oooooooops.....as long as that post was, I still missed something that should
be self apparent but just in case:

Enter the Trim function in Cell "D1" and copy down.

"Don" wrote:

As Ron pointed out above...use the "Text to Columns" function, then apply the
Trim function if there is only one space between the last name and the open
paren.

Here's how:

First make sure you have some empty columns to the right of your data. I
used Col "A" for the data, Col "B" & "C" for the delimited data and Col "D"
for the Trim function. You, of course, can adjust these to suit your Sheet.

Highlight all the data in Col "A" that you want to manipulate. Then under
the "Data" menu on the upper tool bar, click on "Text to Columns". Step
through the various windows. In the opening window make sure the option
"Delimited" is ticked. Next window choose "Other" and insert "(" in the
blank window next to "Other". (Without the quotes). Next window, the column
data format should be General and I chose to have the data sent to Col "B",
thus retaining the original data for now. Then click "Finish". Now in Col
"B" should be the name (first and last and middle initial if there was one)
and the suffix should be in Col "C".

Now in Col "D" enter this formula:

=TRIM(B1)

Copy this down as far as your data is. Then copy Col "D" and "Paste
Special/Value" back onto itself. The names should then be as you want,
assuming there is only one space between names and between the name and the
suffix. Then delete the unwanted Col's.

HTH,

"Dark Horse" wrote:

I have no idea at all what this is about, as someone said to me just now
"show a couple of examples"
There is a name, then a space and then the opening parenthesis - no numbers
of any kind are involved.
I can't use a space as a delimiter as there as spaces in the data too - and
if I use the parenthesis that will leave a space after the data which will
stop the data being recognised.


"tjtjjtjt" wrote in message
...
I don't know my suffixes from my prefixes . . .
Use the Open paren as the Delimiter, instead, if you are removing a suffix
and there are no spaces between the number and the (IRE).
If there is a space, use that as the Delimiter.

tj

"tjtjjtjt" wrote:

Check out Data | Text to Columns.
Set the Delimiter to the close paren, ), using the other box.

tj

"Dark Horse" wrote:

I download a list of data each day, and a lot of it comes with a
suffix in
brackets showing the country of origin of the piece of data - (IRE) as
an
example.
Because of the suffix, my data doesn't recognise the two things as the
same
so I end up having to remove all the suffixes by hand.
Is there any way of accomplishing this in a neater and quicker way?
Thanks in advance
Cheers
Dave