How to Split Text into Columns in Excel (Delimited Data Cleanup)

Exports from other systems often put several values in one cell. Splitting them into columns makes the data usable.

Method 1: Text to Columns

1. Select the column with the combined text.
2. Go to Data → Text to Columns.
3. Choose Delimited and click Next.
4. Tick the delimiter that separates your values: comma, space, semicolon or Other (for example a pipe |).
5. Choose the destination cell, then click Finish.

Make sure there are empty columns to the right, or Excel will overwrite existing data.

Method 2: TEXTSPLIT

=TEXTSPLIT(A2, ",")

This spills the pieces across the row and stays linked to the source. To split by rows instead, use the third argument: =TEXTSPLIT(A2, , ","). It is available in Microsoft 365.

Split a full name

For "Priya Shah", =TEXTSPLIT(A2, " ") returns Priya and Shah in two cells. For classic Excel use =LEFT(A2, FIND(" ", A2)-1) for the first name.

Clean the result

• Use TRIM to remove extra spaces around each piece.
• Check that numbers and dates did not turn into text.
• Set column formats to Text before splitting codes such as 00123, so the leading zeros stay.