Run this on a trial sheet and see if it is what you are looking for.

Sub extrData()
Dim x As String
Dim n, lr As Long
Dim c As Range
lr = Cells(Rows.Count, 9).End(xlUp).Row
Set myRng = Range("I2:I" & lr)
With myRng
For i = 2 To lr
y = Len(Range("I" & i)) - InStr(Range("I" & i), "-")
n = Len(Range("I" & i)) - (y + 1)
x = Left(Range("I" & i), n)
Range("A" & i) = x
Next
End With
End Sub

"XP" wrote:

Suppose I have data that looks something like:

1A-Data
1B5D-Data-4F
3RCDF-AA-Data
5L-L-Data

The strings may be any length, but I need to get any characters to the left
of the first dash in each string (row). So the above should return:

1A
1B5D
3RCDF
5L

The data resides in one column (col "I") and may be variable in the number
of rows. I would like the extracted info from each row written into the
adjacent column (Col "J").

Thanks much in advance for your example code.