SUBSTITUTE
Supported, behaves as documentedCategory: Text · Last tested 2026-09-01
Real compatibility results for the SUBSTITUTE function: executed in Excel for the web, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, with desktop Excel behavior from Microsoft’s official documentation (we do not run desktop Excel — Excel for the web is a different application and is executed separately). Syntax and links to that documentation are below.
Support matrix
| Engine | Documented | Live-tested | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excel (desktop) | Yes | No — documented only | n/a |
| Excel for the web | — | Yes (recalc, 2026-09-01) | Supported, behaves as documented |
| Google Sheets | Yes | Yes (Drive import, 2026-08-29) | Supported, behaves as documented |
| LibreOffice Calc | Yes | Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-07-29) | Supported, behaves as documented |
LibreOffice version history
We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when SUBSTITUTE’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.
| LibreOffice version | Verdict | Tested |
|---|---|---|
| 24.2.0.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-29 |
| 24.8.7.2 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-29 |
| 25.2.0.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-29 |
| 25.8.7.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-07-29 |
Executed test cases
Excel for the web (executed 2026-09-01 via OneDrive recalculation)
These values come from Excel for the web, not from desktop Excel. They are two different implementations of the calculation engine, and this run measured only the web one: the corpus was uploaded to OneDrive as .xlsx, recalculated by Excel for the web on open, and downloaded again for readback. Excel for the web is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so the run is identified by its date. Where a value here disagrees with the Expected column — which is Microsoft’s documentation of the desktop product — we cannot tell you whether the web engine diverges from the desktop one or the documentation is wrong about both, because we do not run desktop Excel.
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =SUBSTITUTE("a-b-a-b","a","X") | Without instance_num, every occurrence of old_text is replaced | X-b-X-b | X-b-X-b | Matched |
| =SUBSTITUTE("a-b-a-b","a","X",2) | instance_num=2 replaces only the 2nd occurrence of old_text, leaving the 1st untouched | a-b-X-b | a-b-X-b | Matched |
| =SUBSTITUTE("hello","z","X") | old_text not present in text returns the text unchanged | hello | hello | Matched |
| =SUBSTITUTE("Apple","a","X") | SUBSTITUTE matches old_text case-sensitively; lowercase 'a' does not match the uppercase 'A' in "Apple", so the text is returned unchanged | Apple | Apple | Matched |
Google Sheets (executed 2026-08-29 via Drive import)
Google Sheets is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so this run is identified by its date. The corpus was imported to Drive as .xlsx, recalculated by Sheets, and exported back for readback.
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =SUBSTITUTE("a-b-a-b","a","X") | Without instance_num, every occurrence of old_text is replaced | X-b-X-b | X-b-X-b | Matched |
| =SUBSTITUTE("a-b-a-b","a","X",2) | instance_num=2 replaces only the 2nd occurrence of old_text, leaving the 1st untouched | a-b-X-b | a-b-X-b | Matched |
| =SUBSTITUTE("hello","z","X") | old_text not present in text returns the text unchanged | hello | hello | Matched |
| =SUBSTITUTE("Apple","a","X") | SUBSTITUTE matches old_text case-sensitively; lowercase 'a' does not match the uppercase 'A' in "Apple", so the text is returned unchanged | Apple | Apple | Matched |
LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-07-29)
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =SUBSTITUTE("a-b-a-b","a","X") | Without instance_num, every occurrence of old_text is replaced | X-b-X-b | X-b-X-b | Matched |
| =SUBSTITUTE("a-b-a-b","a","X",2) | instance_num=2 replaces only the 2nd occurrence of old_text, leaving the 1st untouched | a-b-X-b | a-b-X-b | Matched |
| =SUBSTITUTE("hello","z","X") | old_text not present in text returns the text unchanged | hello | hello | Matched |
| =SUBSTITUTE("Apple","a","X") | SUBSTITUTE matches old_text case-sensitively; lowercase 'a' does not match the uppercase 'A' in "Apple", so the text is returned unchanged | Apple | Apple | Matched |
Docs & syntax
- Excel (desktop): official documentation
- Google Sheets: official documentation
- LibreOffice Calc: official documentation
Related how-to recipes
- How to convert a column number to a letter
- How to convert currency text like "$1,234.50" to a number
- How to count items in a comma-separated cell
- How to count occurrences of a substring in a cell
- How to count the total words in a range
- How to count the number of words in a cell
- How to extract the file name from a path or URL
- How to extract the last word from a cell
- How to find the Nth occurrence of a character
- How to extract the nth word from a cell
- How to remove line breaks from a cell
- How to remove specific text from a cell
Where SUBSTITUTE behaves differently
- NUMBERVALUE works in Excel & LibreOffice but is missing from Google Sheets
NUMBERVALUE (text-to-number with explicit decimal and group separators) is in Excel and executes in LibreOffice, but Google Sheets returns #NAME? — it has no NUMBERVALUE. The Sheets workaround with SUBSTITUTE + VALUE for locale-formatted numbers. - TRIM strips tabs and line breaks in Google Sheets but keeps them in Excel and LibreOffice
Executed evidence: =TRIM(CHAR(9)&"Hello") keeps the tab in Excel for the web and in all four LibreOffice builds, but Google Sheets strips it (and line feeds too). Non-breaking spaces survive TRIM everywhere. The portable fix, with dates and per-engine provenance.