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SPLIT

The SPLIT formula in Google Sheets is used to split a text string into separate cells based on a delimiter. It is commonly used when you have a large text string that you need to break down into smaller parts. The resulting parts are placed into individual cells, making it easier to work with and analyze the data.

Usage

Use the SPLIT formula with the syntax shown below, it has 2 required parameters and 2 optional parameters:

=SPLIT(text, delimiter, [split_by_each], [remove_empty_text])
Parameters:
  1. text (required):
    The text string that you want to split.
  2. delimiter (required):
    The character or characters that you want to use as the delimiter to split the text string.
  3. split_by_each (optional):
    An optional boolean value that determines whether to split by each occurrence of the delimiter (true) or only the first occurrence (false). Default is false.
  4. remove_empty_text (optional):
    An optional boolean value that determines whether to remove any resulting empty cells (true) or include them (false). Default is false.

Examples

Here are a few example use cases that explain how to use the SPLIT formula in Google Sheets.

Splitting a full name into first and last name.

You can use SPLIT to separate a full name into first and last name by using a space as the delimiter. This can be useful when analyzing data like customer names or employee records.

Splitting a URL into domain and path.

You can use SPLIT to split a URL into the domain and path by using the forward slash as the delimiter. This can be useful when analyzing website traffic data or tracking the performance of specific pages.

Splitting a date into day, month, and year.

You can use SPLIT to split a date into day, month, and year by using the slash as the delimiter. This can be useful when analyzing sales data or tracking project timelines.

Common Mistakes

SPLIT not working? Here are some common mistakes people make when using the SPLIT Google Sheets Formula:

Not using a delimiter

If a delimiter is not specified, the text string will not be split and will appear as a single value in the resulting cells.

Using the wrong delimiter

If the wrong delimiter is used, the text string will not be split correctly and the resulting cells will contain incorrect values.

Related Formulas

The following functions are similar to SPLIT or are often used with it in a formula:

  • JOIN

    The JOIN formula concatenates the elements of one or more arrays using a specified delimiter string. It is commonly used to combine text strings or to create comma-separated lists of values.

  • REGEXEXTRACT

    The REGEXEXTRACT formula is used to extract a portion of a text string that matches a regular expression. This is useful when you need to extract specific information from a text string that follows a certain pattern.

  • LEFT

    The LEFT formula is used to extract a specific number of characters from the beginning of a text string. It is most commonly used to extract the first name or last name from a full name or to extract a date from a text string.

  • RIGHT

    The RIGHT formula in Google Sheets returns the rightmost characters from a string, based on the number of characters specified. It is commonly used to extract a certain number of characters from the end of a string. The formula takes two arguments: the string from which to extract the characters, and the number of characters to extract.

Learn More

You can learn more about the SPLIT Google Sheets function on Google Support.