas.
- In the Replace with field, add a comma (,) if you would prefer to have a space between the names and the phone numbers that you are replacing them with.
Using Flash Fill To Excel Remove Characters After
The Flash Fill tool is available in more recent versions of Excel (2013 and beyond), and it provides an additional straightforward method for removing text that comes before or after a particular character. The operation is as follows:
Step 1: Enter the desired result in a cell that is adjacent to the first cell that contains your data, and then press Enter.In the cell that is adjacent to you, begin typing a suitable value. When Excel detects a pattern in the numbers that you are entering.
Step 2: It will show you a preview of the remaining cells that follow that pattern after it has detected the pattern. If you want to take the advice, press the Enter key. Done!
Using Formulas For Excel Remove Characters After
A large number of the data manipulation tasks that may be achieved in Microsoft Excel by using the program’s built-in capabilities can also be performed via formula. In contrast to the approaches discussed above, Formulas do not alter the data in any way and allow you greater control over the outcomes of your calculations. The following standard formula should be used to erase text after a certain character “LEFT(cell, SEARCH(“char”, cell) -1)”
In this case, we use the SEARCH function to determine the character’s location. Then we send that information to the LEFT function, which retrieves the appropriate number of characters from the beginning of the string. Finally, to remove the delimiter from the search results, one character is deducted from the total number supplied by the SEARCH command.
Step 1: Open the Excel sheet and enter the data.
Step 2: To eliminate a portion of a text that comes after a comma, you would write the formula shown below in cell B1 and drag it down to cell range. “=LEFT(A1, SEARCH(“,”, A1) -1)”
Alternate Formulas
A formula to get rid of everything that comes after a certain character
The following standard formula should be used to remove a portion of a text string that comes before a certain character “RIGHT(cell, LEN(cell) – SEARCH(“char”, cell))” Here, we compute the location of the target character once more with the assistance of SEARCH, deduct it from the total string length that LEN provides, and then pass the difference to the RIGHT function. This causes the RIGHT function to pluck that many characters from the end of the string.
For instance, the following formula can be used to eliminate text that comes before a comma:
“=RIGHT(A1, LEN(A1) – SEARCH(“,”, A1))” In this instance, a space character comes after the comma that was just typed. To prevent leading spaces from appearing in the output, we enclose the main formula with the TRIM function, which looks like this: “=TRIM(RIGHT(A1, LEN(A1) – SEARCH(“,”, A1)))” Remove anything that comes before a certain character using this formula.
Notes: Both of the examples presented above assume that the initial string has exactly one occurrence of the delimiter character. If there are several instances, the text before and after the first incidence will be erased. The SEARCH function is not case-sensitive, which means that it does not pay any attention to whether characters are entered in lowercase, capital, or both. Use the case-sensitive FIND function rather than the SEARCH function if the exact character you are looking for is a letter and you want to differentiate between the letter cases.
Delete Characters After the Nth occurrence
If your values are segmented using a varying number of delimiters, you may wish to eliminate anything that comes after the final instance of that delimiter. The following formula can be used to accomplish this goal:
LEFT(cell, FIND(“#”, SUBSTITUTE(cell, “char”, “#”, LEN(cell) – LEN(SUBSTITUTE(cell, “char “, “”)))) -1)
Step 1: Let’s say that there are a variety of employee-related details in column A, but the value that comes after the final comma is always a telephone number. Your objective is to eliminate telephone numbers while maintaining all other data.
Step 2: To accomplish what has to be done, delete the text that comes after the final comma in cell A2 using the following formula: “=LEFT(A1, FIND(“#”, SUBSTITUTE(A1, “,”, “#”, LEN(A1) – LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1, “,”,””)))) -1)” If you continue to copy the formula along the column, you will obtain the following result. Deleting content that follows the character that has been used the most recently.
Step 2: To accomplish what has to be done, delete the text that comes after the final comma in cell A2 using the following formula: “=LEFT(A1, FIND(“#”, SUBSTITUTE(A1, “,”, “#”, LEN(A1) – LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1, “,”,” “)))) -1)” If you continue to copy the formula along the column, you will obtain the following result. Deleting content that follows the character that has been used the most recently.
Formula Description
The essence of the formula is that we find the location of the string’s most recent delimiter (a comma), then we start at the left end of the string and work our way to the right until we reach the delimiter. The most difficult aspect is determining where the delimiter is located, and the following is how we do it:
CONCLUSION
Throughout this article, you have gained the knowledge necessary to excel remove characters that appear after a certain character. Not only do we learn how to achieve it from the first time we see the character, but we also learn how to do it from the very last time we see the character and from the very Nth time we see the character. I have very high expectations that you have discovered the information in this essay to be helpful. If you have any inquiries on the topic, please do not be reluctant to voice them.
You should now be aware that it is feasible to find a solution to nearly every use case by applying Excel’s main capabilities in several different combinations, as you have seen in the examples before this one. The difficulty comes from the fact that you have to commit to memory several different complex equations.