How to Use the SUBSTITUTE Function in Excel

Today, we’ll explore the SUBSTITUTE function, a versatile tool available in both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. This function is designed to replace specified text within a cell with new text of your choice.

Basic Syntax

The syntax for the SUBSTITUTE function is straightforward:

=SUBSTITUTE(text, old_text, new_text, [instance_num])

text: The text string that contains the text you want to replace.
old_text: The substring that you wish to replace within the text.
new_text: The text that will replace the old_text.
instance_num (optional): This parameter specifies which occurrence of the old_text you wish to replace. If this parameter is omitted, all instances of old_text will be replaced.

Examples

Example 1: Simple Replacement

Assume we have the phrase “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” in cell A1:

To substitute “apple” with “orange”, the formula is:

=SUBSTITUTE(A1, "apple", "orange")

The result will be: “An orange a day keeps the doctor away.”

Example 2: Replacing Specific Occurrence

Using the optional instance_num parameter allows you to target a specific occurrence of old_text for replacement. Consider cell A1 contains: “David,John,Jacob,John,Sarah”.

To replace the second occurrence of “John” with “Emily”, the formula would be:

=SUBSTITUTE(A1, "John", "Emily", 2)

The result will be: “David,John,Jacob,Emily,Sarah”.

Example 3: Case-Insensitive Replacement

To achieve a case-insensitive replacement, you can combine the SUBSTITUTE function with LOWER or UPPER. For example:

=SUBSTITUTE(LOWER(A1), "apple", "orange")

This formula first converts all text in A1 to lowercase and then performs the substitution, effectively ignoring the original text’s case.

Conclusion

The SUBSTITUTE function offers a powerful way to modify specific text within cells in Excel and Google Sheets. By mastering its syntax and exploring practical examples, you’ll be able to manipulate text data more effectively and efficiently.

More information: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/substitute-function-6434944e-a904-4336-a9b0-1e58df3bc332

Other functions

ARRAYTOTEXT

Returns an array of text values from any specified range

ASC

Changes full-width (double-byte) English letters or katakana within a character string to half-width (single-byte) characters

BAHTTEXT

Converts a number to text, using the ß (baht) currency format

CHAR

Returns the character specified by the code number

CLEAN

Removes all nonprintable characters from text

CODE

Returns a numeric code for the first character in a text string

CONCAT

Combines the text from multiple ranges and/or strings, but it doesn't provide the delimiter or IgnoreEmpty arguments

CONCATENATE

Joins several text items into one text item

DBCS

Changes half-width (single-byte) English letters or katakana within a character string to full-width (double-byte) characters

DOLLAR

Converts a number to text, using the $ (dollar) currency format

EXACT

Checks to see if two text values are identical

FIND, FINDBs

Finds one text value within another (case-sensitive)

FIXED

Formats a number as text with a fixed number of decimals

JIS

Changes half-width (single-byte) characters within a string to full-width (double-byte) characters

LEFT, LEFTBs

Returns the leftmost characters from a text value

LEN, LENBs

Returns the number of characters in a text string

LOWER

Converts text to lowercase

MID, MIDBs

Returns a specific number of characters from a text string starting at the position you specify

NUMBERVALUE

Converts text to number in a locale-independent manner

PHONETIC

Extracts the phonetic (furigana) characters from a text string

PROPER

Capitalizes the first letter in each word of a text value

REPLACE, REPLACEBs

Replaces characters within text

REPT

Repeats text a given number of times

RIGHT, RIGHTBs

Returns the rightmost characters from a text value

SEARCH, SEARCHBs

Finds one text value within another (not case-sensitive)

Converts its arguments to text

TEXT

Formats a number and converts it to text

TEXTJOIN

Combines the text from multiple ranges and/or strings, and includes a delimiter you specify between each text value that will be combined If the delimiter is an empty text string, this function will effectively concatenate the ranges

TRIM

Removes spaces from text

UNICHAR

Returns the Unicode character that is references by the given numeric value

UNICODE

Returns the number (code point) that corresponds to the first character of the text

UPPER

Converts text to uppercase

VALUE

Converts a text argument to a number

VALUETOTEXT

Returns text from any specified value