How do I extract the first word from a cell in Google Sheets?

---

You can use the following syntax to extract the first word from a cell in Google Sheets:

=LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2&" ")-1)

This particular formula will extract the first word from the string in cell A2.

The following example shows how to use this syntax in practice.

Example: Extract First Word from Cell in Google Sheets

Suppose we have the following list of phrases in Google Sheets:

Suppose we would like to extract the first word from each cell.

We can type the following formula into cell B2 to do so:

=LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2&" ")-1)

We can then click and drag this formula down to each remaining cell in column B:

Column B now contains the first word from each corresponding string in column A.

Note that the formula works no matter how long the string or phrase is in any given cell.

Also note that the formula works when the string only contains one word, such as the string in cell A8.

How This Formula Works

Recall the formula that we used to extract the first word from cell A2:

=LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2&" ")-1)

Here is how this formula works:

 First, we use A2&” “ to add a space to the string in cell A2. This ensures that the formula will work with cells that only have one word.

Then, we use FIND to find the location of the first space in the cell.

Then, we subtract one from this location.

Lastly, we use the LEFT function to extract all text to the left of this final location.

The end result is that we’re able to extract the first word from the string in cell A2.

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in Google Sheets: