Copy just first word of column to another column?

[Mechphisto]

Hi, I've a spreadsheet with hundreds of business names and addresses.
I have to add a column that's going to be a database ID field. But it
can't be as simple as just an incrementing number (that'd be too easy
of course), it has to contain part of the business name.
Is there a way to bulk copy the first word found in column B into
column A? Or the first X number of characters?
Thanks!
Liam

 

[Mechphisto]

This will extract the first word (but will fail if no space is present
in the input cell):
   =LEFT(B1,FIND(" ",B1,1)-1)

Or the first 7 characters:
   =LEFT(B1,7)

Whoa, interesting. Thanks.