Excel VBA split after second space - excel

Question

I'm trying to split my column so that the names
James John Doe
Comes out as only
James John
Using the below formula but it only leaves the first name, where I want it to split at the second occurrence of "space".
Sub Split1()
Dim r As Range
For Each r In Range("A2:A" & Cells(Rows.count, "A").End(xlUp).Row).Cells.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeConstants)
r.Value = Split(r.Value, " ")(0)
Next r
Can anyone help me out?
Thanks

Answer 1

There are a few ways you can turn a three-word phrase into the first two words.
Let's start with your Split() method.
This function returns an array. Your particular method of attempting to access the index will only return a single word.
You can place into an array, then just combine the array elements:
For Each r In Range(...)
Dim retVal() As String
retVal = Split(r.Value)
r.Value = retVal(0) & " " & retVal(1)
Next r
You can remove the last word with Replace():
For Each r In Range(...)
r.Value = Replace(r.Value, Split(r.Value)(2), "")
Next
Or you can even use Regular Expressions:
With CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
.Pattern = "\s[^\s]+$"
For Each r in Range(...)
r.Value = .Replace(r.Value, "")
Next
End With
In Regular Expressions, \s signifies a single space character, the [^...] bracket means "Do not include", which we placed a \s within the bracket, so that would match any non-space character, followed by the + means 1 or more times, and finally the $ signifies the end of the string. Essentially, you are wanting to match a word [^\s]+ that is at the end of the string $, preceeded by a space \s, and remove it via the .Replace() method. And you actually could also simply use the pattern \s\S+$, which is essentially the same thing (\S means any non-space character when it's capitalized).

Answer 2

You may try to use left & find to obtain the string value untill second space instead of split function
Code modification:
Dim r As Range
Dim s As String, newText As String
Dim Length As Long
For Each r In Range("A2:A" & Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row).Cells.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeConstants)
s = r.Value
Length = Application.WorksheetFunction.Find(" ", s, Application.WorksheetFunction.Find(" ", s) + 1)
r.Value = Left(s, Length)
Next r
Sample output:

Answer 3

Further way to extract the 1st and 3rd token of a split array
This approach profits from the advanced possibilities of Application.Index allowing to indicate any new row or columns order; the wanted columns are reflected here by the last 1-based (columns) argument Array(1, 3):
Function GetFirstLast(s As String) As String
GetFirstLast = Join(Application.Index(Split(s), 0, Array(1, 3)))
End Function
Example call:
Debug.Print GetFirstLast("James John Doe")
resulting in
James Doe in the VB Editor's immediate window.