In case you have to apply a formula...

=TRIM(LEFT(A2,SEARCH(":",A2&" :")-1))

which would handle entries with no colon and empty cells in A.

Alan wrote:
I have a text file report that is not customizable. I import that into
Excel. There is a field where relevant data ends after the colon
character ":". Can someone help me with a formula I can put in column C
that evaluates the corresponding cell in column B and brings back all
text to the left of the colon mark?


Examples:
Column B

freddy: 45345 sldf
jeff: 45422 fdflh
sam: bfd4454

In this case I want to return the characters to the left of the colon:
freddy
jeff
sam

Thanks in Advance!
Alan