Using concatenate in Excel will bring things together. Is there a way
to do the opposite of that?

I have one sheet that has John Smith listed for the buyers name. I
have another sheet that lists all my buyers but I don't need John's
full name listed for this purpose. His first name would do. Without
going back and making changes in my sheets with all the names, can I
do anything to have it just take the first name?

Example:
Sheet 1 NAME ADDRESS PHONE etc
John Smith 123 Main St 555-1212


Sheet 2 NAME
='Sheet1'!A4 <----- that's what I'm currently doing
with the end result saying "John Smith"


I hope this makes sense.

Thank you.

Chip

On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:34:40 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

Using concatenate in Excel will bring things together. Is there a way
to do the opposite of that?

I have one sheet that has John Smith listed for the buyers name. I
have another sheet that lists all my buyers but I don't need John's
full name listed for this purpose. His first name would do. Without
going back and making changes in my sheets with all the names, can I
do anything to have it just take the first name?

Example:
Sheet 1 NAME ADDRESS PHONE etc
John Smith 123 Main St 555-1212


Sheet 2 NAME
='Sheet1'!A4 <----- that's what I'm currently doing
with the end result saying "John Smith"


I hope this makes sense.

Thank you.

Chip

Try the following formula:

=LEFT(Sheet1!A4,FIND(" ",Sheet1!A4)-1)

If will return everythinh upto, but excluding, the first space.

Hope this helps / Lars-Åke

On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:39:08 GMT, Lars-Åke Aspelin
wrote:

On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:34:40 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

Using concatenate in Excel will bring things together. Is there a way
to do the opposite of that?

I have one sheet that has John Smith listed for the buyers name. I
have another sheet that lists all my buyers but I don't need John's
full name listed for this purpose. His first name would do. Without
going back and making changes in my sheets with all the names, can I
do anything to have it just take the first name?

Example:
Sheet 1 NAME ADDRESS PHONE etc
John Smith 123 Main St 555-1212


Sheet 2 NAME
='Sheet1'!A4 <----- that's what I'm currently doing
with the end result saying "John Smith"


I hope this makes sense.

Thank you.

Chip

Try the following formula:

=LEFT(Sheet1!A4,FIND(" ",Sheet1!A4)-1)

If will return everythinh upto, but excluding, the first space.

Hope this helps / Lars-Åke

And the following formula will return everything after the first
space:

=MID(Sheet1!A4,FIND(" ",Sheet1!A4)+1,LEN(Sheet1!A4)-FIND("
",Sheet1!A4))

/ Lars-Åke

=LEFT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND(" ",A1))
(add the sheet1 reference)

" wrote:

Using concatenate in Excel will bring things together. Is there a way
to do the opposite of that?

I have one sheet that has John Smith listed for the buyers name. I
have another sheet that lists all my buyers but I don't need John's
full name listed for this purpose. His first name would do. Without
going back and making changes in my sheets with all the names, can I
do anything to have it just take the first name?

Example:
Sheet 1 NAME ADDRESS PHONE etc
John Smith 123 Main St 555-1212


Sheet 2 NAME
='Sheet1'!A4 <----- that's what I'm currently doing
with the end result saying "John Smith"


I hope this makes sense.

Thank you.

Chip

The only problem I see in implementing your request is for first names that
are composed of two separate names. I have a friend whose first name is Mary
Ann... the space is part of her name. If you have any such names in your
data, the already provided formulas will not pick up the "Anne" part of my
friend's name. With the full name in a cell, I know of know way to parse out
this kind of first name short of having a table of such names to check in
against.

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


wrote in message
...
Using concatenate in Excel will bring things together. Is there a way
to do the opposite of that?

I have one sheet that has John Smith listed for the buyers name. I
have another sheet that lists all my buyers but I don't need John's
full name listed for this purpose. His first name would do. Without
going back and making changes in my sheets with all the names, can I
do anything to have it just take the first name?

Example:
Sheet 1 NAME ADDRESS PHONE etc
John Smith 123 Main St 555-1212


Sheet 2 NAME
='Sheet1'!A4 <----- that's what I'm currently doing
with the end result saying "John Smith"


I hope this makes sense.

Thank you.

Chip