TECHNOLOGY
EXCEL
By Orlando Felix-Rodriguez
Dynamic Formulas with
LEFT and RIGHT
Many accountants use Excel as the main
be very practical when generating
tool to help perform their duties. Be-
reports, but it can be difficult when the
Creating a Dynamic
Formula
cause the program is so robust, users
information you need, such as a name,
Formulas use a diversity of operators
aren’t always familiar with all it features
isn’t the same number of characters
and functions to work with data,
and capabilities. Sometimes that leads to
each time. That’s because it is a static
whether text or values. Combining
the use of longer or more complicated
function, and pulling a list of names
functions enables us to greatly
solutions to accomplish a task, such as
requires a dynamic function.
improve the power of formulas and
example is the capacities that Excel pro-
The FIND Function
tions that are difficult or even impos-
vides when different functions are com-
In order to help with this scenario, Excel
sible if used independently. The FIND
bined. Many people use functions
has the FIND function. This function
function told us where the comma
independently and don’t think of com-
returns the position of a specified char-
appeared in cell A2, and LEFT
bining them to maximize their utility.
acter or string within a text string. There
returned the first nine characters
Let’s look at an example using the FIND,
are two required arguments. The first
from left to right. But the last name
LEFT, RIGHT, and LEN functions to split
argument indicates the character or text
won’t always be nine characters.
perform calculations or transforma-
when performing data analysis. One
the names of employees into separate
string you wish to find. The second argu-
Since FIND will tell us where the last
cells for first name and surname.
ment indicates the text or cell you want
name ends, we can create a dynamic
to search. In our example, a comma is
formula by replacing the second
The LEFT Function
used to separate the first names from
argument of the LEFT formula with
The LEFT function returns the desired
the surnames, so that’s what we’ll look
our FIND formula. Because FIND
number of characters from a cell start-
for. In Figure 2, the formula =FIND(“,”,A2)
returns the position of the comma,
ing from left to right. The function has
shows that the comma in cell A2 is the
which we don’t want in our Last
two arguments. The first argument is
ninth character. (Because FIND can
Name column, we have to subtract 1.
the cell that contains the data, and the
search for a character or a string, if the
The final result is =LEFT(A2,FIND
second argument is the number of
data had a space after the comma, you
(“,”,A2)-1). See Figure 3.
characters you want from that cell. For
could use “, “ as the first argument to
example, the formula =LEFT(A2,9) in
get the same result.) Note that FIND is
Figure 1 returns “Buchanan,” as the
only for case-sensitive text compar-
The RIGHT and
LEN Functions
value.
isons; wildcard comparisons aren’t
Now we need another dynamic
supported.
formula to get us the first names. This
This is an excellent tool that proves to
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September 2012
Figure 1
Figure 2
involves combining the RIGHT and LEN
functions with FIND. The RIGHT function works exactly like LEFT, only it
goes from right to left. LEN returns the
total number of characters in a cell.
Use FIND again to tell us the position of the comma in the cell, but we
now want the text that comes after
it. That means we have to subtract
Figure 3
that value from the total number of
characters in the cell. The final result,
as seen in cell C2 of Figure 4 is
=RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND(“,”,A2)).
These dynamic formulas use simple functions to solve a complicated
problem. Even though the length of
the names varies from cell to cell,
we’re still able to easily separate the
first names and surnames. The data is
now more flexible and ready to use
for more analysis or other uses. In our
Figure 4
example, for instance, the data is
now better formatted to use for creating form letters or a mail
merge. SF
Orlando Felix-Rodriguez is an adjunct
professor at the University of Phoenix.
You can contact him at
[email protected].
September 2012
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