Excel help! Deleting digits with in a cell!?

Question

Say you have:

83642-2365

There is a formula to delete the last 5 characters...i just can't remember how! its something like =a1(left,5............. then i'm stuck! HELP!! I have lots of different numbers like this and i really dont' want to do each one by hand

Answer 1

Use the following formula:

=LEFT(A1,LEN(A1)-5)

I tried using combinations of other Excel functions and had trouble.

If you use SUBSTITUTE you have a potential problem if those last five characters are repeated at the beginning of the text string.

If you use REPLACE, it doesn't count spaces and can throw it off.

Answer 2

Select the column with the data you want to change.
Go up on the menu bar and hit the button with the arrows and the .00's on it.
or
Select the cells you want to change then right click them. Then hit format, cells, numbers, and select the amount of digits after the . you want.

Answer 3

"=Left(A1,5)" will return the leftmost 5 characters