Welcome to the ultimate guide on how to split cells in Google Sheets! If you’ve ever had to compile data from different sources, you know how frustrating it can be to properly format that data. Fortunately, splitting the content of a cell into multiple columns using Google Sheets functions is quite simple. Let’s dive in and see how it’s done.
Splitting Cells using the Menu Option
If you don’t want to use formulas or if your data won’t change in the future, you can use the menu option to split cells in Google Sheets. Here are the steps to follow:
Step 1: Click on the cell you want to split, go to the “Data” menu, and choose the “Split text to columns” option.
Your data will automatically be split into different columns.
Note: Google Sheets will analyze your data and determine which character to use as a separator to split the text. If you want to use a different character, simply click on the dropdown menu that appears and choose the right option for your data.
Splitting Cells using Formulas
If your data is likely to change in the future, it’s best to use formulas to split cells. This way, you’ll avoid having to modify the formulas every time your data changes. Here are the steps to follow:
Step 1: Select the column where you want to get the result, type (=), and start typing the formula.
Step 2: Enter the SPLIT() formula.
When you want to split a cell, the first thing you need to do is know the reference of the cell you want to split. To do this, you need to highlight the cell or cells you want to split and insert a comma before your separator, which should be something other than spaces or commas.
If you want to split cell A1 using a comma as the separator, the formula will be “=SPLIT(A1, ‘,’)”.
Note: This formula allows you to display the data in multiple cells. The number of cells depends on the number of separation characters used in the formula.
In some cases, the separator you use may not be just a comma but a combination of a comma and spaces. In that case, you can use the “Split text to columns” function multiple times, first splitting the cell based on the comma, then using spaces or tabs for the second step.
Now that you know how to split cells in Google Sheets, you can choose the method that best suits your preferences and needs.
For more tips and tricks on using Google Sheets, don’t hesitate to visit Crawlan.com, your go-to source for everything related to Google Sheets
