Extracting specific characters from a string of text & numbers

[Woobes]

Any recommendation of a formula to get this please? I need to extract the first 2 or 3 characters from an alphanumeric string, but there is not a clear way I've found to do it. The formula needs to retrieve the first two characters only if the third is a number and if the third character is a letter, report the first 3. The first and second characters could be letters or numbers. For example I need to report the following:
ABC123 = ABC
AB1234 = AB
1AB234 = 1AB
2A1234 = 2A
A1234 = A1
Thanks for any advice

 

[Matty]

Welcome to MrExcel.

Try:

=IF(ISNUMBER(--MID(A1,3,1)),LEFT(A1,2),LEFT(A1,3))

Matty

 

[Woobes]

Oh wow - thanks Matty for the ultra quick response. That's just made the rest of my spreadsheet work so much better.

 

[Matty]

Oh wow - thanks Matty for the ultra quick response. That's just made the rest of my spreadsheet work so much better.

Glad I could assist!

Matty