How to use the LOWER function

What is the LOWER function?

The LOWER function converts a value to lower case letters.

What are lower case letters?

Lower case letters refer to the small form of the letters of the alphabet, they are the opposite of upper case or capital letters.

The lowercase letters are:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

1. Syntax

LOWER(text)

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2. Arguments

text	Required. The value you want in lower case letters.

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3. Example

Column B contains values with different capitalization in both upper and lower letters, column C demonstrates the LOWER function.

Formula in cell C3:

Cell B3 contains "Hello" without the double quotes, cell C3 contains the LOWER function. I returns all the characters in the text string in lower letters.

4. Function not working

The LOWER function returns

• #NAME? error if you misspell the function name.
• propagates errors, meaning that if the input contains an error (e.g., #VALUE!, #REF!), the function will return the same error.

Check your spelling. Select the cell with the mouse and look for spelling errors in the formula bar.

Check the number of arguments you use, the UPPER function accepts only one argument. You can, however, use a cell range containing multiple values. You need to enter the formula as an array formula unless you are a Excel 365 user.

4.1 Troubleshooting the error value

When you encounter an error value in a cell a warning symbol appears, displayed in the image above. Press with mouse on it to see a pop-up menu that lets you get more information about the error.

1. The first line describes the error if you press with left mouse button on it.
2. The second line opens a pane that explains the error in greater detail.
3. The third line takes you to the "Evaluate Formula" tool, a dialog box appears allowing you to examine the formula in greater detail.
4. This line lets you ignore the error value meaning the warning icon disappears, however, the error is still in the cell.
5. The fifth line lets you edit the formula in the Formula bar.
6. The sixth line opens the Excel settings so you can adjust the Error Checking Options.

Here are a few of the most common Excel errors you may encounter.

#NULL error - This error occurs most often if you by mistake use a space character in a formula where it shouldn't be. Excel interprets a space character as an intersection operator. If the ranges don't intersect an #NULL error is returned. The #NULL! error occurs when a formula attempts to calculate the intersection of two ranges that do not actually intersect. This can happen when the wrong range operator is used in the formula, or when the intersection operator (represented by a space character) is used between two ranges that do not overlap. To fix this error double check that the ranges referenced in the formula that use the intersection operator actually have cells in common.

#SPILL error - The #SPILL! error occurs only in version Excel 365 and is caused by a dynamic array being to large, meaning there are cells below and/or to the right that are not empty. This prevents the dynamic array formula expanding into new empty cells.

#DIV/0 error - This error happens if you try to divide a number by 0 (zero) or a value that equates to zero which is not possible mathematically.

#VALUE error - The #VALUE error occurs when a formula has a value that is of the wrong data type. Such as text where a number is expected or when dates are evaluated as text.

#REF error - The #REF error happens when a cell reference is invalid. This can happen if a cell is deleted that is referenced by a formula.

#NAME error - The #NAME error happens if you misspelled a function or a named range.

#NUM error - The #NUM error shows up when you try to use invalid numeric values in formulas, like square root of a negative number.

#N/A error - The #N/A error happens when a value is not available for a formula or found in a given cell range, for example in the VLOOKUP or MATCH functions.

#GETTING_DATA error - The #GETTING_DATA error shows while external sources are loading, this can indicate a delay in fetching the data or that the external source is unavailable right now.

4.2 The formula returns an unexpected value

To understand why a formula returns an unexpected value we need to examine the calculations steps in detail. Luckily, Excel has a tool that is really handy in these situations. Here is how to troubleshoot a formula:

1. Select the cell containing the formula you want to examine in detail.
2. Go to tab “Formulas” on the ribbon.
3. Press with left mouse button on "Evaluate Formula" button. A dialog box appears.
   The formula appears in a white field inside the dialog box. Underlined expressions are calculations being processed in the next step. The italicized expression is the most recent result. The buttons at the bottom of the dialog box allows you to evaluate the formula in smaller calculations which you control.
4. Press with left mouse button on the "Evaluate" button located at the bottom of the dialog box to process the underlined expression.
5. Repeat pressing the "Evaluate" button until you have seen all calculations step by step. This allows you to examine the formula in greater detail and hopefully find the culprit.
6. Press "Close" button to dismiss the dialog box.

There is also another way to debug formulas using the function key F9. F9 is especially useful if you have a feeling that a specific part of the formula is the issue, this makes it faster than the "Evaluate Formula" tool since you don't need to go through all calculations to find the issue..

1. Enter Edit mode: Double-press with left mouse button on the cell or press F2 to enter Edit mode for the formula.
2. Select part of the formula: Highlight the specific part of the formula you want to evaluate. You can select and evaluate any part of the formula that could work as a standalone formula.
3. Press F9: This will calculate and display the result of just that selected portion.
4. Evaluate step-by-step: You can select and evaluate different parts of the formula to see intermediate results.
5. Check for errors: This allows you to pinpoint which part of a complex formula may be causing an error.

The image above shows cell reference B3 converted to hard-coded value using the F9 key. The LOWER function requires non-error input values which is not the case in this example. We have found what is wrong with the formula.

Tips!

• View actual values: Selecting a cell reference and pressing F9 will show the actual values in those cells.
• Exit safely: Press Esc to exit Edit mode without changing the formula. Don't press Enter, as that would replace the formula part with the calculated value.
• Full recalculation: Pressing F9 outside of Edit mode will recalculate all formulas in the workbook.

Remember to be careful not to accidentally overwrite parts of your formula when using F9. Always exit with Esc rather than Enter to preserve the original formula. However, if you make a mistake overwriting the formula it is not the end of the world. You can “undo” the action by pressing keyboard shortcut keys CTRL + z or pressing the “Undo” button

4.3 Other errors

Floating-point arithmetic may give inaccurate results in Excel - Article

Floating-point errors are usually very small, often beyond the 15th decimal place, and in most cases don't affect calculations significantly.

5. Change upper letter to lower letter based on the position

The image above shows a formula that substitutes the third letter with a lower case letter.

Formula in cell C3:

Cell B3 contains "ORANGES" in capital letters, cell C3 contains the formula. It replaces the third letter with the same letter in lower case: "ORaNGES"

4.1 Explaining formula

Step 1 - Extract letter based on position

The MID function returns a substring from a string based on the starting position and the number of characters you want to extract.

MID(text, start_num, num_chars)

MID(B3, 3, 1)

becomes

MID("ORANGES", 3, 1)

and returns "A".

Step 2 - Convert to upper letter

The LOWER function converts a string to lower letters.

LOWER(value)

LOWER(MID(B3, 3, 1))

becomes

LOWER("A")

and returns "a".

Step 3 - Replace character based on position to an upper letter

The REPLACE function substitutes a string based on character position and length.

REPLACE(old_text, start_num, num_chars, new_text)

REPLACE(B3, 3, 1, LOWER(MID(B3, 3, 1)))

becomes

REPLACE(B3, 3, 1, "a")

becomes

REPLACE("ORANGES", 3, 1, "a")

and returns "ORaNGES".

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6. Change a given upper letter to a lower letter

The formula in cell C3 demonstrated in the image above converts the second upper case "P" counted from the right with a lower case "p".

Formula in cell C3:

5.1 Explaining formula

The SUBSTITUTE function substitutes a string with another string.

SUBSTITUTE(text, old_text, new_text, [instance_num])

SUBSTITUTE(B3, "P", "p", 2)

The first argument is a cell reference to cell B3, the second argument is the string to be replaced.

The third argument is what will be there after the substitution and the fourth argument is a number representing the instance.

7. Change all upper letters to lower letters for a given character

The picture above shows a formula in cell C3 that converts all upper case "P" to a lower case "p" in cell B3.

Formula in cell C3:

The SUBSTITUTE function substitutes a string with another string.

SUBSTITUTE(text, old_text, new_text, [instance_num])

If the instance_num argument is omitted all instances are replaced.

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8. Convert every other letter to upper and lower case

Excel 365 formula in cell C3:

=LET(x, SEQUENCE(LEN(B3)), TEXTJOIN(, TRUE, IF(ISODD(x), MID(UPPER(B3), x, 1), MID(LOWER(B3), x, 1))))

7.1 Explaining Excel 365 formula

=TEXTJOIN(,TRUE,IF(ISODD(SEQUENCE(LEN(B3))),MID(UPPER(B3),SEQUENCE(LEN(B3)),1),MID(LOWER(B3),SEQUENCE(LEN(B3)),1)))

Step 1 - Count charcaters

The LEN function counts the number of characters.

LEN(value)

LEN(B3)

becomes

LEN("Hello World!")

and returns 12. "Hello World!" has twelve characters not counting the double-quotes.

Step 2 - Create a sequence of numbers from 1 to n

The SEQUENCE function creates a sequence of numbers.

SEQUENCE(rows, [columns], [start], [step])

SEQUENCE(LEN(B3))

becomes

SEQUENCE(12)

and returns

{1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12}.

Step 3 - Convert string to capital letters

The UPPER function converts a value to upper case letters.

UPPER(value)

UPPER(B3)

becomes

UPPER("Hello World!")

and returns "HELLO WORLD!".

Step 4 - Create an array containing each character (upper case)

The MID function returns a substring from a string based on the starting position and the number of characters you want to extract.

MID(text, start_num, num_chars)

MID(UPPER(B3),SEQUENCE(LEN(B3)),1)

becomes

MID("HELLO WORLD!",{1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12},1)

and returns

{"H"; "E"; "L"; "L"; "O"; " "; "W"; "O"; "R"; "L"; "D"; "!"}.

Step 5 - Create an array containing each character (lower case)

MID(LOWER(B3),SEQUENCE(LEN(B3)),1))

becomes

MID("hello world!",{1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12},1)

and returns

{"h"; "e"; "l"; "l"; "o"; " "; "w"; "o"; "r"; "l"; "d"; "!"}.

Step 6 - Identify odd numbers

The ISODD function returns TRUE if a number is odd.

ISODD(number)

ISODD(SEQUENCE(LEN(B3)))

becomes

ISODD({1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12})

and returns

{TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; FALSE}.

Step 7 - Replace every other character

The IF function returns one value if the logical test is TRUE and another value if the logical test is FALSE.

IF(logical_test, [value_if_true], [value_if_false])

IF(ISODD(SEQUENCE(LEN(B3))), MID(UPPER(B3), SEQUENCE(LEN(B3)), 1), MID(LOWER(B3), SEQUENCE(LEN(B3)), 1))

becomes

IF({TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; FALSE; TRUE; FALSE}, {"H"; "E"; "L"; "L"; "O"; " "; "W"; "O"; "R"; "L"; "D"; "!"}, {"h"; "e"; "l"; "l"; "o"; " "; "w"; "o"; "r"; "l"; "d"; "!"})

and returns

{"H"; "e"; "L"; "l"; "O"; " "; "W"; "o"; "R"; "l"; "D"; "!"}

Step 8 - Concatenate characters

The TEXTJOIN function combines text strings from multiple cell ranges and also use delimiting characters if you want.

TEXTJOIN(delimiter, ignore_empty, text1, [text2], ...)

TEXTJOIN(,TRUE,IF(ISODD(SEQUENCE(LEN(B3))), MID(UPPER(B3), SEQUENCE(LEN(B3)), 1), MID(LOWER(B3), SEQUENCE(LEN(B3)), 1)))

becomes

TEXTJOIN(,TRUE,{"H"; "e"; "L"; "l"; "O"; " "; "W"; "o"; "R"; "l"; "D"; "!"})

and returns "HeLlO WoRlD!".

Step 9 - Shorten formula

The LET function lets you name intermediate calculation results which can shorten formulas considerably and improve performance.

LET(name1, name_value1, calculation_or_name2, [name_value2, calculation_or_name3...])

SEQUENCE(LEN(B3)) is repeated three times in the formula, lets name this part of the formula x.

LET(x, SEQUENCE(LEN(B3)), TEXTJOIN(, TRUE, IF(ISODD(x), MID(UPPER(B3), x, 1), MID(LOWER(B3), x, 1))))

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Useful links

LOWER function - Microsoft support
Change the case of text

Functions in 'Text' category

The LOWER function function is one of 29 functions in the 'Text' category.

Excel function categories

Excel categories

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