How to Extract Text Before a Character in Excel (With Examples & VBA Code)

If you use Excel a lot, you might need to extract text from a cell before a specific character. This could be a dash (-), comma (,), or space. Excel has several ways to do this, using formulas and VBA code.

In this post, we’ll explore:

Using Excel formulas to extract text before a character.
Real-world examples.
How to do the same with VBA code for advanced automation.

Let’s dive in. 👇

Table of Contents

✅ Extract Text Before a Character Using Excel Formulas

The easiest way to extract text before a specific character is by using the LEFT and FIND functions together.

🔹 Formula Syntax

=LEFT(A1, FIND("character", A1) - 1)

A1 is the cell you're extracting text from.
"character" is the character before which you want to extract text.
FIND locates the position of the character.
LEFT returns the substring from the start of the cell up to (but not including) the character.

🔹 Example 1: Extract Text Before a Dash

Cell A1:

John Doe - Manager

Formula:

=LEFT(A1, FIND("-", A1) - 1)

Result:

John Doe

🔹 Example 2: Extract Text Before a Comma

Cell A1:

apple, banana, cherry

Formula:

=LEFT(A1, FIND(",", A1) - 1)

Result:

apple

💡 Pro Tip: Use IFERROR for Cleaner Results

If the character doesn’t exist in the cell, the formula will return an error. Use IFERROR to handle this nicely:

=IFERROR(LEFT(A1, FIND(",", A1) - 1), A1)

This will show the full cell value if the character is not found.

💻 Extract Text Before a Character Using VBA (Macro)

For tasks you do often, you can use VBA to automate this process.

🔹 Basic VBA Macro to Extract Text Before a Character

Function ExtractBeforeChar(cell As Range, delimiter As String) As String
    Dim txt As String
    Dim pos As Long

    txt = cell.Value
    pos = InStr(txt, delimiter)

    If pos > 0 Then
        ExtractBeforeChar = Left(txt, pos - 1)
    Else
        ExtractBeforeChar = txt
    End If
End Function

🔹 How to Use:

Press ALT + F11 to open the VBA editor.
Insert a new Module (Insert > Module).
Paste the code above.
In your Excel sheet, use the formula like this:

=ExtractBeforeChar(A1, "-")

This will return the text before the dash in cell A1.

🔹 VBA Example: Loop Through Range and Extract Text Before Comma

Sub ExtractBeforeCommaRange()
    Dim cell As Range
    Dim txt As String
    Dim pos As Long

    For Each cell In Selection
        txt = cell.Value
        pos = InStr(txt, ",")

        If pos > 0 Then
            cell.Offset(0, 1).Value = Left(txt, pos - 1)
        Else
            cell.Offset(0, 1).Value = txt
        End If
    Next cell
End Sub

How to Use:

Select the range of cells with data.
Run the macro.
Extracted text will appear in the next column.

🧠 Common Use Cases

Extracting first names from full names.
Removing product codes after a hyphen.
Parsing data logs or paths.
Cleaning up messy imports.

🏁 Wrapping Up

Knowing how to extract text before a character in Excel saves time. It's useful for product names, client data, or text strings.

For quick tasks, use formulas. For big datasets, VBA is the way to go.

📌 Quick Summary

Task	Tool	Example
Extract before dash	=LEFT(A1, FIND("-", A1) – 1)	John Doe – Manager → John Doe
Handle missing character	IFERROR	=IFERROR(LEFT(…), A1)
Automation	VBA	ExtractBeforeChar(A1, "-")