Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Extracting E-mail Addresses from Hyperlinks.

Extracting E-mail Addresses from Hyperlinks

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 16, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365


Do you have a worksheet that has a bunch of e-mail addresses in it, as a series of hyperlinks? If so, you may be interested in a way to pull out those addresses and put them into cells as plain text. There are a few ways you can perform this task.

The first method is to remember that the hyperlinks for e-mail addresses all start with the text "mailto" followed by a colon. Thus, you can use a formula that will strip out the first part of the hyperlink. For instance, if the e-mail hyperlink is in cell A1, you can use this formula:

=RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-7)

This checks the length of the cell contents, and then extracts all of it except the first seven characters, which is the "mailto:" portion. You could also use a formula that relies on the SUBSTITUTE function:

=SUBSTITUTE(A1,"mailto:","")

If you prefer, you can use a macro to do the conversion from hyperlink to text-only e-mail address. The following single-line macro is a user-defined function that returns the converted hyperlink:

Function ExtractEmailAddress(rCell As Range)
    ExtractEmailAddress = _
      Mid(rCell.Hyperlinks(1).Address, 8)
End Function

In order to use the macro, all you need to do is use the function in some cell of your worksheet, in this manner:

=ExtractEmailAddress(A1)

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12000) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Extracting E-mail Addresses from Hyperlinks.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Displaying a Single Page

When displaying the information in your document, Word is rather flexible. It can, if you so choose, display multiple ...

Discover More

Establishing a FLOOR and CEILING

Excel includes a surprising number of functions you can use to round your data. Two such functions are FLOOR and CEILING, ...

Discover More

Clearing the Clipboard in a Macro

You may want your macro to clear the clipboard so that people cannot access anything left in the clipboard. That is ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Dynamic Hyperlinks in Excel

Hyperlinks to many types of Web sites rely on passing parameters in the URL. Knowing this, you can construct a dynamic ...

Discover More

Deleting a Hyperlink

Hyperlinks can be helpful in some worksheets but bothersome in others. Here's how to get rid of any hyperlinks you don't ...

Discover More

Adding a ScreenTip

If you want people to know something about a hyperlink you added to your worksheet, one way to help them is to use ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 9 + 9?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.