Make calculation using only selected characters from a cell

[Rameses]

Hi all

This is the issue I have ( I am calculating school grades)

Originally I wanted to use only the 1st character in a cell to make a calculation so for example rather than using "A+" or "A-" I used "A". The foruma for this =LEFT(A1,1)

However I now realise that I need to make calculations using an "A*". This is the only one where i have to use 2 characters.

a) Is there anyway that I can make an exception to the condition =LEFT(A1,1) to ensure that I dont miss out 'A*'

or alternatively

b) Is there a formula which will help me ignore just the '+' or '-'

So in brief:

The 1st character is always a letter that I must use
The 2nd character is always either ''+" or "-" or "*" or ""

I want to use 1st character normally and 1st & 2nd character if the 2nd character has "*" or ""

My thanks especially to wigi for earlier posts!

any comments are much appreciated

many thanks

Rameses

 

[wigi]

=left(a1,1)&if(mid(a1,2,1)="*","*","")