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How to extract first or first two words from text strings in Google sheet?

Author Xiaoyang Last modified

If you need to extract the first or first two or n words from a list of text strings as following screenshot shown in Google sheet, how could you achieve it as quickly as you want?

a screenshot of extract the first one or two words from text strings

Extract the first word from text strings in Google sheet

Extract the first two or n words from text strings in Google sheet


Extract the first word from text strings in Google sheet

To extract only the first word from a list of text strings, please apply the following simple formula.

Enter this formula: =LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2)-1) into a blank cell where you want to locate the result, press Enter key to get the result from A2, then drag the fill handle down to the cells which you want to extract the first word, see screenshot:

a screenshot of extract the first word from text strings with formula


Extract the first two or n words from text strings in Google sheet

If you need to extract the first 2 or 3 or n words from the text strings, you should use the below formula.

For extracting the first two words, please enter this formula: =regexextract(A2,"[\w]* [\w]*") into a blank cell, and press Enter key, the first two words of Cell A2 will be displayed, then drag the fill handle down to the cells to extract the first two words from the list of text strings, see screenshot:

a screenshot of extract the first two words from text strings with formula

Note: To extract the first three words, you should apply this formula: =regexextract(A2,"[\w]* [\w]* [\w]*"), to extract first n words, you just need to add [\w]* n times in the formula.


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