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# Text Functions

This section contains descriptions of the Text functions.

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Insert - Function - Category Text

## Using double quotation marks in formulas

To include a text string in a formula, place the text string between two double quotation marks (") and Calc takes the characters in the string without attempting to interpret them. For example, the formula ="Hello world!" displays the text string Hello world! in the cell, with no surrounding double quotation marks.

The more complex formula =CONCATENATE("Life is really simple, "; "but we insist on making it complicated "; "(Confucius).") concatenates three individual strings in double quotation marks, outputting Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated (Confucius).

To place a literal double quotation mark within a string inside a formula, two methods can be used:

1. You can "escape" the double quotation mark with an additional double quotation mark, and Calc treats the escaped double quotation mark as a literal value. For example, the formula ="My name is ""John Doe""." outputs the string My name is "John Doe". Another simple example is the formula =UNICODE("""") which returns 34, the decimal value of the Unicode quotation mark character (U+0022) — here the first and fourth double quotation marks indicate the beginning and end of the string, while the second double quotation mark escapes the third.

2. You can use the CHAR function or the UNICHAR function to insert a double quotation mark. For example, the formula =UNICHAR(34) & "The Catcher in the Rye" & UNICHAR(34) & " is a famous book by J. D. Salinger." displays the string "The Catcher in the Rye" is a famous book by J. D. Salinger.

Be aware that Calc's AutoCorrect function may modify double quotation marks. AutoCorrect should not change the double quotation marks within formula cells but may change those used in non-formula cells containing text. For example, if you copy a string that is surrounded by some other form of typographical double quotation marks, such as the left double quotation mark (U+201C) and the right double quotation mark (U+201D), and then paste into a formula cell, an error may result. Open the Double Quotes area of the Tools - AutoCorrect Options - Localized Options dialog to set the characters used to automatically correct the start and end typographical double quotation marks. Uncheck the Replace toggle button to disable the feature.

## ARABIC

Returns the numeric value corresponding to a Roman number expressed as text.

## ASC

Converts double-byte (full-width) characters to single-byte (half-width) ASCII and katakana characters.

## JIS

Converts single-byte (half-width) ASCII or katakana characters to double-byte (full-width) characters.

## REGEX

Matches and extracts or optionally replaces text using regular expressions.

## ROMAN

Converts a number into a Roman numeral. The value range must be between 0 and 3999. A simplification mode can be specified in the range from 0 to 4.

## VALUE

Converts the string representation of a number to numeric form. If the supplied string is a valid date, time, or date-time, the corresponding date-time serial number is returned.

### WEBSERVICE

Get some web content from a URI.

### FILTERXML

Apply a XPath expression to a XML document.

### ENCODEURL

Returns a URL-encoded string.

## BAHTTEXT

Converts a number to Thai text, including the Thai currency names.

#### Syntax

BAHTTEXT(Number)

Number is any number. "Baht" is appended to the integral part of the number, and "Satang" is appended to the decimal part of the number.

#### Example

=BAHTTEXT(12.65) returns a string in Thai characters with the meaning of "Twelve Baht and sixty five Satang".

#### Technical information

This function is not part of the Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) Version 1.3. Part 4: Recalculated Formula (OpenFormula) Format standard. The name space is

COM.MICROSOFT.BAHTTEXT

## BASE

Converts a positive integer to a specified base into a text from the numbering system. The digits 0-9 and the letters A-Z are used.

#### Syntax

BASE(Number; Radix [; MinimumLength])

Number is the positive integer to be converted.

Radix indicates the base of the numeral system. It may be any positive integer between 2 and 36.

MinimumLength (optional) determines the minimum length of the character sequence that has been created. If the text is shorter than the indicated minimum length, zeros are added to the left of the string.

#### Example

=BASE(17;10;4) returns 0017 in the decimal system.

=BASE(17;2) returns 10001 in the binary system.

=BASE(255;16;4) returns 00FF in the hexadecimal system.

#### See also

DECIMAL

## CHAR

Converts a number into a character according to the current code table. The number can be a two-digit or three-digit integer number.

Codes greater than 127 may depend on your system's character mapping (for example iso-8859-1, iso-8859-2, Windows-1252, Windows-1250), and hence may not be portable.

#### Syntax

SIGN (සංඛ්‍යාව)

Number is a number between 1 and 255 representing the code value for the character.

#### Example

=CHAR(100) returns the character d.

="abc" & CHAR(10) & "def" inserts a newline character into the string.

## CLEAN

All non-printing characters are removed from the string.

#### Syntax

CLEAN("Text")

Text refers to the text from which to remove all non-printable characters.

#### Example

=LEN(CLEAN(CHAR(7) & "LibreOffice Calc" & CHAR(8))) returns 16, showing that the CLEAN function removes the non-printable Unicode U+0007 ("BEL") and U+0008 ("BS") characters at the beginning and end of the string argument. CLEAN does not remove spaces.

## CODE

Returns a numeric code for the first character in a text string.

#### Syntax

CODE("Text")

Text is the text for which the code of the first character is to be found.

Codes greater than 127 may depend on your system's character mapping (for example iso-8859-1, iso-8859-2, Windows-1252, Windows-1250), and hence may not be portable.

#### Example

=CODE("Hieronymus") returns 72, =CODE("hieroglyphic") returns 104.

The code used here does not refer to ASCII, but to the code table currently loaded.

## CONCATENATE

Combines several text strings into one string.

#### Syntax

CONCATENATE(String 1 [; String 2 [; … [; String 255]]])

String 1[; String 2][; … ;[String 255]] are strings or references to cells containing strings.

#### Example

=CONCATENATE("Good ";"Morning ";"Mrs. ";"Doe") returns: Good Morning Mrs. Doe.

## DECIMAL

Converts text that represents a number in a numeral system with the given base radix to a positive integer. The radix must be in the range 2 to 36. Spaces and tabs are ignored. The Text field is not case-sensitive.

If the radix is 16, a leading x or X or 0x or 0X, and an appended h or H, are disregarded. If the radix is 2, an appended b or B is disregarded. Other characters that do not belong to the numeral system generate an error.

#### Syntax

DECIMAL("Text"; Radix)

Text is the text to be converted.

Radix indicates the base of the numeral system. It may be any positive integer between 2 and 36.

#### Example

=ODD(1.2) 3 ආපසු එවයි.

=ODD(1.2) 3 ආපසු එවයි.

=ODD(1.2) 3 ආපසු එවයි.

#### See also

BASE

## DOLLAR

Converts a number to a string representing the amount in the currency format, rounded to a specified decimal places, using the decimal separator that corresponds to the current locale setting. In the Value field enter the number to be converted. Optionally, you may enter the number of decimal places in the Decimals field. If no value is specified, all numbers in currency format will be displayed with two decimal places.

You set the currency format in your system settings.

#### Syntax

DOLLAR(Value [; Decimals])

Value is a number, a reference to a cell containing a number, or a formula which returns a number.

Decimals is the optional number of decimal places.

#### Example

=DOLLAR(255) returns $255.00 for the English (USA) locale and USD (dollar) currency; ￥255.00 for the Japanese locale and JPY (yen) currency; or 255,00 € for the German (Germany) locale and EUR (euro) currency.

=DOLLAR(367.456;2) returns $367.46.

## EXACT

Compares two text strings and returns TRUE if they are identical. This function is case-sensitive.

#### Syntax

EXACT("Text1"; "Text2")

Text1 refers to the first text to compare.

Text2 is the second text to compare.

#### Example

=EXACT("microsystems";"Microsystems") returns FALSE.

## FIND

Returns the position of a string of text within another string.You can also define where to begin the search. The search term can be a number or any string of characters. The search is case-sensitive.

#### Syntax

FIND("FindText"; "Text" [; Position])

FindText refers to the text to be found.

Text is the text where the search takes place.

Position (optional) is the position in the text from which the search starts.

#### Example

=FIND(76;998877665544) returns 6.

## FIXED

Returns a number as text with a specified number of decimal places and optional thousands separators.

#### Syntax

FIXED(Number; [Decimals = 2 [; NoThousandsSeparators = FALSE]])

Number is rounded to Decimals places (after the decimal separator) and the result formatted as text, using locale-specific settings.

Decimals (optional) refers to the number of decimal places to be displayed. If Decimals is negative, Number is rounded to ABS(Decimals) places to the left from the decimal point. If Decimals is a fraction, it is truncated actually ignoring what is the closest integer.

NoThousandsSeparators (optional) determines whether the thousands separator is used. If it is TRUE or non-zero, then group separators are omitted from the resulting string. If the parameter is equal to 0 or if it is missing altogether, the thousands separators of your current locale setting are displayed.

#### Example

=FIXED(1234567.89;3) returns 1,234,567.890 as a text string.

=FIXED(123456.789;;TRUE) returns 123456.79 as a text string.

=FIXED(12345.6789;-2) returns 12,300 as a text string.

=FIXED(12134567.89;-3;1) returns 12135000 as a text string.

=FIXED(12345.789;3/4) returns 12,346 as a text string.

=FIXED(12345.789;8/5) returns 12,345.8 as a text string.

## LEFT

Returns the first character or characters of a text.

#### Syntax

LEFT("Text" [; Number])

Text is the text where the initial partial words are to be determined.

Number (optional) specifies the number of characters for the start text. If this parameter is not defined, one character is returned.

#### Example

=ODD(1.2) 3 ආපසු එවයි.

## LEFTB

Returns the first characters of a DBCS text.

This function is available since LibreOffice 4.2.

#### Syntax

LEFTB("Text" [; Number_bytes])

Text is the text where the initial partial words are to be determined.

Number_bytes (optional) specifies the number of characters you want LEFTB to extract, based on bytes. If this parameter is not defined, one character is returned.

#### Example

=LEFTB("中国";1) returns " " (1 byte is only half a DBCS character and a space character is returned instead).

=LEFTB("中国";2) returns "中" (2 bytes constitute one complete DBCS character).

=LEFTB("中国";3) returns "中 " (3 bytes constitute one DBCS character and a half; the last character returned is therefore a space character).

=LEFTB("中国";4) returns "中国" (4 bytes constitute two complete DBCS characters).

=LEFTB("office";3) returns "off" (3 non-DBCS characters each consisting of 1 byte).

## LEN

Returns the length of a string including spaces.

#### Syntax

LEN("Text")

සංඛ්‍යාව මෙය සළකුණ සොයා ගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය සංඛ්‍යාවයි.

#### Example

=LEN("Good Afternoon") returns 14.

=SIGN(3.4) returns 1.

## LENB

For double-byte character set (DBCS) languages, returns the number of bytes used to represent the characters in a text string.

This function is available since LibreOffice 4.2.

#### Syntax

LENB("Text")

සංඛ්‍යාව මෙය සළකුණ සොයා ගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය සංඛ්‍යාවයි.

#### Example

LENB("中") returns 2 (1 DBCS character consisting of 2 bytes).

LENB("中国") returns 4 (2 DBCS characters each consisting of 2 bytes).

LENB("office") returns 6 (6 non-DBCS characters each consisting of 1 byte).

=LENB("Good Afternoon") returns 14.

=LENB(12345.67) returns 8.

## LOWER

Converts all uppercase letters in a text string to lowercase.

#### Syntax

LOWER("Text")

Text refers to the text to be converted.

#### Example

=SIGN(3.4) returns 1.

## MID

Returns a text string of a text. The parameters specify the starting position and the number of characters.

#### Syntax

MID("Text"; Start; Number)

Text is the text containing the characters to extract.

Start is the position of the first character in the text to extract.

Number specifies the number of characters in the part of the text.

#### Example

=ODD(1.2) 3 ආපසු එවයි.

## MIDB

Returns a text string of a DBCS text. The parameters specify the starting position and the number of characters.

This function is available since LibreOffice 4.2.

#### Syntax

MIDB("Text"; Start; Number_bytes)

Text is the text containing the characters to extract.

Start is the position of the first character in the text to extract.

Number_bytes specifies the number of characters MIDB will return from text, in bytes.

#### Example

=MIDB("中国";1;0) returns "" (0 bytes is always an empty string).

=MIDB("中国";1;1) returns " " (1 byte is only half a DBCS character and therefore the result is a space character).

=MIDB("中国";1;2) returns "中" (2 bytes constitute one complete DBCS character).

=MIDB("中国";1;3) returns "中 " (3 bytes constitute one and a half DBCS character; the last byte results in a space character).

=MIDB("中国";1;4) returns "中国" (4 bytes constitute two complete DBCS characters).

=MIDB("中国";2;1) returns " " (byte position 2 is not at the beginning of a character in a DBCS string; 1 space character is returned).

=MIDB("中国";2;2) returns " " (byte position 2 points to the last half of the first character in the DBCS string; the 2 bytes asked for therefore constitutes the last half of the first character and the first half of the second character in the string; 2 space characters are therefore returned).

=MIDB("中国";2;3) returns " 国" (byte position 2 is not at the beginning of a character in a DBCS string; a space character is returned for byte position 2).

=MIDB("中国";3;1) returns " " (byte position 3 is at the beginning of a character in a DBCS string, but 1 byte is only half a DBCS character and a space character is therefore returned instead).

=MIDB("中国";3;2) returns "国" (byte position 3 is at the beginning of a character in a DBCS string, and 2 bytes constitute one DBCS character).

=MIDB("office";2;3) returns "ffi" (byte position 2 is at the beginning of a character in a non-DBCS string, and 3 bytes of a non-DBCS string constitute 3 characters).

## PROPER

Capitalizes the first letter in all words of a text string.

#### Syntax

PROPER("Text")

Text refers to the text to be converted.

#### Example

=PROPER("the document foundation") returns The Document Foundation.

## REPLACE

Replaces part of a text string with a different text string. This function can be used to replace both characters and numbers (which are automatically converted to text). The result of the function is always displayed as text. If you intend to perform further calculations with a number which has been replaced by text, you will need to convert it back to a number using the VALUE function.

Any text containing numbers must be enclosed in quotation marks if you do not want it to be interpreted as a number and automatically converted to text.

#### Syntax

REPLACE("Text"; Position; Length; "NewText")

Text refers to text of which a part will be replaced.

Position refers to the position within the text where the replacement will begin.

Length is the number of characters in Text to be replaced.

NewText refers to the text which replaces Text.

#### Example

=REPLACE("1234567";1;1;"444") returns "444234567". One character at position 1 is replaced by the complete NewText.

## REPT

Repeats a character string by the given number of copies.

#### Syntax

REPT("Text"; Number)

Text is the text to be repeated.

Number is the number of repetitions.

#### Example

=REPT("Good morning";2) returns Good morningGood morning.

Refer to the REPT wiki page for more details about this function.

## RIGHT

Returns the last character or characters of a text.

#### Syntax

RIGHT("Text" [; Number])

Text is the text of which the right part is to be determined.

Number (optional) is the number of characters from the right part of the text. If this parameter is not defined, one character is returned.

#### Example

=ODD(1.2) 3 ආපසු එවයි.

## RIGHTB

Returns the last character or characters of a text with double bytes characters sets (DBCS).

This function is available since LibreOffice 4.2.

#### Syntax

RIGHTB("Text" [; Number_bytes])

Text is the text of which the right part is to be determined.

Number_bytes (optional) specifies the number of characters you want RIGHTB to extract, based on bytes. If this parameter is not defined, one byte is returned.

#### Example

RIGHTB("中国";1) returns " " (1 byte is only half a DBCS character and a space character is returned instead).

RIGHTB("中国";2) returns "国" (2 bytes constitute one complete DBCS character).

RIGHTB("中国";3) returns " 国" (3 bytes constitute one half DBCS character and one whole DBCS character; a space is returned for the first half).

RIGHTB("中国";4) returns "中国" (4 bytes constitute two complete DBCS characters).

RIGHTB("office";3) returns "ice" (3 non-DBCS characters each consisting of 1 byte).

## SEARCH

Returns the position of a text segment within a character string. You can set the start of the search as an option. The search text can be a number or any sequence of characters. The search is not case-sensitive. If the text is not found, returns error 519 (#VALUE).

The search supports wildcards or regular expressions. With regular expressions enabled, you can enter "all.*", for example to find the first location of "all" followed by any characters. If you want to search for a text that is also a regular expression, you must either precede every regular expression metacharacter or operator with a "\" character, or enclose the text into \Q...\E. You can switch the automatic evaluation of wildcards or regular expression on and off in LibreOffice - Preferences Tools - Options - LibreOffice Calc - Calculate.

When using functions where one or more arguments are search criteria strings that represents a regular expression, the first attempt is to convert the string criteria to numbers. For example, ".0" will convert to 0.0 and so on. If successful, the match will not be a regular expression match but a numeric match. However, when switching to a locale where the decimal separator is not the dot makes the regular expression conversion work. To force the evaluation of the regular expression instead of a numeric expression, use some expression that can not be misread as numeric, such as ".[0]" or ".\0" or "(?i).0".

#### Syntax

SEARCH("FindText"; "Text" [; Position])

FindText is the text to be searched for.

Text is the text where the search will take place.

Position (optional) is the position in the text where the search is to start.

#### Example

=SEARCH(54;998877665544) returns 10.

## SUBSTITUTE

Substitutes new text for old text in a string.

#### Syntax

SUBSTITUTE("Text"; "SearchText"; "NewText" [; Occurrence])

Text is the text in which text segments are to be exchanged.

SearchText is the text segment that is to be replaced (a number of times).

NewText is the text that is to replace the text segment.

Occurrence (optional) indicates which occurrence of the search text is to be replaced. If this parameter is missing the search text is replaced throughout.

#### Example

=SUBSTITUTE("123123123";"3";"abc") returns 12abc12abc12abc.

=SUBSTITUTE("123123123";"3";"abc";2) returns 12312abc123.

## T

This function returns the target text, or a blank text string if the target is not text.

#### Syntax

T(Value)

If Value is a text string or refers to a text string, T returns that text string; otherwise it returns a blank text string.

#### Example

=T(12345) returns an empty string.

=T("12345") returns the string 12345.

## TEXT

Converts a value into text according to a given format.

#### Syntax

TEXT(Value; Format)

Value is the value (numerical or textual) to be converted.

Format is the text which defines the format. Use decimal and thousands separators according to the language set in the cell format.

#### Example

=TEXT(12.34567;"###.##") returns the text 12.35

=TEXT(12.34567;"000.00") returns the text 012.35

=TEXT("xyz";"=== @ ===") returns the text === xyz ===

See also Number format codes: custom format codes defined by the user.

## TRIM

Removes spaces from a string, leaving only a single space character between words.

#### Syntax

TRIM("Text")

Text refers to text in which spaces are to be removed.

#### Example

=TRIM(" hello world ") returns hello world without leading and trailing spaces and with single space between words.

## UNICHAR

Converts a code number into a Unicode character or letter.

#### Syntax

UNICHAR(number)

#### Example

=UNICHAR(169) returns the Copyright character ©.

See also the UNICODE() function.

## UNICODE

Returns the numeric code for the first Unicode character in a text string.

#### Syntax

UNICODE("Text")

#### Example

=UNICODE("©") returns the Unicode number 169 for the Copyright character.

See also the UNICHAR() function.

## UPPER

Converts the string specified in the text field to uppercase.

#### Syntax

UPPER("Text")

Text refers to the lower case letters you want to convert to upper case.

#### Example

=UPPER("Good Morning") returns GOOD MORNING.

Related Topics

Functions by Category