MID, MIDB

MID returns a specific number of characters from a text string, starting at the position you specify, based on the number of characters you specify.

MIDB returns a specific number of characters from a text string, starting at the position you specify, based on the number of bytes you specify.

Important MID is intended for use with languages that use the single-byte character set (SBCS), whereas MIDB is intended for use with languages that use the double-byte character set (DBCS). The default language setting on your computer affects the return value in the following way:

• MID always counts each character, whether single-byte or double-byte, as 1, no matter what the default language setting is.
• MIDB counts each double-byte character as 2 when you have enabled the editing of a language that supports DBCS and then set it as the default language. Otherwise, MIDB counts each character as 1.

The languages that support DBCS include Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), and Korean.

For more information, see the following Help topics:

• Enable Windows XP support for certain languages (East Asian, Southeast Asian, Indic, and right-to-left languages)
• Enable entering text in another language in Microsoft Office

Syntax

MID(text,start_num,num_chars)

MIDB(text,start_num,num_bytes)

Text is the text string containing the characters you want to extract.

Start_num is the position of the first character you want to extract in text. The first character in text has start_num 1, and so on.

Num_chars specifies the number of characters you want MID to return from text.

Num_bytes specifies the number of characters you want MIDB to return from text, in bytes.

Remarks

• If start_num is greater than the length of text, MID returns "" (empty text).
• If start_num is less than the length of text, but start_num plus num_chars exceeds the length of text, MID returns the characters up to the end of text.
• If start_num is less than 1, MID returns the #VALUE! error value.

• If num_chars is negative, MID returns the #VALUE! error value.

• If num_bytes is negative, MIDB returns the #VALUE! error value.

Example 1: MID

The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet.

How to copy an example

1. Create a blank workbook or worksheet.
2. Select the example in the Help topic.

   Note Do not select the row or column headers.

   Selecting an example from Help

3. Press CTRL+C.
4. In the worksheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V.
5. To switch between viewing the results and viewing the formulas that return the results, press CTRL+` (grave accent), or on the Formulas tab, in the Formula Auditing group, click the Show Formulas button.

Example 2: MIDB (with your computer set to a default language that supports DBCS)

In the following example:

• MIDB returns " " because each character is counted as 2; the second argument specifies a starting point at the fourth byte, which is the second character, and the third argument specifies a length of 2 bytes, which is one character.
• MID returns " " because each character is counted as 1; the second argument specifies a starting point at the fourth character, and the third argument specifies a length of 2 characters. MID returns " " no matter what the default language setting is on your computer.

=MIDB(" ",4,2) equals " "

=MID(" ",4,2) equals " "

See also:

• CODE
• FIND, FINDB
• JIS
• LEFT, LEFTB
• RIGHT, RIGHTB
• SEARCH, SEARCHB
• Text functions