How to Separate First Name and Last Name in Google Sheets? – Drive

Do you need to divide and organize the names and surnames of your employees, colleagues or clients but find it difficult to do so? Not a problem if you know separate full name columns and turn them into separate Google columns.

Use the Excel tool Google will make this job much easier for you, as they have various functions that make it more comfortable. For instance, has autosave and in addition, it can easily be downloaded to any mobile device or PC. Next, we will show you how you can divide the text into columns and even how you can locate duplicate data in your Drive sheet.

Can any text be split into columns in Excel Drive?

Of course you can do it, what’s more, there are many different ways to do it, you just have to access One Drive, Google Sheets, and choose a method that is easy for you or that it is more appropriate for you to use, to your own liking, to be able to divide any text into columns. Read on to learn how you can do it and what these methods are.

What to use to divide text into columns in Google spreadsheets?

You can use various methods, for example, use ‘Divide text into columns’, create a copy of the cell where the full names are as this will modify all the names you have placed there, which can cause inconveniences, so make a backup copy of the original.

Then you are going to paste the names that you want to divide to the upper cell, once this is done, you are going to click where it says ‘Data’ in the upper menu, then you select ‘Divide text into columns’, this will automatically split the text, but you must have chosen a separator first.

Choose the one that says ‘space’, this will divide the names by spaces, to have first and last names in separate cells. But beware, this method only used with stack names, for a better work you can use a complement and for something simpler formulas.

Plugin in Drive

If what you need is to separate more complex names, you must download a plugin. The plugin is not free, but it has a trial period of one month and it is not that expensive either. You can use ablebits.com as a complement.

To download a plugin you have to click where it says ‘add-ons’ At the top of the page, then choose the option to ‘get add-on’, look for the one you want to download, you can put ‘split names’ or ‘Split Names’ and finally install it.

To use it select the cells with the names inside the columns and click Add-ons then Split Names and finally Start. After this step, a tab will appear where you must select: Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Greeting / Title, Name Suffix / Post-nominal letters, my column has a heading. You have the option to lock cells and columns.

You choose your options and you give it in ‘division’. Once this is done, the plugin will create three separate columns and if you chose the header option, it will automatically also generate a header for them.

Using formulas

To divide cells you can also do it through formulas, you just have to select the cell to which you want to place the result write the formula ‘= DIVIDE (A1, “”)’A1 is the cell you are going to divide and “” the cell that was divided.

Then press enter key and so the cell will be divided, then it is up to you to sort and classify the names. It is a simple way to divide names in Google, when we place a clear division by commas.

How to locate duplicate data in Drive spreadsheets?

In order to locate duplicate there are different ways, one of them is using a new column, the function of this column is identify whether a record is repeated or notAnother way that is more useful and functional is to use conditional formats, to be able to place a special color that identifies the cells or rows that are duplicated.

How to remove duplicate spaces in columns?

To be able to do this, first you have to select the data range from which you want to remove spaces, then in the upper part of the sheet you will select ‘Data’ and then you will click where it says cut blank spaces and voila, you will have your document free of extra spaces. It’s that simple to take advantage of the tools that Google offers us to streamline our work.