excel first word from cells in other cell - excel

How can I extract the first word of a number of different cells and have each of the first words show together in one other cell separated by comma?
e.g. A1 shows "Firstname1 Lastname1", A2 shows "Firstname2 Lastname2", A3 shows "Firstname3 Lastname3",
I need a formula allowing me to show the following in cell D2 "Firstname1, Firstname2, Firstname3"
I found this solution, which gives me the first word of one cell and shows it in another cell but I don't know how to get the first word of a number of cells and show them all coma separated in another cell
=LEFT(A1,SEARCH(" ",A1)-1)
Excel function to get first word from sentence in other cell
Thanks!

What if instead of just three cells you have an Excel range A1:A100 which has all the names? How would you concatenate in such an instance? Will you type that long a formula?
As Jerry suggested, VBA is Apt for this. But what if you do not want to use VBA or long formulas?
See this example. I am taking 10 cells for the sake of explaining.
Let's say the data looks like this.
Now select the entire column and click on Data~~>Text To Columns
When you click finish, the output will be like this
Now in cell say E4, type this =Transpose(A1:A10). Replace A1:A10 with the actual range. However do not press the Enter key. Press the key F9. You will see that all the first names are now visible.
Simply copy that and press Esc. Now open Notepad and paste it there.
Next delete the { and the }
Next manually replace "," by , and you will get what you wanted.

=LEFT(A1,SEARCH(" ",A1)-1) &", "&LEFT(A2,SEARCH(" ",A2)-1)&", "&LEFT(A3,SEARCH(" ",A3)-1)

using your current formula, =LEFT(A1,SEARCH(" ",A1)-1), you can add the value of subsequent cells to the previous calculation, and build the comma separated values.
in B1, we have your original formula, =LEFT(A1,SEARCH(" ",A1)-1)
in B2 we concatenate the previous result, and add on the comma and the new word:
=B1 & "," & LEFT(A2,SEARCH(" ",A2)-1)
copy this to B3 (and on) and you will slowly see the full list getting created.
The last value is the one you want, so, in C1, put the formula
=OFFSET(B1,COUNTA(B:B)-1,0)
(and hide column B so it looks better)

Related

Splitting names given in single cells without using text to column excel

i want to use excel formula to split multiple names given in a single cell. dont want to use text to column feature. For example
in the above yellow is the variable name & the green color is the required format
See find the nth instance of a character: FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE(string,delimiter,CHAR(1),nth)). For the first, we use LEFT(string,position_first-1). For the last: RIGHT(string,LEN(string)-position_last). For all in between: MID(string,position_first+1,position_second-position_first-1).
So, combining the logic, we may get this:
=IFERROR(IFERROR(IF(B$1=1,LEFT($A2,FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE($A2,"/",CHAR(1),1),1)-1),MID($A2,FIND(CHAR(160),SUBSTITUTE($A2,"/",CHAR(160),B$1-1),1)+1,FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE($A2,"/",CHAR(1),1+B$1-1),1)-FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE($A2,"/",CHAR(1),B$1-1),1)-1)),RIGHT($A2,LEN($A2)-FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE($A2,"/",CHAR(1),B$1-1),1))),"")
IFERROR(...,"") is used to return "" after last occurrence (below, in G2). Nested IFERROR(... RIGHT) will be triggered at last occurrence (since MID will fail there; below at F2).
Try using this:
With the full name in cell A2, the formulas go as follows:
Get the first name:
=LEFT(A2,SEARCH(" ",A2)-1)
Get the last name:
=RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-SEARCH(" ",A2,1))
You enter the formulas in cells B2 and C2, respectively, and drag the fill handle to copy the formulas down the columns. The result will look something similar to this:

Excel - breaking up a cell

I have part numbers with dashs and numbers for organization purpose, and I was wondering if there's a way I could de-concatenate the string into nearby cells with a formula or two and not go through Data > Text to Columns. Any idea?
Here's a demo of a formula-based approach. The formulas will work in Excel.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LXtKOsxzo1J2-D1e4e_QUqxUug191GHJ5exWSWcoS0s/edit?usp=sharing
It works like this:
A1 contains the string you want to break up, say 12424-22778-3432626-442-52523262.
B2 contains this formula: =FIND("-",$A1,1). This will find us the first occurrence of - in A1.
B3 contains this formula: =FIND("-",$A1,B1+1). This will find us the next occurrence of - in A1 (it starts looking for - from the position following what we found in B2.
B4... can be copied over from B3. If you copy the cell rather than the formula, the formula will automatically change the reference to B1 to C1 and up. In the example, it's copied over all the way to E1.
F1 contains =mid($A1,1,B1-1). This gets us the string from the first char to the B1-1th char, i.e.: start to first occurrence of -, but without the -.
G1 contains =mid($A1,B1+1,C1-B1-1). You can copy this over up to the second to last cell. The gets us the string from the previous - (+1, i.e. without the -) to the next - (-1, i.e. without the -).
J1 is the last cell and contains =mid($A1,$E1+1,len($A1)). It works the same as the previous formula, but goes up to the end of the string in A1.

How to add white spaces in a field of Excel which is equal to length of a longer word

I have a scenario where I want my Microsoft excel field to have the same length of the longest word in the column.
Basically lets say if I have:
ACBBASDBBADSAD
BADFDFDDF
So here I want to have the second word with less characters to have white spaces at its end to match the length of the first word.
=&" " this definitely helps but I am unable to achieve the above scenario
Consider this screenshot:
In column B the length of each cell of column A is established with the formula =len(A1) copied down.
Cell D2 has the range name MaximumLength and the formula =max(B:B).
With that in place, you can create the padded values with this formula in cell G1, copied down:
=A1&REPT("*",MaximumLength-LEN(A1))
If you don't want to use the helper column and helper cell, you can use this array formula instead:
=A2&REPT("*",MAX(LEN(A1:A15))-LEN(A2))
This formula must be confirmed with Ctrl-Shift-Enter. It is advisable to use defined ranges, not whole columns in array formulas, hence the range in LEN(A1:A15). Adjust as desired.
I've used the "*" character so it is visible. Replace it with a space " " in your scenario.
You can add this formula to count maximum characters and use on some cell, because you will need to press a command for it to work, so every cell can't contain this formula, let's say it is on Z1:
=MAX(LEN($A:$A))
Certify to press ctrl+shift+enter on the formula
Then you use this formula on your cells:=REPT(" ";Z1-LEN(A2))&A2
Edit: Sorry, anwsered late, teylyn is more complete.

How to enter information in one cell based on text in another cell

I would like to enter information in a cell based on the text contained in a different cell. Specifically, if a cell in column A contains text that includes "insurance," "retirement," or "401K," then I want to place an "x" in its respective cell in Column B. If not, then cell B1 should be empty. The text needs to be contained within the cell, but does not need to be the exact text. E.g., an "x" would still be placed in the column next to "life insurance" or "insurance," "whole life insurance," etc.
E.g.,
Column A Column B
Life Insurance x
Securities
Retirement x
I tried to use the following formula, but am getting an error message when I do so:
IF(OR(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("insurance",A1,"retirement",A1, "401K",A1)),"x", "")
Any thoughts?
This formula should help:
=IF(OR(ISNUMBER(FIND("Insurance",A1)),ISNUMBER(FIND("Retirement",A1)),ISNUMBER(FIND("401K",A1))),"x","")
EDIT:
I came up with an array formula that I like a little better. Hope this helps:
=IF(COUNT(MATCH({"*Insurance*","*Retirement*","*401K*"},A1,0))>0,"x","")
This will require pressing CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER instead of just ENTER after putting it in the cell because it's an array formula.

Getting the Nth instance of an element

I have a column filled with data that has a path. I'd like to get the last element in the path, the second last element, and the first element. For example, for the following data:
\Product\Release\Iteration
\Product\Folder1\Folder2\Anotherfolder\Release2\Iteration5
\Product
\Product\Somefolder\Release3\Iteration5
I'd like to get the following in cells
In cell B1: "Product", cell C1: "Release", cell D1: "Iteration"
In cell B2: "Product", cell C2: "Release2", cell D2: "Iteration5"
In cell B3: "Product", cell C3: blank, cell D3: blank
In cell B4: "Product", cell C4: "Release3", cell D4: "Iteration5"
Getting the first and the last component is easy. I'm mostly just struggling with getting the second to last component (column C in the example above).
In B1 and copied down:
=TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"\",REPT(" ",99)),99,99))
In C1 and copied down:
=IF(LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"\",""))=2,TRIM(RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"\",REPT(" ",99)),99)),IF(LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"\",""))>2,TRIM(LEFT(RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"\",REPT(" ",99)),198),99)),""))
In D1 and copied down:
=IF(OR(LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"\",""))={1,2}),"",TRIM(RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"\",REPT(" ",99)),99)))
Assuming your data is in ColumnA use Text to Columns with \ as delimiter to split across columns B:G. Assuming a maximum of 8 elements, put =B1 in K1 and in L1:
=IF(AND(ISBLANK(D1),ISBLANK(C1)),"",IF(ISBLANK($D1),$C1,IF(ISBLANK(C1),"",INDIRECT("R"&ROW()&"C"&COLUMN()-COUNTBLANK($B1:$I1)-4,0))))
Copy L1 to M1 and K1:M1 down to suit.
Copy Paste Special Values over the top and delete columns A:I.
Made up two formulas to retrieve any part of the path you want:
Taking the first as starting from the left:
=IFERROR(MID(A3,FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE(A3,"\",CHAR(1),C$2))+1,IFERROR(FIND("\",A3,FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE(A3,"\",CHAR(1),C$2))+1)-FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE(A3,"\",CHAR(1),C$2))-1,LEN(A3))),"")
Taking the first as starting from the right:
=IFERROR(MID(A3,FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE(A3,"\",CHAR(1),LEN(A3)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A3,"\",""))+1-D$2))+1,IFERROR(FIND("\",A3,FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE(A3,"\",CHAR(1),LEN(A3)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A3,"\",""))+1-D$2))+1)-FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE(A3,"\",CHAR(1),LEN(A3)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A3,"\",""))+1-D$2))-1,LEN(A3))),"")
And here's a google spreadsheet where you can see how it's working.
Note: I had to make a few changes to the formulae to make it google-spreadsheet-compatible, namely:
Change CHAR(1) to something else, I used "/" as substitute
Add an IF() to check for SUBSTITUTE(,,,0) (the 0 parameter) since this gives an error in MS Excel but not on google spreadsheet.
If you just need to parse the data to cells, you could import a text file into Excel with '\' delimitor. Otherwise, you need to loop through with CHARINDEX() and SUBSTRING to find the position of each backslash and parse out the data in between.
You could also use SSIS and set up a text file transformation with '\' delimitor to Excel for automation. With TSQL, you need to loop as I suggested
This has an excellent example that uses the split command. You just need to change the | character to \ and use the loop to put the individual values in the places you want.
Break string based on a character in VBA 2010
This should work for you (assuming you don't use * in your file names which I don't think is allowed in windows anyways):
=RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND("*",SUBSTITUTE(A2,"\","*",(LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2,"\","")))-1),1))
That is for the second last element.
You can get any element you want by changing the bold number:
=RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND("",SUBSTITUTE(A2,"\","",(LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2,"\","")))-3),1))
EDIT/ADDITION
If you want to get rid of the values to the right of the nth element in the formulas above, you can do it like this:
=IFERROR(LEFT(RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND("*",SUBSTITUTE(A2,"\","*",(LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2,"\","")))-1),1)),FIND("\",RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND("*",SUBSTITUTE(A2,"\","*",(LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2,"\","")))-1),1)),1)-1),"error checking, lol")

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