I want first name only

[Barrett9699]

I have a list of names in the format 'Last, First'

I want a funtion that will return the first name only. Basically,
want to trim off everything before the comma as well as the space afte
the comma.

I don't think the RIGHT() function will work because these names ar
different lenghts, as you can imagine.

Can you help

 

[Guest]

=RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND(" ",A1))

 

[L. Howard Kittle]

Try this formula and pull down.

=RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND(",",A1)-1)

Or select the list of names and Data > Text to column > Delimited > Next >
check both space and other > enter a coma > Finish.

HTH
Regards,
Howard

"Barrett9699" <[email protected]>
wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

 

[Barrett9699]

Right on!

Much Thanks

 

[hhalle]

Hi Barret,

I dont have the english name for the function but you can find it i
text.

In Dutch it is Vind.Spec(value,text_ref,starting_value)

What it does is: you search for the ',' and it will give its position
all you have to do now is: say the tekst is is A1,
B1=vind.spec(",",A1) if the cell A1 is empty you'll get a
errromessage, so maybe a test if it's empty should be included:

The Dutch Syntax:
=ALS(A1<>"",RECHTS(A1,(LENGTE(A1)-VIND.SPEC(",",A1)-1)),"")

Possible English Syntax:
= IF(A1<>"";RIGTH(A1,(LEN(A12)-FIND.SPEC(",";A1)-1));"")

The -1 after FIND.SPEC depends if you have spaces after the comma, on
space is -1, two spaces is -2, etc etc.
No spaces then forget the -1

Good luck
: