Hi everyone,
I have a column of proper names, some of which have middle initials and
some of which do not. I am trying to get them into columns of | first
name | MI | Last Name |. The problem is that excel seperates them into
three columns with the last name in the middle column for people
without middle initials, and the last name in the third column for
people with middle initials. I would appreciate any help you excel
experts could give me.

See if the information on Chip's page here will help

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/FirstLast.htm

--
Paul B
Always backup your data before trying something new
Please post any response to the newsgroups so others can benefit from it
Feedback on answers is always appreciated!
Using Excel 2002 & 2003

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi everyone,
I have a column of proper names, some of which have middle initials and
some of which do not. I am trying to get them into columns of | first
name | MI | Last Name |. The problem is that excel seperates them into
three columns with the last name in the middle column for people
without middle initials, and the last name in the third column for
people with middle initials. I would appreciate any help you excel
experts could give me.

one way would be to look for the . and then use the LEFT MID & RIGHT
functions.

--
Don Guillett
SalesAid Software

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi everyone,
I have a column of proper names, some of which have middle initials and
some of which do not. I am trying to get them into columns of | first
name | MI | Last Name |. The problem is that excel seperates them into
three columns with the last name in the middle column for people
without middle initials, and the last name in the third column for
people with middle initials. I would appreciate any help you excel
experts could give me.

hit the key too quick. This will get the first name for col B. Surely, you
can figure it out for the middle initial for col C and the last name for col
D.

=IF(ISERR(FIND(".",A8)),LEFT(A7,FIND(" ",A8)),LEFT(A8,FIND(".",A8)-3))

--
Don Guillett
SalesAid Software

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi everyone,
I have a column of proper names, some of which have middle initials and
some of which do not. I am trying to get them into columns of | first
name | MI | Last Name |. The problem is that excel seperates them into
three columns with the last name in the middle column for people
without middle initials, and the last name in the third column for
people with middle initials. I would appreciate any help you excel
experts could give me.

problem solved, thanks alot. The office manager here was telling me
that it was impossible, and I was like "umm . . . no, Im going on
google groups" you guys proved me right

glad to help

--
Don Guillett
SalesAid Software

wrote in message
ups.com...
problem solved, thanks alot. The office manager here was telling me
that it was impossible, and I was like "umm . . . no, Im going on
google groups" you guys proved me right