Excel function · Finding text

MID

Returns characters from the middle of a text.

What it does

MID takes characters from inside a text: you give the position to start at and how many characters to take.

=MID(text, start_num, num_chars)

Arguments in square brackets are optional, and … means you can add more of the same. In this Excel language, arguments are separated by ,

text: The text to take characters from.
start_num: The position of the first character to take. The first character of the text is 1.
num_chars: How many characters to take from there.

Order codes have a prefix, a number and a region. What is the number part of ORD-7731-EU?

	A	B
1	Order no.	Number part
2	ORD-7731-EU	7731

The formula in B2:

=MID(A2,5,4)

Result: 7731

ORD- takes up four characters, so the number starts at character 5. Taking four characters from there gives 7731.

Starting one character too early or too late. Count the separator too: the hyphen is character 4 here.
Leaving out the number of characters. Unlike LEFT and RIGHT, MID needs all three arguments.

Excel translates function names, and in some languages the argument separator too. Type the name your Excel shows.