Excel Function: RIGHT

Purpose

The RIGHT function returns a subset of a text value’s characters, taken from its right-hand side.

• Characters are returned in the order they appear in the text value.
• The number of characters returned is controlled by the “num_chars” argument.
• The entire text value is returned if an attempt is made to extract more characters from it, than it contains.
• Its output is always a value of type text.

Invocations of the RIGHT function take the form:

RIGHT(text,[num_chars])

Arguments

Argument	Argument type	Description
text	Mandatory	A text value whose rightmost characters will be returned.
num_chars	Optional. Defaults to 1 if omitted.	A number of characters to be returned from the right of the value passed to the text argument.

Related Functions

Function	Example	Purpose

Error Conditions

Error value	Condition type	Condition
#VALUE!	Bad argument	A negative number was supplied to the num_chars argument.
#VALUE!	Bad argument	A value of type currency, geography, or stock was supplied to the text argument.

Examples

Example	Formula	Result	Description
1	=RIGHT("abcdef",0)		Extract zero (0) of the rightmost characters from a text value. An empty text value is returned.
2	=RIGHT("abcdef",4)	cdef	Extract fewer characters from a text value than it contains. RIGHT operates on “abcdef”. It contains 6 characters. RIGHT extracts 4 characters from it. The text value “cdef” is returned.
3	=RIGHT("abcdef",10)	abcdef	Extract more characters from a text value than it contains. RIGHT operates on “abcdef”. It contains 6 characters. RIGHT attempts to extract 10 characters from it, but can only extract 6. The text value “abcdef” is returned.
4	=RIGHT(123.456,4)	.456	Extract fewer characters from a positive number than it contains. The number 123.456 is converted into the 7-character-long text value “123.456”. RIGHT extracts 4 characters from it. The text value “.456” is returned.
5	=RIGHT(-123.456,4)	.456	Extract fewer characters from a negative number than it contains. The number -123.456 is converted into the 8-character-long text value “-123.456”. RIGHT extracts 4 characters from it. The text value “.456” is returned.
6	=RIGHT(1E+5,2)	00	Extract the rightmost characters from a number expressed in scientific notation. The number 1E+5 is converted into the 6-character-long text value “100000”. RIGHT extracts 2 characters from it. The text value “00” is returned.
7	=RIGHT(DATE(2023,6,7),2)	84	Extract the rightmost characters from a date. The date 7 June 2023 is converted into the 5-character-long text value “45084”. RIGHT extracts 2 characters from it. The text value “84” is returned.
8	=RIGHT(TIME(18,0,0),2)	75	Extract the rightmost characters from a time. The time 18:00:00 is converted into the 4-character-long text value “0.75”. RIGHT extracts 2 characters from it. The text value “75” is returned.
9	=RIGHT("abcdef",-1)	#VALUE!	Extract a negative number of characters from a text value. Extracting a negative number of characters from a text value is nonsensical. The error value #VALUE! is returned.

Examples: Errors

Example	Value supplied to “text” argument	Result	Description
1	London	#VALUE!	Apply the RIGHT function to a stock value. The stock value cannot be treated as a text value by the RIGHT function. Because of this, the #VALUE! error value is returned.
2	USD/GBP	#VALUE!	Apply the RIGHT function to a currency value. The currency value cannot be treated as a text value by the RIGHT function. Because of this, the #VALUE! error value is returned.
3	MICROSOFT CORPORATION (XNAS:MSFT)	#VALUE!	Apply the RIGHT function to a geography value. The geography value cannot be treated as a text value by the RIGHT function. Because of this, the #VALUE! error value is returned.

These errors can be mitigated by converting values of type stock, currency and geography to text before passing them to the RIGHT function. I.e.:

=RIGHT(VALUETOTEXT(text),[num_chars])