Managing the Excel tool is essential for any office worker, also people from different professions could take advantage of this tool if they know all its capabilities. For this, learn how to create and use the MIDDLE function in Excel, as it could be very useful.
In relation to the above, it is always advisable to learn about other functions. For example, to use this software properly you should know exactly what it is, what it is for and how the IF function is used in Excel, and the truth is that the EXTRACT function plays an almost equally important role.
Excel is a very useful tool, which is why learning through the tutorials on our website could be convenient for anyone who wants to facilitate data organization and processing.
In fact, to master this office software, it is necessary to master basic knowledge such as counting or adding the number of cells with color in Excel, they could also help with the organization of our documents.
What is Excel’s Extract function for?
Excel’s extract function is very useful for extracting characters belonging to a specific text string. To accomplish this, users will need to provide the number of characters they need to extract, then setting both the start and end.
In short, the Extract function in Excel is intended to display information in a concise and concise manner. For example, if you have content with the word Objectives in the string, using the Extract function, you can represent this information in an abbreviated way in another place in the document.
Using extract with the example above, you could reduce the word Objectives, choosing only information located in specific positions. You could then determine that you only want the information from position 1 to 3, leaving the result with the word Obj. For this reason, we point out that the tool is very useful for abbreviating or reducing content.
As you can see, the Extract function plays a fundamental role, on the other hand, using Excel’s “Add” function would be the opposite action to the one expressed above, but as you can imagine, the latter is also very useful.
Learn how to create and use the Extract function in Excel
Extra is a basic function of Microsoft Excel, so applying it to our documents is very easy. For this you have to follow a series of steps, after which you can use this option in your tables and documents.
First part
- The first point is to establish that table from which you want to extract content. After this, it creates a new chain, which is the one in which the information extracted with the function will be reflected.
- Place the cursor on the target chain (where the extraction will be reflected) and go to the Formulas section. Within formulas you will find the Texts tab, click on that option.
- In Texts, look for the Extract option, after clicking on the function a new window will appear, which is the one you will configure to see the information you need. This window will show three options Text, Initial_position and Num_of_characters.
- In Text you must select the chain from which you want to extract information, then indicate the beginning of the chain. After selecting the chain, it will be reflected in the option.
Second part
- Start Position sets the first position to be displayed in the string created for the Extract function. Usually 1 is selected (but you can select any starting point, depending on your need), which in other words means that it will start extracting from the first word or number of the text.
- In Number of characters, the number of characters that will be reflected in the string is established. Here it depends exclusively on what you want to show on the screen, it can be 1, 2, 3 or whatever seems appropriate to you. In the case of wanting to shorten a long string, choosing 3 would be best.
- When accepting, the process will be finished, showing the information of the first point of the established chain.
- If you want to display the entire chain, just drag from the start point of the Extract chain to the last position. After this, the auto-fill will take care of displaying the rest of the selected table.
This is the easiest way to learn how to create and use the Extract function in any Excel document. With practice and a little ingenuity you will master all the possibilities offered by this interesting function. Similarly, we recommend learning how to add or insert a legend to an Excel chart, which will help make your table easier to understand.
