Hi Mynda,
I love your platform!
Question for you - I have a large set of data (14,000 rows) with a "names" column populated with a mixed-bag of various sequenced names as exemplified below. Is there a solution to format this large data set into just first(and initial) and last name? I dont need any characters noted within parenthesis or anything after the ampersand or "and". The end result I am seeking is first name with initial in one column and last name in another, i.e., David G. .(in one column) and Desiderato (in another), James F. (in one column) and Brooks (in another), Aaron (in one column) and Emerson (in another)
BROWN, Daniel T.
Ethel M. Clark (PR) Robert E. Clark
REGINA VERMETT
Reginald F. Smith
David Gartside
David George
David George
A. J. Walston
David Gartside
David Gartside
AARON EMERSON (PR LOUIS P RAVANAL)
Regina Vermett
Brooks, James Frederick and Marie
David G. & Elizabeth Desiderato
Roos, Adam M.
Hi Andrea,
Welcome to our forum!
It's difficult to work with your data because it's not consistently formatted. I would use Power Query's Column From Examples. You'll need to give it lots of help as there are so many variations, but it should tidy up most of it.
Note: the second row and second last rows contain two names and you didn't say how you would handle that.
See file attached.
Mynda
