Excel: Extract Text Between Second and Third Space

You can use the TEXTBEFORE and TEXTAFTER functions in Excel to extract the text in a cell between the second and third spaces.

You can use the following syntax to do so:

=TEXTBEFORE(TEXTAFTER(A2, " ", 2), " ")

This particular example extracts the text between the second and third space in cell A2.

The following example shows how to use this syntax in practice.

Example: Extract Text Between Second and Third Space in Excel

Suppose we have the following list of strings in Excel:

Now suppose we would like to extract the text between the second and third space in each string.

We can type the following formula into cell B2 to do so:

=TEXTBEFORE(TEXTAFTER(A2, " ", 2), " ")

We can then click and drag this formula down to each remaining cell in column B:

Excel extract text between second and third space

Column B now contains the text between the second and third space of each corresponding cell in column A.

Recall the formula that we used to extract the text between the second and third space in cell A2:

=TEXTBEFORE(TEXTAFTER(A2, " ", 2), " ")

Here is how this formula works:

First, we use the TEXTAFTER function to extract all of the text after the second space in cell A2.

This returns are you today.

Then, we use the TEXTBEFORE function to extract all of the text before the first space from this remaining text.

This returns are.

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in Excel: