Excel Newb: Splitting First name and Last name

  • Thread starter Thread starter Cardinal
  • Start date Start date
C

Cardinal

I have a long list of names in column A that look like this:

Ana Trujillo
Antonio Moreno
Thomas Hardy
Christina Berglund

How can I split out the names by first name and last name with first
name going in B and Last name going in C? Thank you very much.
 
You can use the Text To Columns tool on the Data menu, or you can use
formulas. If the full name is in A1, you can get the first name with

=LEFT(A1,FIND(" ",A1))

and the last name with

=MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1,99)

However, you need to decide what to do with names with more than two
components. E.g., "John David Smith", "Mike St. James", "George
Herbert Walker Bush" and other "non-standard" names.

Parsing out names can become very complicated when you consider all
the different formats that a name can take.

Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional
Excel Product Group
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com
(email on web site)
 
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