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Separate First and Last Name in Excel

Splitting names is a classic data-cleaning task. Here are the formula methods and the no-formula option.

First name

=LEFT(A2, FIND(" ", A2)-1)

FIND locates the space, and LEFT takes everything before it.

Last name

=MID(A2, FIND(" ", A2)+1, 100)

This takes everything after the first space.

Excel 365: TEXTSPLIT

=TEXTSPLIT(A2, " ")

No formulas: Text to Columns

Select the column, then go to Data → Text to Columns → Delimited → Space.

Practice