Excel LOWER Function

The LOWER function converts a text string to all lowercase letters. The LOWER function takes just one argument, text, which can be a text value or cell reference. LOWER changes any uppercase characters in the text value to lowercase. Numbers, punctuation, and spaces are not affected. LOWER will convert numbers to text with number formatting removed.

Examples

=LOWER("Apple") // returns "apple"
=LOWER("APPLE") // returns "apple"

Numbers or punctuation characters inside a text string are unaffected:

=LOWER("XYY-020-KWP") // returns "xyy-020-kwp"

If a numeric value is given to LOWER, number formatting is removed. For example, if cell A1 contains the date June 26, 2021, date formatting will be lost and LOWER will return a date serial number as text:

=LOWER(A1) // returns "44373"

If necessary, you can use the TEXT function to workaround this limitation. Use TEXT to convert the number to a text value, then pass that value into lower:

=LOWER(TEXT(A1,"mmmm d, yyyy")) // returns "june 26, 2021"

Related functions

Use the LOWER function to convert text to lowercase, use the UPPER function to convert text to uppercase, and use the PROPER function to capitalize the words in a text string.

Notes

• All letters in text are converted to lowercase.
• Numbers and punctuation characters are not affected.
• Number formatting is removed from standalone numeric values.