Google Sheets - Split Formula

(Part of my administrative assistant series on Google Sheets.)

There are some formulas that are well worth knowing when you are working with student data.  For instance, the number of times that you have a CSV download which has the name in one cell, rather than divided into one cell for the first name and one for the last name, has frustrated me and many others I know time and again.  Luckily, there is the SPLIT formula - which can take care of dividing the name up for you in quick fashion.  

SPLIT

Splits up the data, using an identified delimiter, putting each fragment into different consecutive cells in the row.

Example: =SPLIT(A2, " ")

This will use a space as a delimiter. 

Here is an example of it - 

The formula needs to be applied to each item you want to split - however, using the fill capability can make that quick work.  

Where this is awesome is it's flexibility since you provide the delimiter.  So sometimes I get a list of names that are last name followed by a comma then first name.  I can set the delimiter to ", " as in this example:

Or perhaps I have a list of emails, and need just the usernames which are of variable length - I can use the delimiter of "@" as in this example:

The only word of caution is making sure you have enough columns free for the data to be dispersed.  If you have more than one of the delimiters (you especially can find this with names such as Jack E Smith Jr.), you need an empty cell for each fragment.