![Extract usernames from E-mail IDs [using LEFT and FIND formulas in Excel]](https://chandoo.org/img/f/username-from-email-id-excel-formula.png)
Today we will learn to use Excel’s LEFT and FIND formulas. But what fun it is to learn a new formula on a Tuesday?
So, we will actually learn to use these formulas to solve the problem: “extract the username from an email ID”
How is an email ID structured?
Any email ID contains 2 parts – user name and domain name.
For eg. in my email id – chandoo.d@gmail.com – chandoo.d is user name and gmail.com is domain.
So how do we get the user name out?
As you can see, username always starts at left and goes up to the symbol “@”. So, If we write a formula to fetch all the characters up to “@” symbol, it will get us the user name.
This is where LEFT() and FIND() formulas enter the scene.
What does Excel LEFT formula do?
Excel LEFT formula will let you cut a portion of text from left. For eg. =LEFT("Long",2) will give you Lo. (syntax and examples)
So, to get the email username, we need to get all the letters in the left of email ID up to the location of “@” symbol. And how do we find the position of a symbol in a text?
We use FIND formula.
FIND formula gives the location of one text in another. For eg. =FIND("do", "chandoo") will give us 5 (the location of “do” in “chandoo”).
FIND will throw an error (#VALUE!) if the text you are trying to find is not available. For eg. =FIND("peace", "world") will throw #VALUE!
Armed with these 2 formulas, now let us get that user name out of email ID
Assuming cell A1 has the email id, the formula for getting user name is =LEFT(A1,FIND("@",A1)-1)
We have to use -1 as find actually tells the position of “@” and we need all the letters up to “@”, but not “@”.
This is how it works:
Your homework:
- How would you extract the domain out of email ID? (Hint: there is a right formula for everything)
Use comments to write your answers. Don’t cheat.
Learn more excel formulas:
- 51 Excel Formulas in Plain English – Syntax, Examples and Explanation
- Excel Formulas & Working with Text
- Excel Formula Examples & Tutorials
- Learn Excel Formulas using my e-book – it is in a fun format & easy to understand
23 Responses to “Learn Top 10 Excel Features”
What it looks like if excel without formula?? 🙂
It would be not excel it would just be fancy tables in which you could just use power point. (Chandoo) would Access be an alternative?
Awesome piece of work!!!
Great article.
Chandoo - my biggest interest in the article was the awesome word-graphic at the top - where did you go to get it done into a shape?
@Rich.. thank you. I used http://www.tagxedo.com/ to generate this word cloud. I took all the comments in the original post, pasted them in tagxedo website and set up the shape etc.
Awesome Chandoo.. You need always needs coffee to start up with. BTW , how did u created the Heart Shaped picture filled with High Repetitive text in it .. Please put it on your Next blog ...
Chandoo, good article. I’ve added a link to it from Connexion – our collection of the most useful and interesting spreadsheet-related articles from the web. See http://www.i-nth.com/resources/connexion
Hi,
Just one small question. Where the hell have been I in the past for not discovering this website sooner?
I've lost a job interview recently where even though I had the subject knowledge, I was not upto their mark in Excel.
Thank you for all the free tips, guidance and for creating this forum environment.
[PS: I've just been through the site for the 1st time, and have signed up for the newsletter. You can expect pretty stupid questions from me soon]
Hy Chandoo, you always inspire me with to explore something new in excel. This data structure table is only for excel 2007 or compatible to 2010. I recently installed latest excel version 2013 in my System and experience problems regarding operating according to previous one. I'm waiting your article relates to that excel version.
Thanks
Awesome article Mr. Chandoo and that is a awesome heart shaped pic you created. Great tips as well.
[...] Learn Top 10 Excel Features | Chandoo.org – Learn Microsoft Excel Online. [...]
Chandoo is awesome..
Thanks, i got better, And i always get 90.50 in my grade card but now i get 96.50 i improved because of the tutorials you gave, Thank You Very Much Chandoo Guy.
Hi chandoo, i am intersted in seeing the video or step by step done procedure of analysing the comments and presenting in the data percentage steps. I think this one would be first step in finding out how generally happens data calculation. Thank you.
As well i would like to know how to get that black shape art of your face which i see in chandoo. I am interested in making it for me.
Nice to see the features considered by Excel users to be most useful. It might be a good idea to also analyze StackOverflow Excel questions to see what keywords appear most often.
Here are my top 10 Excel Features (for advanced users):
http://www.analystcave.com/excel-10-top-excel-features/
Thanks a ton for this it totally helped with my homework ????
Very good effort
Thank you for this. Lots of learning in the links you've provided for this septuagenarian.
Pls send me new post
Dude, your humor ? ?
Loved your work.
Hello Sir,
I am Sanjeev Khakre and i from Indore City, India , I am your big follower and i have watch your videos and learnt a lots of excel trick or function and many more . thanks so much for all of your excellent support.
Your excel knowledge is real awesome.
Thanks
Sanjeev
Your work is excellent but pls willing to know more details about the features of microsoft excel
Chandoo Would Access be a better alternative than VB?