Microsoft Excel:  Parse Text in a Column

There are times you receive data in an Excel spreadsheet where the information you need to sort on is part of other text in one column. A common example is a list of people’s names where the first and last names are in the same column. What you need to do is split the text in to two columns; one column for the first name and another for the last name.

Before beginning the steps below, be sure you have enough empty columns to hold the split data. If you don’t, you may overwrite some of your existing data.

1. Select the cells in the column to parse (split).
2. From the Data menu, select Text to Columns… to open the wizard.
3. Step 1 of 3:Be sure Delimited is selected, then click Next>
4. Step 2 of 3:Select the delimiter type, then click Next>
5. Step 3 of 3: Choose the data type for the column if necessary, then click Finish

If you have any questions regarding this tip or need help implementing it in your own projects, contact Ranelle Maltas, Application Support Associate, at 472-0585 or e-mail at rmaltas2@unl.edu.