You can use the following basic formulas to remove specific text from cells in Excel:
Method 1: Remove One Specific Text
=SUBSTITUTE(A1,"text1","")
This particular formula removes “text1” from cell A1.
Method 2: Remove Multiple Specific Texts
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"text1",""),"text2",""),"text3","")
This particular formula removes “text1, “text2”, and “text3” from cell A1.
The following examples show how to use each method in practice.
Example 1: Remove One Specific Text
Suppose we have the following column in Excel that shows the position for 15 different basketball players:
We can use the following formula to remove “r” from every position name:
=SUBSTITUTE(A2,"r","") We can type this formula into cell B2 and then copy and paste it down to every remaining cell in column B:
Notice that the “r” has been removed from every position name.
Example 2: Remove Multiple Specific Texts
Suppose we have the following column in Excel that shows the username for 10 different people on some website:
Suppose we want to remove the following specific text from each username:
- dashes (–)
- exclamation points (!)
- the number 5 (5)
We can use the following formula to do so:
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A2,"-",""),"!",""),"5","")
We can type this formula into cell B2 and then copy and paste it down to every remaining cell in column B:
Notice that any “-“, “!”, and “5” has been removed from every username.
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in Excel:
Excel: How to Check if Cell Contains Partial Text
Excel: How to Check if Cell Contains Text from List
Excel: How to Calculate Average If Cell Contains Text
Excel: How to Count Frequency of Text