How to Extract the First Word of a String in Microsoft Excel

Within Microsoft Excel, if you have a string of text in the same cell, like first name and last name, there is a formula you can use to extract just the first word.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Text String Open the Microsoft Excel worksheet that has the column of text from which you want to extract the first word. In the example to the left (click the image to enlarge it), we want to extract the first name from column A.
2. Formula Click in cell B2, enter the following formula, and then press the enter key. NOTE: You can copy and paste the formula below, adjusting the A2 cell reference as necessary.
   
   =LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2)-1)
3. Fill Down Once you have input the formula, you can quickly fill the formula down through other cells. To do that, hover your mouse over the black square in the lower right corner of the cell. When your mouse pointer changes to a plus symbol (see image), click your mouse and drag down.