FORMULA & SQL / TEXT

Replace text.
Tested, not guessed.

The Excel and Google Sheets formula and the SQL query, each run on the rows below. Open this with your own data ↗

The example rows

Row	A: Region	B: Rep	C: Amount	D: Order Date	E: Status	F: Customer
2	North	Ana	1,200	2026-03-01	Paid	Jo Smith
3	South	Ben	450	2026-03-15	Open	Raj Patel
4	North	Cy	300	2026-04-02	Paid	Lee Wong
5	East	Ana	980.50	2026-04-20	Paid	Mia Ross
6	North	Ben	75	2026-05-05	Open	Jo Smith
7	West	Dee	1,640	2026-05-18	Paid	Sam Okoro

Excel

=SUBSTITUTE(A2,"North","N")

Region (A2) with "North" replaced by "N".

Run on the example rows:

PostgreSQL

SELECT *, REPLACE(region, 'North', 'N') AS replaced
FROM sales

Run on the example rows:

region	rep	amount	order_date	status	customer	replaced
North	Ana	1200	2026-03-01	Paid	Jo Smith	N
South	Ben	450	2026-03-15	Open	Raj Patel	South
North	Cy	300	2026-04-02	Paid	Lee Wong	N
East	Ana	980.5	2026-04-20	Paid	Mia Ross	East
North	Ben	75	2026-05-05	Open	Jo Smith	N
West	Dee	1640	2026-05-18	Paid	Sam Okoro	West

Other databases

MySQL

SELECT *, REPLACE(region, 'North', 'N') AS replaced
FROM sales

SQL Server

SELECT *, REPLACE(region, 'North', 'N') AS replaced
FROM sales

SQLite

SELECT *, REPLACE(region, 'North', 'N') AS replaced
FROM sales

BigQuery

SELECT *, REPLACE(region, 'North', 'N') AS replaced
FROM sales

Snowflake

SELECT *, REPLACE(region, 'North', 'N') AS replaced
FROM sales

Paste your rows into the free tool and it writes this for your columns, then runs it on your data before you copy it. Open the tool ↗