Maybe a bit more flexible, try this:-

=MID(MID(MID(SUBSTITUTE(A1,A3,"^",(A2-1)),1,256),FIND("^",SUBSTITUTE(A1,A3,"^",(A2-1))),256),2,FIND(A3,MID(MID(SUBSTITUTE(A1,A3,"^",( A2-1)),1,256),FIND("^",SUBSTITUTE(A1,A3,"^",(A2-1))),256))-2)

A1= Your string
A2= number of the word to extract (As written this formula won't extract the
first word)
A3 = Delimeter (In your case _)

Mike

" wrote:

hi,

i have the following text:

AAA_llac_MAR_99_eg

i am trying to write a formula to extract the text between the second
and third occurance of '_" (the delimiter). Basically i want to
extract MAR. I am trying to do this using the MID and FIND statement.

Any help would be appreciated!

db