I need to concatenate text from two cells but only the first three characters
from one of the cells. Other than subtracting the last 5 characters, is there
a simpler way?

A1 is "ABC1"
B1 is "XYZ RSTU"
I need to display in cell C1 this ABC1-XYZ
I've used this formula =A1&"-"&LEFT(B1, LEN(B1)-5)

Thanks

Yes, there is a simpler way to achieve this without subtracting the last 5 characters. You can use the LEFT function to extract the first three characters from cell A1 and then concatenate it with a hyphen and the first three words from cell B1. Here's how you can do it:

1. In cell C1, type the following formula:
   Formula:

   =LEFT(A1,3)&"-"&LEFT(B1,FIND(" ",B1)-1) 

2. Press Enter to apply the formula.

The LEFT function extracts the first three characters from cell A1 and the FIND function finds the position of the first space in cell B1. The LEFT function then extracts the characters from the beginning of cell B1 up to the position of the first space minus one (to exclude the space). Finally, the two results are concatenated with a hyphen using the ampersand (&) operator.

This formula should give you the desired result of "ABC1-XYZ" in cell C1.

Hi Kris,

Use following formula,

=A1&"-"&MID(B1,1,3)

H S Shastri



================================================== =
"Kris" wrote:

I need to concatenate text from two cells but only the first three characters
from one of the cells. Other than subtracting the last 5 characters, is there
a simpler way?

A1 is "ABC1"
B1 is "XYZ RSTU"
I need to display in cell C1 this ABC1-XYZ
I've used this formula =A1&"-"&LEFT(B1, LEN(B1)-5)

Thanks

Why not just =A1&"-"&LEFT(B1, 3) ?

Hint:
LEFT is a standard Excel function, so if you don't know what it's doing,
look it up in Excel help. The same applies to LEN.
If you haven't used Excel help yet, I would heartily recommend it.
--
David Biddulph


"Kris" wrote in message
...
I need to concatenate text from two cells but only the first three
characters
from one of the cells. Other than subtracting the last 5 characters, is
there
a simpler way?

A1 is "ABC1"
B1 is "XYZ RSTU"
I need to display in cell C1 this ABC1-XYZ
I've used this formula =A1&"-"&LEFT(B1, LEN(B1)-5)

Thanks

Is there any advantage in using MID instead of LEFT?
--
David Biddulph

"HARSHAWARDHAN. S .SHASTRI"
wrote in message
...
Hi Kris,

Use following formula,

=A1&"-"&MID(B1,1,3)

H S Shastri

================================================== =
"Kris" wrote:

I need to concatenate text from two cells but only the first three
characters
from one of the cells. Other than subtracting the last 5 characters, is
there
a simpler way?

A1 is "ABC1"
B1 is "XYZ RSTU"
I need to display in cell C1 this ABC1-XYZ
I've used this formula =A1&"-"&LEFT(B1, LEN(B1)-5)

Thanks