How To Separate Text In Excel?
Try it! –
- Select the cell or column that contains the text you want to split.
- Select Data > Text to Columns.
- In the Convert Text to Columns Wizard, select Delimited > Next,
- Select the Delimiters for your data. For example, Comma and Space, You can see a preview of your data in the Data preview window.
- Select Next,
- Select the Destination in your worksheet which is where you want the split data to appear.
- Select Finish,
Contents
What is the formula used to separate text in Excel?
Example 1: Separating Jeff and Smith
Example name | Description |
---|---|
Formula | Result (first name) |
‘=LEFT(A2, SEARCH(‘ ‘,A2,1)) | =LEFT(A2, SEARCH(‘ ‘,A2,1)) |
Formula | Result (last name) |
‘=RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-SEARCH(‘ ‘,A2,1)) | =RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-SEARCH(‘ ‘,A2,1)) |
How do I split first and last name in Excel?
FAQs – What is the formula to separate first and last name in Excel? You can use the Left function, Right function, and Find function to separate first and last names. Enter the formula of =LEFT(A2,FIND(” “,A2,1)-1) in a blank cell beside the name to get the first name, or enter =RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND(” “,A2,1)) in a blank cell beside the name to get the last name.
How do I separate text from one line in Excel?
Start a new line of text inside a cell in Excel To start a new line of text or add spacing between lines or paragraphs of text in a worksheet cell, press Alt+Enter to insert a line break.
Double-click the cell in which you want to insert a line break. Click the location inside the selected cell where you want to break the line. Press Alt+Enter to insert the line break.
To start a new line of text or add spacing between lines or paragraphs of text in a worksheet cell, press CONTROL + OPTION + RETURN to insert a line break.
Double-click the cell in which you want to insert a line break. Click the location inside the selected cell where you want to break the line. Press CONTROL+OPTION+RETURN to insert the line break.
To start a new line of text or add spacing between lines or paragraphs of text in a worksheet cell, press Alt+Enter to insert a line break.
Double-click the cell in which you want to insert a line break (or select the cell and then press F2). Click the location inside the selected cell where you want to break the line. Press Alt+Enter to insert the line break.
Double-tap within the cell. Tap the place where you want a line break, and then tap the blue cursor. Tap New Line in the contextual menu.
Note: You cannot start a new line of text in Excel for iPhone.
Tap the keyboard toggle button to open the numeric keyboard. Press and hold the return key to view the line break key, and then drag your finger to that key.
: Start a new line of text inside a cell in Excel
Is text split available in Excel?
– Windows: 2208 (Build 15601) Mac: 16.65 (Build 220911) Web: introduced 15-Sep-2022 iOS: 2.65 (Build 220905) Android: 16.0.15629 Splits text strings by using column and row delimiters. The TEXTSPLIT function works the same as the Text-to-Columns wizard, but in formula form. It allows you to split across columns or down by rows. It is the inverse of the TEXTJOIN function,
How do I separate data in one cell?
How to split cells in Excel: Text to Columns, Flash Fill and formulas How do you split a cell in Excel? By using the Text to Columns feature, Flash Fill, formulas or Split Text tool. This tutorial outlines all the options to help you choose the technique best suited for your particular task.
- Generally, you may need to divide cells in Excel in two cases.
- Most often, when you import data from some external source where all information is in one column while you want it in separate columns.
- Or, you may want to separate cells in an existing table for better filtering, sorting or a detailed analysis.
The Text to Columns feature comes in really handy when you need to split cell contents into two or more cells. It allows separating text strings by a certain delimiter such as comma, semicolon or space as well as splitting strings of a fixed length. Let’s see how each scenario works. What we want is to separate data in one cell into several cells such as First Name, Last Name, Country, Arrival Date and Status, To have it done, perform the following steps:
- If you want to place the results in the middle of your table, start by to avoid overwriting your existing data. In this example, we have inserted 3 new columns like shown in the screenshot below:
If you don’t have any data next to the column you want to separate, skip this step.
- Select the cells you want to divide, navigate to the Data tab > Data Tools group, and click the Text to Columns button.
- In the first step of the Convert Text to Columns wizard, you choose how to split cells – by delimiter or width.In our case, the cell contents are separated with spaces and commas, so we select Delimited, and click Next,
- In the next step, you specify the delimiters and, optionally, text qualifier,You can choose one or more predefined delimiters as well as type your own one in the Other box. In this example, we select Space and Comma :
Tips:
- Treat consecutive delimiters as one, Be sure to select this option when your data may contain two or more delimiters in a row, e.g. when there are a few consecutive spaces between words or the data is separate by a comma and a space, like “Smith, John”.
- Specifying the text qualifier, Use this option when some text is enclosed in single or double quotes, and you’d like such portions of text to be inseparable. For example, if you choose a comma (,) as the delimiter and a quotation mark (“) as the text qualifier, then any words enclosed in double quotes, e.g. “California, USA”, will be put into one cell as California, USA, If you select as the text qualifier, then “California will be distributed into one cell (together with an opening quotation mark) and USA” into another (together with a closing mark).
- Data preview, Before you click the Next button, it stands to reason to scroll through the Data preview section to make sure Excel has split all cells contents right.
- Just two more things are left for you to do – choose the data format and specify where you want to paste the resulting values:
- Data format, By default, the General format is set for all columns, which works well in most cases. In our example, we need the Data format for the arrival dates. To change the data format for a particular column, click on that column under Data preview to select it, and then choose one of the formats under Column data format (please see the screenshot below).
- Destination, To tell Excel where you want to output the separated data, click the Collapse Dialog icon next to the Destination box and select the top-leftmost cell of the destination range, or type a cell reference directly in the box. Please be very careful with this option, and make sure there are enough empty columns right to the destination cell.
Notes:
- If you do not want to import some column that appears in the data preview, select that column and check Do not import column (skip) radio button under Column data format,
- It is not possible to import the split data to another spreadsheet or workbook. If you attempt to do this, you will get the invalid destination error.
- Finally, click the Finish button and you are done! As shown in the below screenshot, Excel has perfectly placed the contents of one cell into several cells:
This section explains how to divide a cell in Excel based on the number of characters you specify. To make things easier to understand, please consider the following example. Supposing, you have Product IDs and Product names in one column and you want to extract the IDs into a separate column: Since all of the product IDs contain 9 characters, the Fixed width option fits perfectly for the job:
- Start the Convert Text to Columns wizard as explained in the above example. In the first step of the wizard, choose Fixed width and click Next,
- Set the width of each column by using the Data preview section. As shown in the screenshot below, a vertical line represents a column break, and to create a new break line, you simply click at the desired position (9 characters in our case):
To remove the break, double-click a line; to move a break in another position, simply drag the line with the mouse.
- In the next step, choose the data format and destination for the split cells exactly as we did in the previous example, and click the Finish button to complete the separation.
Beginning with Excel 2013, you can make use of the feature that can not only automatically populate cells with data, but also split cell contents. Let’s take a column of data from our first example and see how Excel’s Flash Fill can help us split a cell in half:
- Insert a new column next to the column with the original data and type the desired part of the text in the first cell (participant name in this example).
- Type the text in a couple more cells. As soon as Excel senses a pattern, it will populate similar data into other cells automatically. In our case, it’s taken 3 cells for Excel to figure out a pattern:
- If you are satisfied with what you see, press the Enter key, and all the names will be copied to a separate column at once.
Whatever diverse information your cells may contain, a formula to split a cell in Excel boils down to finding a position of the delimiter (comma, space, etc.) and extracting a substring before, after or in-between the delimiters. Generally, you’d use or functions to determine the delimiter’s location and one of the Text functions (, or ) to get a substring.
- For example, you’d use the following formulas to split data in cell A2 separated with a comma and space (please see the screenshot below):
- To extract the name in B2:
- =LEFT(A2, SEARCH(“,”,A2)-1)
Here, the SEARCH function determines the position of a comma in A2, and you subtract 1 from the result, because the comma itself is not expected in the output. The LEFT function extracts that number of characters from the start of the string. To extract the country in C2: =RIGHT(A2, LEN(A2)-SEARCH(“,”, A2)-1) Here, the function calculates the total length of the string, from which you subtract the position of the comma returned by SEARCH.
- The result will look as follows:
- If your delimiter is a comma with or without space, you can use the following formula to extract a substring after it (where 1000 is the maximum number of characters to pull):
- =TRIM(MID(A2, SEARCH(“,”, A2)+1, 1000))
As you see, there is no universal formula that could handle all kinds of strings. In each particular case, you will have to work out your own solution. The good news is that the dynamic array functions that appeared in Excel 365 make the use of many old formulas unnecessary. Instead, you can use these functions:
- – split strings by any delimiter that you specify.
- – extract text before a specific character or substring.
- – extract text after a certain character or word.
For more formula examples to divide cells in Excel, please check out the following resources: Now that you are familiar with the inbuilt features, let me show you an alternative way to divide cells in Excel. I mean the tool included with our, It can perform the following operations:
- Split cell by character
- Split cell by string
- Split cell by mask (pattern)
For example, splitting the participant details in one cell into several cells can be done in 2 quick steps:
- Select the cells you want to separate, and click the Split Text icon on the Ablebits Data tab, in the Text group.
- On the add-in’s pane, configure the following options:
- Select Comma and Space as the delimiters.
- Select the Treat consecutive delimiters as one check box.
- Choose Split to columns,
- Click the Split button.
Done! Four new columns with the split data are inserted between the original columns, and you only need to give those columns appropriate names: Tip. To separate a column of names to the first name, last name and middle name, you can use a special, If you are curious to see the Split Text and Split Names tools in action, we are welcome to use the download link below.
How do I split text into multiple rows in one cell?
Split Multiple Text Cells Into Rows in Google Sheets – Now, you can split multiple text cells into multiple rows using the same example.1. Select and r ight-click cells containing text (B1:B3) and in the Menu, go to Data > Split text to columns,2. Click the Separator button that appears, and choose Semicolon,
- As a result of this step, text from cells B1:B3 are split at each semicolon into columns B–F.
3. Now transpose the data from Rows 1–3 to Columns B–D. Since the data is in multiple rows, you must transpose to a new range (and later delete the initial data range). Select and right-click cells to transpose (B1:F3), and click Copy (or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + C ).4.
How do I separate Data into columns in Excel?
Distribute the contents of a cell into adjacent columns You can divide the contents of a cell and distribute the constituent parts into multiple adjacent cells. For example, if your worksheet contains a column Full Name, you can split that column into two columns—a First Name column and Last Name column.
Follow these steps: Note: A range containing a column that you want to split can include any number of rows, but it can include no more than one column. It’s important to keep enough blank columns to the right of the selected column, which will prevent data in any adjacent columns from being overwritten by the data that is to be distributed.
If necessary, insert a number of empty columns that will be sufficient to contain each of the constituent parts of the distributed data.
Select the cell, range, or entire column that contains the text values that you want to split. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click Text to Columns, Follow the instructions in the Convert Text to Columns Wizard to specify how you want to divide the text into separate columns.
This feature isn’t available in Excel for the web. If you have the Excel desktop application, you can use the Open in Excel button to open the workbook and, : Distribute the contents of a cell into adjacent columns
How do I split the last two characters in Excel?
If you want to extract the last n characters, like the last 3 characters, type this formula = RIGHT(E1, 3).
How do I separate data in Excel into columns?
Distribute the contents of a cell into adjacent columns You can divide the contents of a cell and distribute the constituent parts into multiple adjacent cells. For example, if your worksheet contains a column Full Name, you can split that column into two columns—a First Name column and Last Name column.
- Follow these steps: Note: A range containing a column that you want to split can include any number of rows, but it can include no more than one column.
- It’s important to keep enough blank columns to the right of the selected column, which will prevent data in any adjacent columns from being overwritten by the data that is to be distributed.
If necessary, insert a number of empty columns that will be sufficient to contain each of the constituent parts of the distributed data.
Select the cell, range, or entire column that contains the text values that you want to split. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click Text to Columns, Follow the instructions in the Convert Text to Columns Wizard to specify how you want to divide the text into separate columns.
This feature isn’t available in Excel for the web. If you have the Excel desktop application, you can use the Open in Excel button to open the workbook and, : Distribute the contents of a cell into adjacent columns
How do I separate data in Excel by line break?
An error occurred. – Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser. A line break is obvious when you click in a cell. As shown below, when you click in the cell, the cell looks like it is on 1 line but when you look in the formula bar it is actually on 2 lines (which implies that there is a line break character at the end of the first line).
- Occasionally you will only see the one line in the cell, but when you click on it and expand the formula bar you will see other information.
- The only trick is that you need to use a shortcut to ‘create’ the line break character using CTRL + J.
- As shown below you go through the normal Text to Column steps (click on DATA ribbon, Text to Column button, then choose Delimited and Next).
The trick is in the next screen. Choose the Other option, and while clicked in the input box, hold CTRL down and push your J button. Immediately the data preview window will show that it recognises the line breaks and will split the column based on the line breaks it sees.
How do I separate data in Excel based on criteria?
Wildcard criteria – Boolean logic: Salesperson = a name with ‘u’ as the second letter
- To find text values that share some characters but not others, do one or more of the following:
- Type one or more characters without an equal sign ( = ) to find rows with a text value in a column that begin with those characters. For example, if you type the text Dav as a criterion, Excel finds “Davolio,” “David,” and “Davis.”
- Use a wildcard character.
Use To find ? (question mark) Any single character For example, sm?th finds “smith” and “smyth” * (asterisk) Any number of characters For example, *east finds “Northeast” and “Southeast” ~ (tilde) followed by ?, *, or ~ A question mark, asterisk, or tilde For example, fy91~? finds “fy91?” /li>
- Insert at least three blank rows above the list range that can be used as a criteria range. The criteria range must have column labels. Make sure that there is at least one blank row between the criteria values and the list range.
- In the rows below the column labels, type the criteria that you want to match. Using the example, enter:
Type Salesperson Sales =”=Me*” =”=?u*” /li>
- Click a cell in the list range. Using the example, click any cell in the list range A6:C10.
- On the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click Advanced,
- Do one of the following:
- To filter the list range by hiding rows that don’t match your criteria, click Filter the list, in-place
- To filter the list range by copying rows that match your criteria to another area of the worksheet, click Copy to another location, click in the Copy to box, and then click the upper-left corner of the area where you want to paste the rows. Tip: When you copy filtered rows to another location, you can specify which columns to include in the copy operation. Before filtering, copy the column labels for the columns that you want to the first row of the area where you plan to paste the filtered rows. When you filter, enter a reference to the copied column labels in the Copy to box. The copied rows will then include only the columns for which you copied the labels.
- In the Criteria range box, enter the reference for the criteria range, including the criteria labels. Using the example, enter $A$1:$B$3. To move the Advanced Filter dialog box out of the way temporarily while you select the criteria range, click Collapse Dialog,
- Using the example, the filtered result for the list range is:
Type Salesperson Sales Beverages Suyama $5,122 Meat Davolio $450 produce Buchanan $6,328 /li>