How to delete particular contexts from cell?

I

im2bz2p345

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Mar 31, 2008
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This might be a very basic question, but how do you delete specific contents from a cell?

I.E. Here are how my contents in column A look:

Security 1 - Blah Blah - Blah Blah
Security 2 - La La - La La

How would I delete the stuff after the first "-"? Essentially, I just want to keep the Security 1 from cell A1.

Would it begin with this function? =IF(ISNUMBER(FIND("-",A1)

Thanks for the help!

~ Busypee ;)
 
Last edited:

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<html><head><title>Excel Jeanie HTML</title></head><body>

<!-- ######### Start Created Html Code To Copy ########## -->

Excel Workbook
AB
1Security 1 - Blah Blah - Blah BlahSecurity 1
2Security 2 - La La - La LaSecurity 2
Sheet1




<!-- ######### End Created Html Code To Copy ########## -->

</body></html>
 
Upvote 0
Consider using =TRIM(LEFT(A1,FIND("-",A1&"-")-1)) to allow for cells which don't have hyphens.
 
Upvote 0
Thanks guys!

Could you please explain what the &"-" after the A1 in your code does Oaktree?

Also, what does the -1 mean that follows the closed bracket?

I have seen similar forumals written before and have always wondering what those things meant! Thanks for your help once again.

~ Busypee :)
 
Upvote 0
The &"-" appends a hyphen to the end of the string in A1 so that the FIND function will always find a hyphen. That's in place for cases where A1 does not already have a hyphen, as =FIND("-","test") would return a #VALUE! error.
 
Upvote 0
Thanks Oaktree!

What about the "-1" in your code: A1&"-")-1)

What does this due?

I appreciate your explanation.

~ Busypee :)
 
Upvote 0
If your sting was "TEST-1", FIND("-",A1) would return 5, as the hyphen is in the 5th position... but, you'd want the left *4* characters, so you subtract 1 from the result of FIND.
 
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