How to Extract First Name from Full Name in Excel

To extract the first name from a full name in Excel, you can use the LEFT and SEARCH functions. Follow the steps below to achieve this:

1. Open your Excel workbook and ensure you have the full names in a column (e.g., Column A).
2. In the adjacent column (e.g., Column B), enter the following formula:

=LEFT(A1, SEARCH(" ", A1) - 1)

Replace A1 with the cell reference of the full name you want to extract the first name from.

3. Press Enter to apply the formula. The first name will now be extracted in Column B.
4. To apply the formula to the entire list, click on the bottom right corner of the cell containing the formula (Cell B1 in this example) and drag it down to cover all the full names in the list.

Example

Let's say you have a list of full names in Column A as shown below:

A
1   John Doe
2   Jane Smith
3   Michael Johnson
4   Emily Brown

To extract the first names, follow the steps mentioned earlier. In this case, you'll enter the formula =LEFT(A1, SEARCH(" ", A1) - 1) in cell B1 and press Enter. You should see "John" in cell B1.

Next, click on the bottom right corner of cell B1 and drag it down to cover all the full names in the list. The result should look like this:

A                B
1   John Doe       John
2   Jane Smith     Jane
3   Michael Johnson Michael
4   Emily Brown    Emily

Now, you have successfully extracted the first names from the full names in Excel.