This blog post will outline the procedure for splitting text strings in Excel, including some functions which may be used in formulas.

These strings can commonly hold meaning as in dates (050415), times (06:45:59), or geographic location (Miami-FL).

In each of these cases, different segments of the text strings hold a specific meaning.

To find out more, check out our handy guide to What is String Splitting.

For dates that have uniform structure where you will want to split the string based upon number of characters or based upon a certain character (like in timestamps with the format 00:00:00), Excels Text to Columns feature can expedite the string splitting process.

Choosing this option, click OK, specify the delimiting character(s), and click OK.

If you choose this option, click OK, click within the Data preview pane to specify where the breaks in your text string should be placed, and then hit OK.

Excel functions that are commonly used for text extraction include LEFT, RIGHT, and MID.

All of these can be used to pull out specific portions of a text string.

The MID function references the number of characters to be extracted from a starting point within the string that you choose.

It follows the syntax MID(CellReference,StartingNumber,NumberOfCharacters).

On the technical side, he has spent over 5 years building databases, providing support and training users on market research software.

He holds a Bachelors of Science degree from the University of Southern California.

Split Function Excel For Mac