Try

=LEN(TRIM((LEFT(A1,MIN(SEARCH({0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 ,"+"},A1&"0123456789+"))-1))))

Mike

"LiAD" wrote:

Good morning,

I have a list of inputs which are mixed between text, spaces, numbers and
symbols and i would like a function to count the number of letters in a
string.

fred smith+346785 result required - 10
(counts from f to t)
jonathon tate 56789321 - 13
(j to e)
bill +21988762 - 4

What is the best function to use for this?

Thanks
LiAD