Pull substring of text that is on the left side of a symbol - Calculated Column

[Anonymous]

This is what a string looks like in my Billing Code column:

A123-Z5

My desired result is:

A123

I am simply wanting to pull text that is to the left of the "-" symbol. I was able to find a somewhat complex formula that can pull the Z5 from the right side of the "-" but for some reason it is really difficult creating or even finding a formula that can simply pull text from the left side of a symbol. Please assist 🙂

[PhilipTreacy]

Hi @Anonymous 

You can just add a Custom Column with this 1 line (where Billing Code is the column name)

= Text.Start([Billing Code], Text.PositionOf([Billing Code], "-"))

regards

Phil

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[TomMartens · Accepted solution]

Hey @Anonymous,

you can achieve what you want by marking the column inside Power Query, please be aware that the steps are "destructive", this means the original column will be "destroyed" by the following operations. If you want to keep the original column make sure you duplicate the column before you apply the following steps.

From the context menu choose "Split column" --> "By delimiter"

Choose the settings as below, just use the - instead of the h:

Hopefully, this is what you are looking for.

Regards,

Tom