BeginnerText Functions
Split a full name with LEFT and FIND
Pull the first name out of a single full-name column.
LEFT · FIND
7 min15 points
LEFT
Returns a set number of characters from the start of a text value.
Syntax
LEFT(text, [num_chars])
Text Functions.
A worked example
=LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2)-1)
Returns Marcus
Takes every character before the first space — the first name.
Where it goes wrong
Hard-coding the character count. =LEFT(A2,6) works for Marcus and turns Dana Whitfield into Dana W.
Practise LEFT
Knowing what a function does and being able to write it from memory are different skills. These close the gap.