Home › Excel formulas › Text › MID

MID Function in Excel: Syntax, Examples and Free Practice

By Rinkesh Shah, founder of Cellgrids.

MID is an Excel Text function. Pulls characters from the middle of a text string.

MID syntax

=MID(text, start_num, num_chars)

Arguments

text: The text to work with
start_num: The character position to start from
num_chars: How many characters to return

When to use MID

MID is used to clean up and reshape text data pulled from other systems before reporting on it.

Practice MID online, free

Open the live Excel-style spreadsheet and try MID yourself. No Excel install or sign-up needed to start.

Practice MID now →

Watch: MID in Excel

Watch on YouTube

Learn more

Read the tutorial: LEFT, RIGHT and MID.

More Text functions

Frequently asked questions

What does the MID function do in Excel?

Pulls characters from the middle of a text string.

What is the syntax of MID in Excel?

The syntax is =MID(text, start_num, num_chars). text: The text to work with; start_num: The character position to start from; num_chars: How many characters to return.

Where can I practice MID online for free?

Open the free live spreadsheet on Cellgrids and try MID yourself. No Excel install is needed and you can start without signing up.

All Excel formulas · Cheat sheet · Excel exercises · Text functions · Excel case studies · Excel tutorials · Excel shortcuts