Try this

With
A1:A100 containing text entries
and
you want the 1st 3 characters extracted into a new list beginning in cell D1

Then

Select A1:A100

From the Excel main menu
<data<text to columns
Check: Fixed Width............Click [next]
Insert a break point after the 3rd character............Click [next]
Select the 2nd column and Check: Do not import column
Destination: D1
Click [Finish]

That will copy the 1st 3 characters from A1:A100 into a new list beginning
in cell D1

Does that help?

Regards,

Ron

"Rob" wrote in message
...
I have 26,000 cells that I need to extract just the first 3 digits of the
cell. For example, the cell reads AAG122345 and I need a new cell that
only
reads "AAG". How can I do this?