How to extract text between two characters
✓ Verified in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3Pull out the text between two delimiters — like the part inside parentheses.
The formula
| App | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | =MID(A2,FIND("(",A2)+1,FIND(")",A2)-FIND("(",A2)-1) | Excel 365 alternative: =TEXTBEFORE(TEXTAFTER(A2,"("),")"). |
| Google Sheets | =MID(A2,FIND("(",A2)+1,FIND(")",A2)-FIND("(",A2)-1) | Identical; REGEXEXTRACT(A2,"\((.*?)\)") is a Sheets-only shortcut. |
| LibreOffice Calc | =MID(A2,FIND("(",A2)+1,FIND(")",A2)-FIND("(",A2)-1) | Identical. |
How it works
FIND locates the opening and closing characters; MID then grabs the text starting one position after the "(" for a length equal to the distance between the two delimiters minus one. "Widget (blue) large" yields "blue". Swap the two characters for anything — dashes, brackets, quotes. If the delimiters can appear more than once, the newer TEXTBEFORE/TEXTAFTER pair (or REGEXEXTRACT in Sheets) is easier to control.
Verified, not just documented
We ran =MID(A2,FIND("(",A2)+1,FIND(")",A2)-FIND("(",A2)-1) in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 (headless, with forced recalculation) and it returned blue — exactly the expected result. Every formula here is confirmed by actually executing it.