Split an order number into its channel and sequence
LEFT and RIGHT pull fixed-width pieces off either end of a string — no delimiter to search for.
Task:
You handle customer service for Cobalt Outfitters, a mail-order retailer. Every order number follows the same pattern — three letters for the sales channel, a dash, the four-digit year, another dash, then a five-digit sequence number, so WEB-2026-00458 was order 458, placed through the website. A colleague building a filter wants the channel and the sequence number split into their own columns rather than read out of the string by eye. Pull the channel into column B and the sequence number, as a real number, into column C.
Learning Objectives:
- Pull a fixed number of characters from the start or end of text with LEFT and RIGHT
- Convert a numeric-looking text result into a real number with VALUE
- Recognize when a fixed-width format lets you skip locating a delimiter
Solve without hints for +5 XP
Interactive Spreadsheet
The data in this exercise
This is the grid you start with. Cell references in the task — B6, C2 — point at the row numbers and column letters below.
| A | B | C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Order Number | Channel | Sequence No. |
| 2 | WEB-2026-00458 | ||
| 3 | APP-2026-00459 | ||
| 4 | STR-2025-00133 | ||
| 5 | WEB-2026-00461 |
What this exercise teaches (contains the answer)
LEFT(A2,3) and RIGHT(A2,5) both work without locating a dash because every order number here is built to the same fixed width — three letters, a dash, four digits, a dash, five digits — so counting a fixed number of characters from either end always lands on the right piece. RIGHT returns those five digits as text, leading zero included, which is why 00458 needs VALUE around it to become the number 458: left as text it would sort alphabetically rather than numerically, and any SUM or COUNTIF built on the column later would silently skip it.