Let me show you an example.
Here we have a list of names.
We want to pull out the first name from the full name.
There’s an Excel function calledLEFTthat will extract text from the left, so let’s start there.
Rather than explain how LEFT works, let’s just try it out to see what it does.
Once I initiate the parentheses, Excel will tell us what we need to provide.
Let’s just throw our names into the function and leave out num_chars to see what happens.
What we get is the first character of each name, so it’s a start.
Now let’s add in a value for num_chars.
When I copy that formula down, I get the first five characters of each name.
So, at this point, you’re free to see what the basic challenge is.
To do this, we can use another function calledFIND.
The last argument is optional, so we’ll leave that out.
That means we can use theFIND functioninside theLEFT functionto represent the number of characters we need to extract.
When I copy it down, we get a list of first names.
That means we actually have a space at the end of all those first names.
To get rid of the space, I just need to make one simple change.
I need to subtract 1 from the result we get from FIND.
That way, we won’t pick up the space.
This is a simple example, but the idea is the same for all complex formulas.
Start with the big picture, and work in small steps to get the result you need.
