Extract anything from a text string — first name, email domain, file extension — with the new text functions.
Before Excel 365, splitting text required nesting LEFT, FIND, MID, and LEN — formulas that were hard to write and impossible to read. The new text functions do the same job in one clean formula.
=TEXTBEFORE(text, delimiter, [instance])
=TEXTBEFORE(A2, " ") extract first name from "Sarah Johnson"
=TEXTBEFORE(A2, "@") extract username from "sarah@company.com"
=TEXTBEFORE(A2, "/", -1) extract everything before the last slash=TEXTAFTER(text, delimiter, [instance])
=TEXTAFTER(A2, " ") extract last name from "Sarah Johnson"
=TEXTAFTER(A2, "@") extract domain from "sarah@company.com"
=TEXTAFTER(A2, ".", -1) extract file extension (last dot)=TEXTSPLIT(text, col_delimiter, [row_delimiter])
=TEXTSPLIT(A2, ",") split "North,South,East" into 3 separate cells
=TEXTSPLIT(A2, " ") split "John Smith Jones" into separate words=LEFT(A2, FIND(" ", A2) - 1)
-- Extract first name the old way
=MID(A2, FIND("@", A2) + 1, LEN(A2))
-- Extract domain from email the old wayTEXTBEFORE, TEXTAFTER, and TEXTSPLIT are Excel 365 and Excel for the web only. For older versions, use LEFT/MID/RIGHT with FIND or SEARCH.
ExcelPro has 880+ hands-on exercises across 9 tracks — type real formulas, get instant feedback.
Start practising free →