Formula to remove every middle name in a cell in Excel

Question

Hello, I'm attempting to delete every individual's second and/or third name from my excel spreadsheet. I'm currently doing it manually, which is really boring. Exists a formula that executes it automatically?

Is it feasible to change the text in cell A1 from "Filippo Luigi Carlo" to just "Filippo" as an example?

In an excel file, remove every second and third name (if the person has them) from each cell.

Answer 1

Use this:

=IFERROR(LEFT(A1,FIND(" ",A1)-1),A1)

What does it do?

1. Finds the first space in your target text FIND(" ", A1)
2. Takes all the characters from the start of your target text up until the spot before the first space LEFT(A1, {step 1} - 1)
3. If there is an error (for example there is no space in your target text), it will simply return the original target text =IFERROR({step 2}, A1)