Text Cleanup
Split names, trim spaces, fix capitalization, and extract text.
Extract the First Name from a Full Name
Split "Ana Torres" into just "Ana" — a universal LEFT + FIND version, plus the cleaner modern formulas for Excel 365 and Google Sheets.
=LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2)-1)Remove Extra Spaces from Text
TRIM strips leading, trailing, and doubled spaces that break lookups and comparisons — the first fix for any imported data.
=TRIM(A2)Combine First and Last Names
Join name columns into one full-name column with & or TEXTJOIN — including the trick that avoids stray spaces when a cell is blank.
=A2&" "&B2Remove Duplicates and Keep One of Each
Get a clean list with each value appearing exactly once, without deleting anything from your original data.
=UNIQUE(A2:A20)Find Blank Cells in a Column
Flag every empty cell in a column with a simple IF check, so missing entries stand out instead of hiding in the data.
=IF(A2="","Blank","Filled")Extract the Last Name from a Full Name
Pull "Torres" out of "Ana Torres" — a universal MID + FIND version, plus cleaner one-liners for Excel 365 and Google Sheets.
=MID(A2,FIND(" ",A2)+1,100)Extract the Domain from an Email Address
Pull "acme.com" out of "ana@acme.com" with MID and FIND — perfect for grouping contacts by company.
=MID(A2,FIND("@",A2)+1,100)Capitalize Names Properly
PROPER turns "ana torres" or "ANA TORRES" into "Ana Torres" — the one-function fix for shouty or lowercase imports.
=PROPER(A2)Split Text into Columns by a Delimiter
Break "Ana,Sales,Chicago" into separate columns with one formula — TEXTSPLIT in Excel 365, SPLIT in Google Sheets.
=TEXTSPLIT(A2,",")SEARCH vs FIND: When Case Sensitivity Matters
SEARCH ignores case and accepts wildcards, so it's the everyday choice; FIND is for exact-case matches — and errors with #VALUE! on a case miss.
=SEARCH("lamp",A2)CONCATENATE vs TEXTJOIN: Which Way to Combine Text
TEXTJOIN takes the delimiter once and can skip blanks; CONCATENATE makes you glue every piece by hand — use TEXTJOIN wherever your Excel has it.
=TEXTJOIN(", ",TRUE,A2:A5)Extract Text Between Two Characters
Pull the text inside parentheses or between any two markers — FIND locates both characters and MID grabs what sits between them.
=MID(A2,FIND("(",A2)+1,FIND(")",A2)-FIND("(",A2)-1)Count the Words in a Cell
Count words by counting spaces: strip the spaces out with SUBSTITUTE, compare lengths, and add 1 — with TRIM handling messy spacing.
=LEN(TRIM(A2))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(A2)," ",""))+1Swap Last Name, First Name into First Last
Turn "Torres, Ana" into "Ana Torres" — MID pulls everything after the comma, LEFT grabs everything before it, and & rejoins them.
=MID(A2,FIND(",",A2)+2,99)&" "&LEFT(A2,FIND(",",A2)-1)Remove Characters from the Start, End, or Anywhere
Strip the first N characters with MID, the last N with LEFT and LEN, or every copy of a specific character with SUBSTITUTE.
=MID(A2,3,999)Find and Replace Text With SUBSTITUTE
SUBSTITUTE swaps every occurrence of one piece of text for another — strip dashes from phone numbers, drop currency symbols, or fix separators in bulk.
=SUBSTITUTE(A2,"-","")Extract Numbers From Messy Text
Pull the digits out of entries like "Order #4521 (rush)" — one line of REGEXEXTRACT in Google Sheets, a dynamic-array digit filter in Excel 365.
=TEXTJOIN("",TRUE,IFERROR(MID(A2,SEQUENCE(LEN(A2)),1)*1,""))