Extracting Data with Excel’s RIGHT Formula

What does it do?

It returns the last character or characters in a text string, based on the number of characters you specify.

Formula breakdown:

=RIGHT(text, [num_chars])

What it means:

=RIGHT(look in this cell, extract X characters)

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There are times when you will need to extract the last few characters of text within a cell, e.g. From a serial number, part number, name, address etc.

The RIGHT formula in Excel can help you parse and extract the needed text easily.

In our example below, we have an address which has a zip code at the end (the zip code is fixed at 5 characters long) and we want to extract all of the zip codes in our address list.

I explain how you can do this and please go to the bottom of the page to see the animated gif tutorial:

STEP 1: We need to enter the Right function next to the cell that we want to extract the data from:

=RIGHT

 

STEP 2: The Right arguments:

text

Which text do we want to extract the last X characters from?

Reference the cell that contains the text or value:

=RIGHT(C9

[num_chars]

How many characters from the right do we want to extract from cell C9?

Enter a positive number only:

=RIGHT(C9, 5)

 

STEP 3: Do the same for the rest of the cells by dragging the RIGHT formula all the way down using the left mouse button.

Notice all of the last 5 characters in each text are now extracted: