Separate first name from a string...

[AndyD]

hi there
I want to separate out the first name from a string, eg if "Andy Devine", get Andy out, or "John Smith-Brown", get "John" out..
Any code appreciated
Cheers all
Andy

 

[Richard Schollar]

Hi Andy

VBA wise you could use:

strName = left$(myString,instr(1,myString," ")-1)

 

[Oaktree]

Andy:

Note that there's always an Achilles heel to these parsings:

John Von Neumann
Mary Kate Olsen

(an eclectic pairing, to be sure)

If your desired outcome is for Mary Kate to be the first name (opposed to Mary), you're likely going to have to do a manual scan as well. Filtering for a count of the number of spaces may help speed up this process.