In the example, the active cell contains this formula: The LEFT function extracts characters from the full name starting on the left and continuing up to the number of characters determined in the previous step above. In the example, 5 is the total number of characters, so the result is “Susan”. Note: this formula does not account for titles (Ms., Mr., etc) in the full name. If titles exist, they should be removed first.

Dave Bruns

Hi - I’m Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.