Split Cells in Excel

Splitting cells helps you spread data across multiple columns. It’s easy to do in a spreadsheet. Let’s learn how to split cells in Microsoft Excel.

How to Split Cells in Excel

Imagine that you have a list of data, containing first and last names. Currently, these are all contained within a single column.

But perhaps you want the first names in one column, and the last names in another. This is especially common if someone sends you a spreadsheet with data not formatted the way you’d prefer. But thanks to Excel, the fix is an easy one.

Breaking content from one cell into other cells is called splitting cells. You can do it in just a few clicks in Excel.

To get started, click and drag to select the range of cells that you want to split. In our example, that’s cells A1:A3.

Next, find the Data tab on Excel’s ribbon. Click on it to open it, then find the Text to Columns button just right of center. Click there.

You’ll see a window launch, called Convert Text to Columns Wizard – Step 1 of 3. In most cases, you’ll want to keep the Delimited option that is already selected. Excel will auto-detect how your data is formatted, and choose between Delimited or Fixed width.

Click Next. The second step asks you to set the delimiters your data contains. In other words, this is where you tell Excel how to split your data. In this case, click the Space checkbox. In the Preview box below, you’ll see a quick look at how your data will be split across cells.

As you can see, it splits first names from last names. Click Next again, and then click Finish. As you can see, you now have two columns. Column A contains first names, while column B contains last names.

This is a quick and easy way to make your data easier to read, view, and sort in Excel.