Excel VBA split after second space

Question

I'm trying to split my column so that the names

James John Doe

Comes out as only

James John

Using the below formula but it only leaves the first name, where I want it to split at the second occurrence of "space".

Sub Split1()
Dim r As Range

For Each r In Range("A2:A" & Cells(Rows.count, "A").End(xlUp).Row).Cells.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeConstants)
    r.Value = Split(r.Value, " ")(0)
    
Next r

Can anyone help me out?

Thanks

Answer 1

There are a few ways you can turn a three-word phrase into the first two words.

Let's start with your Split() method. This function returns an array. Your particular method of attempting to access the index will only return a single word.

You can place into an array, then just combine the array elements:

For Each r In Range(...)

    Dim retVal() As String
    retVal = Split(r.Value)
    r.Value = retVal(0) & " " & retVal(1)

Next r

You can remove the last word with Replace() :

For Each r In Range(...)

    r.Value = Replace(r.Value, Split(r.Value)(2), "")

Next

Or you can even use Regular Expressions:

With CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")

    .Pattern = "\s[^\s]+$"
    For Each r in Range(...)
        r.Value = .Replace(r.Value, "")
    Next
    
End With

In Regular Expressions, \s signifies a single space character, the [^...] bracket means "Do not include", which we placed a \s within the bracket, so that would match any non-space character , followed by the + means 1 or more times, and finally the $ signifies the end of the string. Essentially, you are wanting to match a word [^\s]+ that is at the end of the string $ , preceeded by a space \s , and remove it via the .Replace() method. And you actually could also simply use the pattern \s\S+$ , which is essentially the same thing ( \S means any non-space character when it's capitalized).

Answer 2

You may try to use left & find to obtain the string value untill second space instead of split function

Code modification:

Dim r As Range
Dim s As String, newText As String
Dim Length As Long

For Each r In Range("A2:A" & Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row).Cells.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeConstants)
    s = r.Value
    Length = Application.WorksheetFunction.Find(" ", s, Application.WorksheetFunction.Find(" ", s) + 1)
    
    r.Value = Left(s, Length)
Next r

Sample output:

Answer 3

Further way to extract the 1st and 3rd token of a split array

This approach profits from the advanced possibilities of Application.Index allowing to indicate any new row or columns order; the wanted columns are reflected here by the last 1-based (columns) argument Array(1, 3) :

Function GetFirstLast(s As String) As String
    GetFirstLast = Join(Application.Index(Split(s), 0, Array(1, 3)))
End Function

Example call:

Debug.Print GetFirstLast("James John Doe")

resulting in

James Doe in the VB Editor's immediate window.