How to Separate First Names and Last Names Into Separate Fields in a Microsoft Excel List
You have your spreadsheet, with both first and last names combined as in this illustration., In this example, you would hold your cursor over the "B" column heading until it makes a down arrow, and then left click the mouse to select the entire...
Step-by-Step Guide
-
Step 1: You have your spreadsheet
Note that you must have several empty columns after the column you are converting.
If you need to, highlight the column and insert 2-3 new columns.
Otherwise, the conversion will overwrite the data in successive columns. , You only choose fixed width if the segments you want to separate are all exactly the same width (like separating area codes from phone numbers). , In our case, it is simply a space, so we select space.
You can also checkmark "Treat consecutive delimiters as one".
If you had names separated by commas (like Brown, James), you would use the comma as the delimiter, etc. , Press the "Finish" button to continue.
This area is only changed if you are dealing with numbers or dates. , The spreadsheet should look like this now. , This is what the spreadsheet looks like with updated headers and sorted alpha by last name. -
Step 2: with both first and last names combined as in this illustration.
-
Step 3: In this example
-
Step 4: you would hold your cursor over the "B" column heading until it makes a down arrow
-
Step 5: and then left click the mouse to select the entire column as shown here.
-
Step 6: you select the DATA tab
-
Step 7: and then select the TEXT TO COLUMNS button.
-
Step 8: In the first window of the Text to Columns Wizard
-
Step 9: you will choose DELIMITED.
-
Step 10: In the second window of the Text to Columns Wizard
-
Step 11: you choose the delimiter
-
Step 12: or what separates the things you'd like in separate columns.
-
Step 13: In the third window of the Text to Columns Wizard
-
Step 14: choose "general" formatting and leave everything else as it is.
-
Step 15: Review your work.
-
Step 16: You can now change the headers to First Name and Last Name if you like
-
Step 17: and sort by last name if you are so inclined.
Detailed Guide
Note that you must have several empty columns after the column you are converting.
If you need to, highlight the column and insert 2-3 new columns.
Otherwise, the conversion will overwrite the data in successive columns. , You only choose fixed width if the segments you want to separate are all exactly the same width (like separating area codes from phone numbers). , In our case, it is simply a space, so we select space.
You can also checkmark "Treat consecutive delimiters as one".
If you had names separated by commas (like Brown, James), you would use the comma as the delimiter, etc. , Press the "Finish" button to continue.
This area is only changed if you are dealing with numbers or dates. , The spreadsheet should look like this now. , This is what the spreadsheet looks like with updated headers and sorted alpha by last name.
About the Author
Zachary Perez
Professional writer focused on creating easy-to-follow organization tutorials.
Rate This Guide
How helpful was this guide? Click to rate: