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How to get the first word in a cell in Excel and Google Sheets
Topic:Text manipulationExcel & Google Sheets
=IFERROR(LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2)-1),A2)✓
Verified example
Computed by a real spreadsheet engine on the sample data below.
| Full Name |
| Alice Johnson |
| Bob Smith |
| Carol White |
| David Brown |
=IFERROR(LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2)-1),A2)→Alice
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Step by step
- 1Use FIND(" ",A2) to locate the position of the first space in the cell.
- 2Subtract 1 to exclude the space itself from the extraction.
- 3Wrap in LEFT(): =LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2)-1) returns all characters before the first space.
- 4Wrap the whole thing in IFERROR(…,A2) so that single-word cells (no space found) return the full cell value instead of an error.
- 5The final formula: =IFERROR(LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2)-1),A2).
Tips
- To handle leading spaces, first trim the cell: =IFERROR(LEFT(TRIM(A2),FIND(" ",TRIM(A2))-1),TRIM(A2)).
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Frequently asked
What if I need the first two words?
Find the second space using FIND(" ",A2,FIND(" ",A2)+1) and use that position (minus 1) as the number of characters for LEFT.
Can I use this to split a full name into first and last name columns?
Yes — use this formula for the first name and the last-word formula (get-the-last-word) for the last name.
More on Text manipulation
See all →How-to
How to split text into columns
Split a full name or any delimited text into separate columns. Google Sheets uses SPLIT; Excel uses TEXTSPLIT — here is each.
How-toHow to remove extra spaces
Clean leading, trailing, and double spaces with TRIM — the usual fix for lookups that fail on values that look identical.
How-toHow to convert text to a number
Turn numbers stored as text into real numbers with VALUE or by multiplying by 1 — the fix for sums that ignore values.
How-toHow to extract the domain from an email address
Pull everything after the @ from an email using FIND and MID. Works the same in Excel and Google Sheets.
How-toHow to extract the first name from a full name
Get the first name from a full name with LEFT and FIND, splitting on the first space. Works in Excel and Google Sheets.
How-toHow to add leading zeros
Pad numbers to a fixed width with leading zeros using TEXT, or a custom number format. Works in Excel and Google Sheets.