Excel function · Changing text
LOWER
Turns all letters of a text into small letters.
What it does
LOWER changes every letter to lower case. It is the usual way to tidy email addresses and user names typed with stray capitals.
Syntax
=LOWER(text)Arguments in square brackets are optional, and … means you can add more of the same. In this Excel language, arguments are separated by ,
Arguments
- text
- The text to change, usually a cell.
Example
An email address was typed with capitals in it. How do you make it all lower case?
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | As entered | Cleaned |
| 2 | Ana.Ruiz@Example.COM | ana.ruiz@example.com |
The formula in B2:
=LOWER(A2)Result: ana.ruiz@example.com
Every capital becomes a small letter: Ana.Ruiz@Example.COM becomes ana.ruiz@example.com. The dot and @ are unchanged.
Common mistakes
- Lower-casing text where capitals matter, such as passwords or case-sensitive codes.
- Forgetting that stray spaces aren't removed. Combine it with
TRIM.
In other Excel languages
Excel translates function names, and in some languages the argument separator too. Type the name your Excel shows.
| Excel language | Function name | Separator |
|---|---|---|
| English | LOWER | , |
| Deutsch | KLEIN | ; |
| Français | MINUSCULE | ; |
| Español (España) | MINUSC | ; |
| Español (México) | MINUSC | , |
| 日本語 | LOWER | , |
| 한국어 | LOWER | , |
| 繁體中文 | LOWER | , |
| ไทย | LOWER | , |
| ខ្មែរ | LOWER | , |
| Tiếng Việt | LOWER | ; |