Watch Video – How to Split Text to Columns in Google Sheets
You can use the Split Text to Columns in Google Sheets to quickly split the contents of a cell (or a range of cells).
Split Text to Columns feature comes in handy when you want quickly split the first name and the last name, or the username and domain name from email id, or the domain name from URLs.
In this tutorial, I will show you multiple examples of how to split text to columns in Google Sheets. Soon you will know exactly how to split cells in Google Sheets like a pro.
How to Split Text to Columns in Google Sheets
Example 1 – Split the Full Name into First Name and Last Name
Below is a dataset with the names of some of my favorite superheroes:
Here are steps to split the full name into the first and last name:
- Select the data that you want to split.
- Go to the Data tab.
- Click on Split Text to Columns from the drop-down.
- In the Separator dialog box that appears at the bottom right of the data, select space as the delimiter.
That’s it! It will instantly split the names into the first name and the last name.
Note:
- When you use the ‘Split Text to Column’, it overwrites the original data set. If you want to keep the original dataset intact, create a copy of the data set and use Split Text to Column on that data set.
- It would give you a static result. This means, that your data would not update in case you update the original dataset. If you want this to be dynamic, use the split function.
- Every space character is considered as a different separator. In case you have a double space between names and you use the space character as the delimiter, it will split the name into 3 columns. In such cases, remove the double space by using the TRIM function [there is a text to column functionality in Excel to consider consecutive delimiters as one. I hope that is also adopted by Google Sheets].
Example 2 – Split the Email id into Username and Domain Name
Suppose you have a dataset with emails as shown below:
Here are the steps to use Split Text to Columns to separate username and domain name:
- Select the data that you want to split.
- Go to the Data tab.
- Click on Split Text to Columns from the drop-down.
- In the Separator dialog box that appears at the bottom right of the data, select Custom.
- In the Custom field, enter @.Â
As soon as you enter @, Google Sheets will instantly split the text into username and domain name.
Again, remember that this will overwrite the original dataset. If you want to keep the original data set intact, create a copy, and then use the Split Text to Columns feature.
Example 3 – Get the Domain name from the URL
Suppose you have a dataset as shown below:
Note that there is a mix of URLs where some only have the root domain and some have links to a specific page/post.
Here are the steps to get the domain name from URLs using Split Text to Columns:
- Select the data that you want to split.
- Go to the Data tab.
- Click on Split Text to Columns from the drop-down.
- In the Separator dialog box that appears at the bottom right of the data, select Custom.
- In the Custom field, enter /
Note that as soon as you enter /, the URLs will spit and the domain name would be in column C.
Now if you’re wondering why column B is empty, it’s because there are two forward slashes after HTTP in the URLs. Each forward slash is treated as an individual separator.
Also, note that this technique works when you have the domain names in the same format. For example, if you have one with HTTP and one without it, then it may give you the domain names in different columns.
So this is how you can use the Text to Columns functionality in Google Sheets to quickly split cells in Google Sheets. You can also do similar text to the column using formulas (such as RIGHT, LEFT, MID, etc.). but in most cases, I find using this a lot easier.
I hope you found this tutorial useful!
You May Also Like the Following Google Sheets Tutorials:
- How to Quickly Merge Cells in Google Sheets.
- Remove Last Character from a String in Google Sheets
- How to Quickly Freeze Rows in Google Sheets.
- How to Transpose Data in Google Sheets.
- Inserting Timestamps in Google Sheets.
- Concatenate in Google Sheets – Combine Cells Using Formula.
- Capitalize First Letters in Google Sheets (using Formula)
Sumit is a Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel Expert. He provides spreadsheet training to corporates and has been awarded the prestigious Excel MVP award by Microsoft for his contributions in sharing his Excel knowledge and helping people.
1 thought on “How to Split Text to Columns in Google Sheets (with Examples)”
I need to split a two digit code that is coming over as a string of numbers in one cell with no delimiter.
So A1 has 022325, I need to delimit the field as 02,23,25.
Comments are closed.