Need a formula to keep characters before a dash (-)

[thgr8tone]

I have a large list of data with the format of xxxx-xxx-xxxxxxx-xxxx (see examples below). I need to pull the data in front (to the left) of the first dash (-) into its own column. The rest of the data (to the right of the first dash) can be deleted. FYI, the data in front of the first dash could be between 3 characters in length to 30 characters in length.

Is there an excel formula or some form of code i could use to perform this action? Any questions, please let me know. In advance, thanks for your help!!! Rick

Data Examples
blic-slb-nw0203 --- Needs to be blic
lasvegas8-mdf-stk2 --- Needs to be lasvegas8
farmingtonhills5-qdf2s-aw18 ---- Needs to be farmingtonhills5

 

[63falcondude]

use text to columns, delimited, and use - as other

 

[JoeMo]

Excel Workbook
	A	B
1	blic-slb-nw0203	blic
Sheet1

 

[jtakw]

Hi,

This should do it:

Excel 2010
	A	B
1	Data Examples
2	blic-slb-nw0203	blic
3	lasvegas8-mdf-stk2	lasvegas8
4	farmingtonhills5-qdf2s-aw18	farmingtonhills5
Sheet1

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
B2	=LEFT(A2,FIND("-",A2)-1)

Formula copied down.