Try this:

=--Left(A1,3)
=--RIGHT(A1,3)
--

HTH,

RD
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Please keep all correspondence within the Group, so all may benefit!
==============================================

"Jo" wrote in message
...
this works, but does not work in my nested if function
the if function is fine if I type 123 in
thanks
Jo

"Ken" wrote:

Jo, if you enter "123456789" in A1, "=LEFT(A1,3)" in B1, and "=B1*2" in
C1,
what do you get returned in C1?

"Jo" wrote:

thanks that works great, however the return does not seem to be a number
if the answer is 123 I cannot then use it in a formula

If I have "123456789" in a cell I wish to copy specifc parts of it to
other
cells
i.e.
A1 first 3 - 123
A2 second 3 - 456
A3 third 3 - 789
How can I do this both in a worksheet and using VBA.
Thanks
Jo