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Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\) Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\) is offline
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Default How do I swap a group of surnames to the front of first names?

How do I change the position of surname to the front of first
names within a cell?
For example, Frank Chin. I want to change it into Chin Frank.


I presume you want to do this one time and permanently (in other words, you
are trying to correct a column of data).

Let's make use of a helper column. Paste this formula in a cell in a new
column...

=MID(A1&" "&A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1,LEN(A1))

and then copy it down for at least as many rows as your data column is
using. Next, select the cells for this new row and hit Ctrl+C (or select the
Copy option from the Edit menu), Then select the original data column and
select Paste Special from the Edit menu, click the Values option button on
the dialog box that appears, then click OK. Your original data will now be
changed to the way you want it (so you can delete the entries in the helper
column).

Rick