text - Required. The text string containing the characters you want to extract
start_num - Required. Position of first character to extract (1 = first character)
num_chars - Required. Number of characters to extract from the text string
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Product Code | Serial Number |
| 2 | SKU-123456-XYZ | |
| 3 | Formula: | =MID(A2, 5, 6) 123456 |
Extract 5 chars starting at position 9
=MID(...) → "12345"
Extract "World" from text
=MID(...) → "World"
Extract everything after colon
A1="Code: ABC123" → "ABC123"
Get text between square brackets
A1="Name [Code]" → "Code"
Parse product serial numbers from structured SKU codes in inventory management systems. The MID function in Excel extracts the middle portion of SKU strings where serial numbers are consistently positioned. This Excel MID formula is critical for inventory tracking, warehouse management systems, order processing automation, and supply chain analytics. Use when your SKUs follow a fixed format like "SKU-XXXXXX-YYZ" where serial numbers always occupy positions 5-10, enabling automated data extraction for barcode scanning, inventory reconciliation, and product lifecycle tracking across enterprise resource planning systems.
| A | B | C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Product | SKU Code | Serial Number |
| 2 | Laptop | SKU-123456-ABC | |
| 3 | Mouse | SKU-789012-DEF | |
| 4 | Formula: | =MID(A2, 5, 6) 123456 |
Extract account numbers embedded within composite transaction identifiers for financial reporting and reconciliation. The Excel MID function isolates specific account digits from standardized transaction codes used by banking systems, payment processors, and accounting software. This MID formula in Excel enables automated account matching, transaction categorization, and compliance reporting. Essential for finance teams processing thousands of transactions daily, where account numbers consistently appear at the same position within transaction IDs, allowing bulk data extraction for audit trails, regulatory reporting, and financial data analytics.
| A | B | C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Transaction | Transaction ID | Account |
| 2 | Payment 1 | TXN2025-4567-890 | |
| 3 | Formula: | =MID(A2, 9, 4) 4567 |
❌ The Problem:
✅ Solution:
=MID("Hello", 1, 3)In Excel MID function, positions are 1-indexed. First character is position 1, not 0. Use start_num=1 for the first character. This is consistent with other Excel text functions like LEFT and RIGHT.
❌ The Problem:
✅ Solution:
=MID(A1, 5, MIN(10, LEN(A1)-4))Protect against over-extraction by calculating available characters: MIN(desired_length, LEN(text)-start_num+1). The Excel MID function won't error but returns fewer characters than requested, which may break your data workflow if not handled properly.
❌ The Problem:
✅ Solution:
=IF(calculated_length>0, MID(A1, 5, calculated_length), "")When using calculated lengths, validate that num_chars is positive. The MID function in Excel returns empty string for zero or negative lengths. Add conditional logic to handle edge cases in dynamic text extraction scenarios.
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