MID, MIDB function

Description

MID returns a specific number of characters from a text string, starting at the position you specify, based on the number of characters you specify.

MIDB returns a specific number of characters from a text string, starting at the position you specify, based on the number of bytes you specify.

What is the difference between MID and MIDB?

MID is intended for use with languages that use the single-byte character set (SBCS), whereas MIDB is intended for use with languages that use the double-byte character set (DBCS). The default language setting on your computer affects the return value in the following way:

• MID always counts each character, whether single-byte or double-byte, as 1, no matter what the default language setting is.
• MIDB counts each double-byte character as 2 when you have enabled the editing of a language that supports DBCS and then set it as the default language. Otherwise, MIDB counts each character as 1.

The languages that support DBCS include Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean, and Japanese.

Syntax

MID(text, start_num, num_chars)

MIDB(text, start_num, num_bytes)

Parameters

Text Required. The text string containing the characters you want to extract.
Start_num Required. The position of the first character you want to extract in text. The first character in text has start_num 1, and so on.
Num_chars Required. Specifies the number of characters you want MID to return from text.
Num_bytes Required. Specifies the number of characters you want MIDB to return from text, in bytes.

Remarks

• If start_num is greater than the length of text, MID returns "" (empty text).
• If start_num is less than the length of text, but start_num plus num_chars exceeds the length of text, MID returns the characters up to the end of text.
• If start_num is less than 1, MID returns the #VALUE! error value.
• If num_chars is negative, MID returns the #VALUE! error value.
• If num_bytes is negative, MIDB returns the #VALUE! error value.

Examples

Example 1: MID

The example may be easier to understand if you copy the example data (include header) in the following table, and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.

Example 2: MIDB

=MIDB("中国香港",3,4)

equals "国香". Because each character is counted as 2; the second argument specifies a starting point at the three byte, which is the second character, and the third argument specifies a length of 4 bytes, which is two character.

=MID("中国香港",3,4)

equals "香港". Because each character is counted as 1; the second argument specifies a starting point at the third character, and the third argument specifies a length of 4 characters. MID returns "香港" no matter what the default language setting is on your computer.

Convert text to number

MID function returns text values, sometimes, if you want to returns number values, you may add "--" in the formula. For example:

=--MID("Excel 2013",6,5)

equals 2013.

Sum the digits of a number

A worksheet contains digit numbers in column A. The digits in each number need to be added together and the result shown in column B. To do so, the digits of a cell are extracted by the MID function and summed.

The example may be easier to understand if you copy the example data (include header) in the following table, and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.

Separate last name from first name

The example may be easier to understand if you copy the example data (include header) in the following table, and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.

The SEARCH function can be used to determine the space between the parts of the text string.

First, the SEARCH function returns the position of the space character inside a Name.

Next, the MID or RIGHT function returns the last name.