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How to quickly extract filename from full path in Excel?

Supposing you have a worksheet which contains a list of file paths, now you would like to extract just the filename (the right part of the final backslash) from each path as following screenshots shown. Are there any quick tricks to deal with this task?

Extract filename from full path with formula in Excel
Extract filename from full path with User Defined Function
Extract filename from full path with VBA code


Extract filename from full path with formula in Excel

In Excel, you can use the below formula to quickly extract only file name from the full path.

Select a blank cell, enter the below formula into it and then press the Enter key.

=MID(A1,FIND("*",SUBSTITUTE(A1,"\","*",LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"\",""))))+1,LEN(A1))

Tips: A1 is the cell that you want to extract the filename from), and press Enter button, then drag the fill handle to fill range you want. After that, the filename is extracted from each cell.

doc extract name1


Extract filename from full path with User Defined Function

With the following User Defined Function, you can get the filename easily and quickly.

1. Hold down the ALT + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. Click Insert > Module, and paste the following code in the Module Window.

Function FunctionGetFileName(FullPath As String) As String
'Update 20140210
Dim splitList As Variant
splitList = VBA.Split(FullPath, "\")
FunctionGetFileName = splitList(UBound(splitList, 1))
End Function

3. Press the Alt + Q keys to close the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window and go back to the worksheet. In a blank cell, B1 for instance, enter the below formula into it and press the Enter key.

=FunctionGetFileName(A1)

doc-extract-filenames1

Then select cell B1 again, drag the fill handle to the range that you want to apply this formula, and all the filenames have been extracted from the full paths as following result:

doc-extract-filenames1


Extract filename from full path with VBA code

Besides the User Defined Function, a VBA code also can help you to extract the filenames. Please do as this:

1. Hold down the ALT + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications Window.

2. Click Insert > Module, and paste the following code in the Module Window.

Sub GetFileName()
'Update 20140210
Dim Rng As Range
Dim WorkRng As Range
Dim splitList As Variant
On Error Resume Next
xTitleId = "KutoolsforExcel"
Set WorkRng = Application.Selection
Set WorkRng = Application.InputBox("Range", xTitleId, WorkRng.Address, Type:=8)
For Each Rng In WorkRng
    splitList = VBA.Split(Rng.Value, "\")
    Rng.Value = splitList(UBound(splitList, 1))
Next
End Sub

3. Then press F5 key to run this code, and select the range that you want to extract the filename from, see screenshot:

doc-extract-filenames1

4. And then click OK, the filenames have been extracted from the selection as follows:

Note: With this VBA code, the original data will be destroyed, so you should copy one before applying this code.

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Comments (2)
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This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Very useful function. Is there a way to modify the script so it finds the filename if the path has either \ or / slashes?

I have a spreadsheet with various hyperlinks where the underlying paths are either \ or / (back slash or forward slash) separates - I think its because some of the links to files were done just as bookmarks in Word originally, or to files on an internal doc server. Or maybe its because some path links are made with absolute vs relative path links?

eg:

../../../../Documents/2ndQuarter/2019/standardcost_widget12345.pdf
or
\fileserver\factory23\Operations\Parts_Mgt\Documents\2ndQuarter\2019\standardcost_widget12345.pdf


When I ran the getfilename function, it got all the filenames that were in paths with \ between directories or folders, but the links with / slashes were returned as is.
I altered & added a second function that was similar but replaced the "\" in line 4 with "/" and called it forwardslashgetfilename and run it in a separate column after I run the first function.

Running one function after another is not difficult, but I was curious if you can expand the code in splitList operation in line 4 to include both "\" or "/". I'm no VBA programmer but I tried splitList = VBA.Split(FullPath, "\" or "/") and it didn't work.

Thoughts? I'm assuming its some simple syntax - I'm just clueless at this point... but I will start poking around the interwebs...

Tks!
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
The formula raises a #VALUE! error if the source cell has only a filename to begin with.. Embedding the entire formula in an IFERROR function solves this problem, e.g., =IFERROR(<orig formula>,A1)
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