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How To Remove All But First X Characters From Cells In Excel?

If you have a column of text strings that you just want to keep the first two characters and remove all other characters from
the cells, excepting remove them one by one, do you have any other quick ways to deal with this problem in Excel?

Remove all but first x characters from cells with formula

Remove all but first x characters from cells with Kutools for Excel 

Remove first / last x characters from cells with Kutools for Excel 

 Remove All But First X Characters From Cells With Formula

Supposing you have the following data range, now you need to remove all characters but first two characters, the
following simple formula can help you.

1. Enter this formula into a blank cell, B1, for example, =LEFT(A1,2), see screenshot:

Tips: In the above formula, A1 is the cell that you want to use, the number 2 indicates the number of characters that you
want to keep, you can change them to your need.
Kutools for Excel Solves Most of Your Problems, and Increases Your
2. Then drag theProductivity Bycells
fill handle down to the 80%. Full
that you wantFeatures 30-day
to apply this formula, and Free Trial.have been removed
all characters
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from the cells but only keep the first two characters of the string. See screenshot:
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 Note: If you want to remove all but the last two characters, you can use this formula: =RIGHT(A1,2), and you also can
change A1 and number 2 to others as you need.

 Remove All But First X Characters From Cells With Kutools For Excel

If you have installed Kutools for Excel, with its Remove by Position utility, you can quickly remove first or last x
characters you don’t want, on the contrary, you can also remove all but first x characters.

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After installing Kutools for Excel, please do as follows:( Download and free trial Kutools for Excel Now ！
(/download/kutools-for-excel.html) )

1. Select the cells that you want to remove all but the first two characters.

2. Click Kutools > Text > Remove by Position, see screenshot:

Kutools
3. In for
the Remove Excel Solves
by Position dialog box, Most of possible
enter a large Your Problems,
number as longasand Increases
your largest text stringYour
into the
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which means these 80%. will
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then select Free
Specify underTrial.
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enter the number position where you want to remove the characters from, see screenshot:
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 4. Then click Ok or Apply button, in this case, all the characters have been removed from the text string but only leave
the first two characters, see screenshots:

Click to know more about this Remove by Position feature… (/product/kutools-for-excel/excel-remove-characters-

from-string.html)

 Remove First / Last X Characters From Cells With Kutools For Excel

The Remove by Position feature also can help you to remove the first or last x characters you need. Take the above
data for example, now, I want to delete the first two characters to get the following result:

After installing Kutools for Excel, please do as follows:

1. Select the data range that you want to remove the first two characters.

2. Apply this feature by clicking Kutools > Text > Remove by Position, in the popped out Remove by Position dialog
Kutools
box, specify the for Excel
number Solves
of characters to beMost
removedof Your Problems,
in Numbers and
textbox. And then Increases
check Yourthe first
From left to remove
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x characters, and By
check From right to 80%.
remove the Full Features
last x characters 30-day
under Free
Position. You canTrial.
view the result from the
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Preview pane. See screenshot:
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Nair · 3 years ago

really helpful and useful... thank you,

Reply

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 3. Then click Ok or Apply button to get the result that you want.

Click to know more about this Remove by Position feature… (/product/kutools-for-excel/excel-remove-characters-

from-string.html)

Download and free trial Kutools for Excel Now ! (/download/kutools-for-excel.html)

 Demo: Remove All But First X Xharacters / Remove First Or Last X Characters From Cells

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Related article:

How to remove prefix / suffix from multiple cells in Excel? (/documents/excel/2915-excel-remove-prefix-suffix.html)

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