How to Remove Text between Two Characters in Excel (3 Easy Ways)

The dataset contains information about the names of some employees and their delivery times & dates of products. We do not want the delivery time which is in between two curly braces.

Method 1 – Remove Text between Two Characters in Excel with Find and Replace

We will remove the text between curly braces from the following image.

STEPS:

Press Ctrl + H to open the ‘Find and Replace’ dialog box.
In the ‘Find what’ box, type an asterisk surrounded by two curly braces ({*}).
Keep the ‘Replace with’ box empty.
Click on the ‘Replace All’ button.

Excel shows a message box how many replacements were made.
Click on OK.

Close the ‘Find and Replace’ dialog box.

Method 2 – Use Flash Fill to Remove Text between Two Characters in Excel

We’ll add a column for updated values.

STEPS:

Select cell C5.
Type the expected result of cell B5 in cell C5.
Press Enter.

Start typing the relevant value of cell B6 in cell C6. Excel will show a preview of the remaining cells that follow the same pattern whenever it detects a pattern in the data you’re inputting.
Accept the suggestions by hitting Enter.

We get the text of cell (B5:B9) in cell (C5:C9) without the instances between curly braces.

Method 3 – Apply Excel Functions to Remove Text between Two Characters

We will use a combination of various functions to get the result in the column.

STEPS:

Select cell C5.
Insert the following formula in that cell:

=IFERROR(SUBSTITUTE(B5,MID(LEFT(B5,FIND("}",B5)),FIND("{",B5),LEN(B5)),""),B5)

Press Enter.
We get the value of cell B5 in cell C5 without the text between curly braces.

Drag the Fill Handle tool from cell C5 to C10 to copy the formula of cell C5 in other cells.

How Does the Formula Work?

LEN(B5): This part returns the length of a text string in cell B5.
FIND(“{“,B5): Finds the “{“ character in the string of cell B5.
MID(LEFT(B5,FIND(“}”,B5)),FIND(“{“,B5),LEN(B5)): This part measures the length of string “{“ from first position.
SUBSTITUTE(B5,MID(LEFT(B5,FIND(“}”,B5)),FIND(“{“,B5),LEN(B5)),””): Substitutes text between the characters “{“ with empty value.
IFERROR(SUBSTITUTE(B5,MID(LEFT(B5,FIND(“}”,B5)),FIND(“{“,B5),LEN(B5)),””),B5): If the previous part returns an error the IFERROR function returns the value of cell B5.