Split a full name into first and last
Extracting part of a text value — the task behind most spreadsheet cleanup work.
The data
| Row number | A | B | C |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Full name | First | Last |
| 2 | Ava Bennett | ||
| 3 | Liam Okafor | ||
| 4 | Sofia Rossi | ||
| 5 | Noah Nguyen |
Your task
Put a formula in B2 that returns just the first name from A2 — everything before the space.
Your formula goes in B2
The checker compares your formula against the accepted answers — it does not run it. The expected result is shown with the solution so you can verify it in your own spreadsheet.
Why this is the right formula
The -1 in the LEFT form is the detail everybody gets wrong first: FIND returns the position OF the space, and you want everything before it, so you take one character fewer. TEXTBEFORE removes that off-by-one entirely, which is most of the reason it was added — at the cost of needing Microsoft 365.
Try next
Free to use, share and republish — including commercially. Attribution isn't required, but it's what keeps these free to make, and there's one ready to paste below.
Questions
Does this actually run my formula?
No, and it is worth being clear about that. The checker normalises what you type — case, spaces, the semicolon-or-comma separator, dollar-sign anchors — and compares it against every formula that solves the task. The expected result is shown so you can verify it independently in your own spreadsheet.
My formula is different but correct. Will it be marked wrong?
It should not be: each exercise accepts the genuinely different approaches, not one blessed answer. If you find a correct formula that is rejected, the feedback button sends it to us with the page attached.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no signup, no progress tracking and nothing stored — everything happens in your browser.