REPLACE is useful when identifiers have fixed-width parts: a two-letter region code, a four-digit batch code, or a three-letter status. You specify where to start and how many original characters to replace. When you know the text fragment but not its location, use official SUBSTITUTE documentation instead. Fixed positions may be unsafe for user-entered values with different lengths.

=REPLACE(Text, Start, Count, NewText)

The English 2021, 2024 and 2026 PlanMaker help documents the same order and does not mark any argument optional. These official pages do not establish the exact result for every out-of-range Start, negative Count, Unicode edge case, or unequal-length replacement. Those are native-test items. 2021 · 2024 · 2026.

Formula entry and locale: Start a formula with =. English manual examples separate function arguments with commas; formula locale/naming may differ by installation, and non-English input was not tested. You can use PlanMaker’s Formula → Function dialog to select a function and insert arguments without copying separators from a different locale. SoftMaker entry guide.

Create the following worksheet with literal text in column A:

In A2, positions 1–2 contain CA, position 3 is the first hyphen, positions 4–7 contain 2048, position 8 is the second hyphen, and positions 9–11 contain RED.

Why B2 works: Keep original positions 1–3 (CA-), substitute 9999 for positions 4–7, and retain positions 8–11 (-RED). For these examples, the replacement has the same character count as the section being replaced. These expected results were independently constructed from text strings. They have not been observed in a running PlanMaker application.

When the first hyphen might move because region prefixes vary, use the documented FIND function to locate it:

=REPLACE(A2,FIND("-",A2)+1,4,"9999")

• Official FIND reference

Or change two separate fixed-width portions by nesting replacements:

=REPLACE(REPLACE(A2,1,2,"US"),9,3,"BLU")

Expected: US-2048-BLU. Each operation replaces exactly as many characters as the replacement contains, preserving the positions used by the next replacement. If your identifiers do not follow a fixed layout, switch to SUBSTITUTE or a more explicit parsing workflow.

=REPLACE("cccccc",3,2,"dddddddd")

The SoftMaker documentation reports ccddcc. Under Microsoft Excel’s documented REPLACE semantics, replacing two original characters with all eight replacement characters would instead produce ccddddddddcc (independently calculated). The vendor’s example therefore does not establish Excel-identical behavior when NewText is longer than Count. SoftMaker example · Microsoft Excel reference.

Do not silently substitute Excel’s behavior for PlanMaker’s here. The guide’s positive sample outputs deliberately use equal-length replacements. Before using REPLACE in a cross-application workbook with different replacement lengths, test NewText shorter and longer than Count natively in the specific PlanMaker version, then save/reopen a copy in the intended format. This is a research finding, not a claim that the actual PlanMaker engine has been tested to truncate text.

The official reference does not publish complete tested edge-case limits for this function. No statement here promises identical handling of surrogate pairs, emoji, zero-length insertions or out-of-range values across PlanMaker and Excel.

The English documentation for PlanMaker 2021, 2024 and 2026 lists REPLACE with four required parameters and the same example pattern. That is documentation presence, not evidence of availability in every edition, operating system, mobile application or earlier release. Microsoft Excel also has a function called REPLACE, but the unequal-length documentation difference above prevents a blanket claim of identical results. SoftMaker 2021 · SoftMaker 2024 · SoftMaker 2026 · Microsoft.

Research and validation status (accessed 2026-10-11 UTC): Original formulas use the official documented parameter order; outputs in equal-length cases were independently calculated. Official REPLACE documentation’s unequal-length example conflicts with the conventional Excel interpretation and is explicitly flagged for native validation. PlanMaker runs: none; screenshots: none; approval: pending; publication: none.

• SoftMaker PlanMaker — function documentation
• official SUBSTITUTE documentation
• 2021
• 2024
• SoftMaker entry guide
• Official FIND reference
• PlanMaker’s documented error values

Verification status: Official documentation checked; example outcomes were independently reasoned or arithmetically checked where applicable. Not executed in SoftMaker PlanMaker.

• No genuine SoftMaker PlanMaker screenshots are included; this guide does not use mock application images.