Group Events by Century
As a History Teacher, I often need to categorize historical events by the century they occurred in. My data includes a 'Year' column, and I need to extract the first two digits of the year (e.g., '19' from '1945') to represent the century (e.g., 20th century). This will help me group and analyze events more efficiently.
=LEFT(B2, 2) How it works: The `LEFT` function in Excel extracts a specified number of characters from the beginning (left side) of a text string. In this scenario, `B2` refers to the cell containing the full year (e.g., '1939'). The number `2` indicates that we want to extract the first two characters from the left. Although the 'Year' is a number, Excel's `LEFT` function implicitly treats it as text for the extraction, effectively giving us the century prefix (e.g., '19' for the 20th century, '14' for the 15th century).
Data Setup
| Event | Year |
|---|---|
| World War II Begins | 1939 |
| Fall of the Berlin Wall | 1989 |
| Discovery of America | 1492 |
| French Revolution | 1789 |
| First Moon Landing | 1969 |
Step-by-Step Guide
Select the cell where you want the extracted century prefix to appear (e.g., C2).
Type the formula `=LEFT(B2, 2)` into the cell.
Press Enter. The cell will display the first two digits of the year from B2.
Drag the fill handle (the small square at the bottom-right of cell C2) down to apply the formula to the rest of your 'Year' data.