How can I use Excel to find the longest string in a column?

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Excel is a powerful tool that can be used to efficiently manage and analyze data. One useful feature of Excel is its ability to find the longest string in a column. This can be achieved by using the “MAX” function, which allows the user to identify the largest value in a range. By applying this function to a column of strings, the user can easily determine the longest string in that column. This feature can be particularly useful when working with large datasets or when trying to identify outliers or anomalies in the data. By utilizing Excel’s functionality in this way, users can save time and effort in identifying the longest string in a column.

Excel: Find Longest String in Column

You can use the following formulas in Excel to find the longest string in a column:

Formula 1: Find Longest String in Column

=XLOOKUP(MAX(LEN(A2:A13)),LEN(A2:A13), A2:A13)

This particular formula will return the longest string in the range A2:A13.

Formula 2: Find Length of Longest String in Column

=MAX(LEN(A2:A13))

This particular formula will return the length of the longest string in the range A2:A13.

The following example shows how to use this formula in practice.

Example: Find Longest String in Column in Excel

Suppose we have the following column of names in Excel:

Suppose we would like to find the longest name in column A.

We can type the following formula into cell D1 to do so:

=XLOOKUP(MAX(LEN(A2:A13)),LEN(A2:A13), A2:A13)

The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:

Excel find longest string in column

The formula returns Kendall, which represents the longest string in the range A2:A13.

=MAX(LEN(A2:A13))

The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:

The formula returns 7, which represents the length of the string Kendall.

How This Formula Works

Recall the formula that we used to find the longest string in the range A2:A13:

=XLOOKUP(MAX(LEN(A2:A13)),LEN(A2:A13), A2:A13)

This formula uses the XLOOKUP function, which uses the following basic syntax:

TEXTBEFORE(lookup_value, lookup_array, return_array, …)

where:

  • lookup_value: Value to search for
  • lookup_array: The array to search
  • return_array: The array to return

By using =XLOOKUP(MAX(LEN(A2:A13)),LEN(A2:A13), A2:A13) we are able to search for the string that has the max length in the range A2:A13 and return that string from A2:A13.

Note: You can find the complete documentation for the XLOOKUP function in Excel .

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in Excel:

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