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How to extract numbers from a text string in Excel and Google Sheets
Topic:Text manipulationHeads up: Excel and Google Sheets do this differently.
Excel
=SUMPRODUCT(MID(0&A2,LARGE(INDEX(ISNUMBER(VALUE(MID(A2,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A2))),1)))*ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A2))),0),ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A2))))+1,1)*10^(ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A2)))-1))Google Sheets
=IFERROR(VALUE(REGEXEXTRACT(A2,"[0-9]+")),0)Try it with your data
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Step by step
- 1In Google Sheets, use =IFERROR(VALUE(REGEXEXTRACT(A2,"[0-9]+")),0) — REGEXEXTRACT pulls the first sequence of digits and VALUE converts it to a number.
- 2In Excel 365, use =TEXTJOIN("",TRUE,IF(ISNUMBER(VALUE(MID(A2,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A2))),1))),MID(A2,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A2))),1),"")) entered as an array formula (Ctrl+Shift+Enter in older Excel).
- 3To extract all digit groups (not just the first), use REGEXEXTRACT with a global match in Sheets: =ARRAYFORMULA(REGEXEXTRACT(A2,"[0-9]+")).
- 4Wrap any result in VALUE() to convert the returned text digits into a true number for arithmetic.
Tips
- If the number includes decimals like "3.14 kg", adjust the Sheets regex to [0-9]+\.?[0-9]* to capture the decimal point too.
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Frequently asked
Will this extract multiple separate numbers from one cell?
REGEXEXTRACT returns the first match only. Use REGEXEXTRACT with an array or a helper column to get subsequent numbers.
What if there are no numbers in the string?
Wrap in IFERROR to return 0 or blank: =IFERROR(VALUE(REGEXEXTRACT(A2,"[0-9]+")),"").
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