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I quoted a comment in which only the first and last parts were relevent to the point I was trying to make and instead of the middle (unimportant) part I wrote:

Something something

which I later realized that it sounded too informal.

What is the formal way to fill in the blank of a left out part of a quote?

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    "A ... C" is the established way to quote whilst omitting information
    – flumperious
    Commented May 15, 2021 at 18:01
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    The dots are called 'suspension points'.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented May 15, 2021 at 18:10
  • @Kate in my experience the punctuation mark is called an ellipsis (as is the linguistic phenomenon it represents). Wikipedia does list "points of suspension" as an alternative.
    – randomhead
    Commented May 15, 2021 at 18:19
  • In writing, you can use an ellipsis, like Lincoln in the "Gettysburg Address" said, "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." However, when quoted, people often cut out much of the middle with an ellipsis such that the quote becomes, "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth…the proposition that all men are created equal."
    – Benjamin Harman
    Commented May 15, 2021 at 19:47
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    While not formal, in speech, people often say "yada, yada, yada," like in the aforementioned example, one might say, "Lincoln said, 'Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth...' yada, yada, yada... 'the proposition that all men are created equal.'" You can also use it to cut out the middle of a story you don't want to go into, like, "I went out with some friends, had some drinks, met this really great guy, had some more drinks... yada, yada, yada... I woke up this morning next to that guy, in bed, at his apartment way out in Brooklyn, with the worst hangover of my life!"
    – Benjamin Harman
    Commented May 15, 2021 at 19:55

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As flumperious pointed out, you can use an ellipsis:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet [...] dolore magna aliqua.

If you are quoting someone else's text you should use square brackets to indicate that the elision is yours, not present in the original, as you would if you added the phrase [sic].

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