Extract First, Last, or Nth Word from Text String in Excel

Excel is a robust data management and analysis tool, and the ability to extract particular words from a text string can be quite helpful in a variety of situations. Knowing how to extract certain words from a text string can be incredibly useful when working with enormous datasets, assessing survey results, or processing text-based data. It will also make your data manipulation activities go much faster.

You will be well-equipped to manage text-based data after completing this course since you will have a thorough understanding of how to extract particular terms from a text string in Excel. So, let's get started and discover the potential of Excel's word extraction from text strings!

Extract First / Last Word From Text String

Here we will first use a formula for any one of the results, then use the autofill handle to complete the task. So let us see a simple process to know how you can extract the first and last word from a text string in Excel.

Step 1

Consider an Excel sheet where you have a list of text strings.

First, to extract the first words, click on an empty cell and enter the formula as =IF(ISERR(FIND(" ",A2)),"",LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2)-1)) and click enter. Then drag down using the autofill handle.

Empty cell > Formula > Enter > Drag.

Step 2

Now to extract the last word, click on an empty cell and enter the formula as =IF(ISERR(FIND("",A2)),"",RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND("*",SUBSTITUTE(A2," ","*",LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ","")))))) and click enter. Then use the auto-fill handle to get all the values.

Empty cell > Formula > Enter > Drag.

Extract Nth Word From Text String

Here we will first create a user-defined formula using VBA and then use it to complete the task. So let us see a simple process to learn how you can extract the nth word from a text string in Excel.

Step 1

Consider the same data that we used in the above example.

First, use Alt + F11 to open the VBA application.

Step 2

Then click on Insert, select Module, and copy the below code into the text box.

Example

Function FindWord(Source As String, Position As Integer)
Dim arr() As String
arr = VBA.Split(Source, " ")
xCount = UBound(arr)
If xCount < 1 Or (Position - 1) > xCount Or Position < 0 Then
   FindWord = ""
Else
   FindWord = arr(Position - 1)
End If
End Function

Step 3

Then click on the empty cell and enter the formula as =FindWord(A2,3) and click enter. Then drag down using the autofill handle to complete the task.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have used a simple example to demonstrate how you can extract the first, last, or nth word from a text string in Excel to highlight a particular set of data.