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RIGHTB Function (LibreOffice Calc)

Text Beginner LibreOffice Calc

Learn the RIGHTB function in LibreOffice Calc: Returns the last character or characters of a text, with DBCS.

Verification status: Official documentation referenced; example outcomes independently reasoned or arithmetically checked where stated. Not executed in LibreOffice Calc. How formula examples are checked

Validation scope: References to observed, native-tested, or executed results below describe the saved LibreOffice Calc 25.2.3.2 Linux test evidence dated 12 October 2026. On 13 October, its script and artifact hashes, all 86 ODS/JSON case pairs, and the current official function documentation were checked; CJK/ASCII worked examples were independently reasoned through. Calc was not rerun for this review. Historical observations do not certify other versions, platforms, locales, or workbook imports.

RIGHTB extracts a suffix counted in DBCS-style byte units, not ordinary character positions. When the requested width cuts through a two-byte character, LibreOffice Calc substitutes a space at the incomplete boundary. Use it for documented legacy byte-width rules, not as a substitute for encoding-aware UTF-8 substring operations.

What RIGHTB does

RIGHTB works from the right end of a string using byte-width accounting that supports double-byte character set (DBCS) text. The closely related RIGHT extracts ordinary characters instead. For 中国, RIGHT("中国";1) selects the character 国; RIGHTB("中国";1) returned one ordinary space in native Calc because one byte cannot hold that entire CJK character. [LO-RIGHTB] [NATIVE]

This space is part of the returned string, not a null value. An exact-match test, a downstream TRIM, or an export validation may therefore respond differently than expected. [LO-RIGHTB]

Syntax and parameters

=RIGHTB(Text [; Number_bytes])
Argument Required? Meaning Default or limit
Text Yes Text value, a cell reference or expression converted to text. Cannot be omitted.
Number_bytes Optional Number of DBCS byte units to take from the right. Defaults to 1. Negative counts generated an error in Calc 25.2.

Official Help documents RIGHTB beginning in LibreOffice 4.2. Note the argument order: Text first, optional Number_bytes second. For formulas with multiple arguments, Calc’s usual separator is a semicolon (;), but the separator is configurable. Function names may be localized; enable English names in Calc’s Formula preferences if necessary. No ODF-specific alternate function name was established for this page. [LO-RIGHTB] [LO-OPTIONS] [NATIVE]

Native-tested examples

These examples were executed with LibreOffice Calc 25.2.3.2. In the results, ␠ explicitly represents one U+0020 space; the surrounding double quotes illustrate the returned text rather than being part of it.

Formula Observed text Explanation
=RIGHTB("office";3) "ice" Three ASCII characters.
=RIGHTB("中国";1) "␠" Half a trailing two-byte character → space.
=RIGHTB("中国";2) "国" Entire last ideograph.
=RIGHTB("中国";3) "␠国" First included CJK character is incomplete.
=RIGHTB("中国";4) "中国" Entire two-character string.
=RIGHTB("中国") "␠" Default byte count is 1.
=RIGHTB("中国";0) "" Zero width → empty string.
=RIGHTB("中国";5) "中国" Requested width exceeds text.

The first five follow LibreOffice’s official examples and were checked by native formula execution. The zero, omitted, and oversize cases were independently calculated and run natively. [LO-RIGHTB] [NATIVE]

Mixed single-byte and double-byte text

The text A中B uses four DBCS-style units in the tested Calc build: 1 for A, 2 for 中, and 1 for B.

Formula Result Interpretation
=RIGHTB("A中B";1) "B" Last ASCII character.
=RIGHTB("A中B";2) "␠B" Half of 中 plus B becomes space plus B.
=RIGHTB("A中B";3) "中B" Full Chinese character and B.
=RIGHTB("A中B";4) "A中B" Whole string.

All four are actual Calc 25.2.3.2 observations. The RIGHTB(...;2) result is not the same as RIGHT("A中B";2) (which works in characters). Choose the function to match the specification you are validating. [NATIVE] [LO-RIGHTB]

A hands-on cell-reference example

Put the literal text 中A in cell J2. Elsewhere enter:

=RIGHTB(J2;1)

Observed native result: A. By contrast, =RIGHTB("中A";2) returned ␠A, where ␠ is an actual space. A three-unit request for this example returned 中A. These outcomes follow the directional byte-count rule and were tested in Calc 25.2.3.2. [NATIVE]

Advanced usage

ASCII suffix validation

For a code ending in a three-letter ASCII suffix, byte and character count produce the same selection when the suffix is entirely ASCII:

=IF(RIGHTB("中ABC";3)="ABC";"OK";"CHECK")

Native-tested result: OK. If the suffix might contain East Asian or combining characters, be explicit about whether the rule concerns characters (use RIGHT) or DBCS byte units (potentially RIGHTB). [NATIVE]

Combining RIGHTB with LENB

LENB estimates DBCS byte width, while RIGHTB selects a suffix using that width. For 中国, native Calc returned 国 from =RIGHTB("中国";2) and 2 from =LENB(RIGHTB("中国";2)). A half-character selection can introduce spaces, so the measured result may not represent the original text’s byte sequence. [LO-RIGHTB] [LO-LENB] [NATIVE]

Fractions and typed arguments

In Calc 25.2.3.2, =RIGHTB("中国";2.9) returned 国, while =RIGHTB("中国";1.9) returned a space. Both observations are consistent with truncating a fractional byte count to its integer part. =RIGHTB(12345;2) returned 45 because the numeric argument was converted to text in the tested setup. These are implementation observations, not unconditional guarantees for every locale or release. [NATIVE]

Why RIGHTB cannot validate UTF-8 file bytes

In a UTF-8 export, the number of encoded bytes for non-ASCII characters depends on Unicode code points. Calc’s DBCS-style substitution rule is not a UTF-8 encoder. For a strict external byte limit, validate the encoded output with that external format; use RIGHTB only when you know the receiving application expects compatible DBCS-width behavior. This distinction follows from comparing documented DBCS behavior with the concept of encoding, not from a live export test in the saved test. [LO-RIGHTB]

Errors, limits, and troubleshooting

Case Calc 25.2.3.2 observed result Interpretation / fix
=RIGHTB("中国";-1) Err:502 Byte count must not be negative.
=RIGHTB("中国";"abc") #VALUE! Supply a numeric count.
=RIGHTB() Err:511 Required text missing.
=RIGHTB("x";1/0) #DIV/0! Upstream error propagates.
A right-side CJK character becomes blank-looking An incomplete character was replaced by " ". Increase byte width or use RIGHT.
Formula fails after importing from another spreadsheet English name, argument separator or engine differs. Check Calc Formula options and retest with the Calc version in use.

The table’s error strings are explicitly native 25.2.3.2 observations. They may render differently in localized Calc. [NATIVE] [LO-OPTIONS]

Compatibility and migration notes

LibreOffice Calc officially supports RIGHTB since 4.2. Google Sheets documents its separate RIGHTB(string, num_of_bytes) function. Microsoft describes RIGHTB as deprecated in its current Excel RIGHT documentation. Those claims are supported by their official websites; no Google Sheets or Excel formulas were executed in the saved test, so unusual Unicode and locale behavior must be checked independently before migration. [LO-RIGHTB] [GOOGLE-RIGHTB] [MS-RIGHT]

RIGHT is preferable for character-based suffixes. Other byte-aware names include LEFTB, LENB and MIDB. Use LEFT or MID for character-based alternatives.

Official references and validation provenance

Documentation links verified 2026-10-12. The Help banner displayed LibreOffice 26.8. Formulas were natively executed in LibreOffice Calc 25.2.3.2 on Linux.