to extract second character from a cell

**Harrold** · 09-02-2011, 02:33 AM

Hi

I would like to extract only a second character from a cell on the left. What formula is for this purpose?

Thanks

**Andrew-R** · 09-02-2011, 02:37 AM

If your data is in, say, cell A1 then in another cell put the formula =MID(A1,2,1)

**Harrold** · 09-02-2011, 02:43 AM

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for your prompt reply.

It works with a minor issue. The formula does not detect '0' when it is the first character. Say, 0123, your formula for the 1st character is 1 instead of 0.

Is there a way to resolve it?

Thanks again

**Andrew-R** · 09-02-2011, 02:47 AM

I'm not entirely sure I understand.

Either:

a) Your data is the string '0123', in which case the 2nd character is 1, but you want to ignore the zero and return 2 as the 2nd character or

b) Your data is 123, but formatted to 4 digits with a leading zero, in which case my formula will return '2', but you actually want it to return '1'.

Let me know which it is and I'll sort it for you.

Thanks,

Andrew