Replace one character with another

Summary

To replace or substitute all occurrences of one character with another character, you can use the SUBSTITUTE function. In the example shown, the formula in C6 is:

=SUBSTITUTE(B6," ","-")

Generic formula

=SUBSTITUTE(ref,old,new)

Explanation

The SUBSTITUTE function is fully automatic. All you need to do is supply "old text" and "new text". SUBSTITUTE will replace every instance of the old text with the new text.

If you need to perform more than one replacement at the same time, you'll need to nest multiple SUBSTITUTE functions. See this "clean telephone numbers" formula for an example.

If you need to replace a character at a specific location, see the REPLACE function.

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Author

Dave Bruns

Hi - I'm Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.