Microsoft KB Archive/214261

= How to parse data using the Text To Columns command in Excel =

Article ID: 214261

Article Last Modified on 1/24/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Office Excel 2003
 * Microsoft Excel 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel X for Mac
 * Microsoft Excel 2004 for Mac
 * Microsoft Excel 2001 for Mac

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This article was previously published under Q214261





SUMMARY
This article contains information about how to parse data in Microsoft Excel by using the Text To Columns command.



MORE INFORMATION
If you copy data from another program and paste it into Microsoft Excel, Excel may condense several columns of data to a single column. You can use the Text To Columns command on the Data menu to put each record in a separate column. The range that you convert may contain many rows, but you can only convert one column of data at a time.

To create an example that demonstrates how to use the Text To Columns command:  Create a new workbook.  In Sheet1, type the following data:      A1: The,dog,ran A2: abc,def A3: abcdefg,hijkl A4: 2554,4874,41  Select the range A1:A4. On the Data menu, click Text to Columns. In Step 1 of the Convert Text To Columns Wizard, make sure that the Delimited option is selected, and then click Next. In Step 2 of the Convert Text To Columns Wizard, click to select the Comma check box under Delimiters, and then click Next.

NOTE: All of the check boxes under Delimiters should be cleared except for the Comma check box.</li> In Step 3 of the Convert Text To Columns Wizard, type B1 in the Destination box, and then click Finish.</li></ol>

Your data is parsed into separate columns, beginning with column B, and the data in Sheet1 should resemble the following: <pre class="fixed_text">  A1: The,dog,ran     B1: The     C1: dog   D1: ran A2: abc,def        B2: abc     C2: def A3: abcdefg,hijkl  B3: abcdefg C3: hijkll A4: 2554,4874,41   B4: 2554    C4: 4874  D5: 41 Note The example illustrates data with commas as the delimiter. This is only one of several delimiters that you may see in your data. For example, if you have Names in a column of data, consisting of first and last name in a single cell separated by a Space, the Space character can be used as a delimiter to separate the first and last names into adjacent cells instead of the same cell.

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