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Hi, for my academic research database I’m trying to write a formula that will automatically extract a four-digit number from a cell (i.e. extracting year from a citekey).


For example (Citekey --> Year),

Downs1965NonmarketDecisionMaking --> 1965

Welborn1968BureaucracyAnthonyDowns --> 1968


Any ideas on how I might be able to do this? Thanks.

Welcome to the community, @M_W!


If those are the ONLY numeric digits within your entire text string, then you could do it with this formula:


VALUE(Citekey)


Hope this helps! If this answers your question, could you please mark this comment as the solution to your question? This will help other people who have a similar question. 🙂


Welcome to the community, @M_W!


If those are the ONLY numeric digits within your entire text string, then you could do it with this formula:


VALUE(Citekey)


Hope this helps! If this answers your question, could you please mark this comment as the solution to your question? This will help other people who have a similar question. 🙂


Thanks Scott!


It works perfectly well except for cells with a period (see screenshot below). Is there a way to make the value() formula work?



Thanks Scott!


It works perfectly well except for cells with a period (see screenshot below). Is there a way to make the value() formula work?



If you have periods, then use this formula:


VALUE(SUBSTITUTE(Citekey,".",""))


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