Remove first N characters (from left) in Excel cells

Need to remove the first character or the first several characters from cells in Excel? This guide covers quick ways to do it using both formulas and the !SEMTools add-in.

Note: This article focuses on cases where the number of characters to remove is fixed (one, two, three, etc.). If you need to remove text up to a specific character, see this separate guide.

Formula to Remove First N Characters

To create such a formula, you’ll need the RIGHT and LEN functions. RIGHT extracts the specified number of characters from the end of a text string, and LEN returns the total number of characters in the cell.

To remove the first N characters from a cell, take the last (Length – N) characters from the right:

=RIGHT(A1;LEN(A1)-N)

Remove First N Characters with !SEMTools

Formulas require a helper column. If you don’t need to keep the original data and want to save time, the !SEMTools add-in can remove characters directly in place.

Here’s how:

1. Select your range.
2. On the !SEMTools panel, go to Delete → Characters → By position → From left.
3. In the dialog box, enter the number of characters to remove and click OK.

Related Operations

If you’re working on text cleanup, you might also be interested in:

• Get the last N characters of a cell
• Remove extra spaces in Excel
• Remove all characters except letters and numbers
• Using regular expressions in Excel

This post is also available in RU.