Excel Formula: Extract initials from names
There are several methods can extract each initials from a list of names in Excel, here in this tutorial, it provides a formula to handle this job. 
Generic formula:
| =LEFT(name)&IF(ISNUMBER(FIND(" ",name)),MID(name,FIND(" ",name)+1,1),"")&IF(ISNUMBER(FIND(" ",name,FIND(" ",name)+1)),MID(name,FIND(" ",name,FIND(" ",name)+1)+1,1),"") |
Arguments
| Name: the full names you want to extract the initials. |
Remark
This formula only extract initials from first three words, start from the forth word, it will ignore.
How this formula work
To extract initials from cell B3, please us below formula:
|
=LEFT(B3)&IF(ISNUMBER(FIND(" ",B3)),MID(B3,FIND(" ",B3)+1,1),"")&IF(ISNUMBER(FIND(" ",B3,FIND(" ",B3)+1)),MID(B3,FIND(" ",B3,FIND(" ",B3)+1)+1,1),"") |
Press Enter key, then the first letter of each word has been extracted.
Explanation
As this formula combine three formulas with “&”, here explains three formulas in three parts
First part LEFT(B3)
LEFT function extracts text from left side of a text based on the given position. Here LEFT(B3) extracts first letter from left side of the text in cell B3, “N”.
Second part IF(ISNUMBER(FIND(" ",B3)),MID(B3,FIND(" ",B3)+1,1),"")
FIND function finds a string within another string, and returns the starting position of the string inside another oneMID function returns the substring of a given text based on the given position and text length.
MID(B3,FIND(" ",B3)+1,1) returns
MID(B3,7+1,1) returns
J
ISNUMBER function returns TRUE if the cell contains number, if not, it returns FALSE.
IF function tests for a certain condition.
IF(ISNUMBER(FIND(" ",B3)),MID(B3,FIND(" ",B3)+1,1),"") returns
IF(ISNUMBER(7),”J”,"") returns
IF(TRUE,”J”,"") returns
J
Third part IF(ISNUMBER(FIND(" ",B3,FIND(" ",B3)+1)),MID(B3,FIND(" ",B3,FIND(" ",B3)+1)+1,1),"")
MID function extract text from a text based on the given position and number of length.
MID(B3,FIND(" ",B3,FIND(" ",B3)+1)+1,1) returns
MID(B3,FIND(" ",B3,7+1)+1,1) returns
MID(B3,13+1,1) returns
C
IF(ISNUMBER(FIND(" ",B3,FIND(" ",B3)+1)),MID(B3,FIND(" ",B3,FIND(" ",B3)+1)+1,1),"") returns
=IF(ISNUMBER(FIND(" ",B3,FIND(" ",B3)+1)),"C","") returns
=IF(ISNUMBER(13),"C","") returns
C
Sample File
Click to download sample fileRelative Formulas
- Extract from right until character
Here introduces the formula to extract text from right side of a given text until a specified character. - Trim Text To N Words
Here introduces the formula to extract n words from left side of a text string. - Split sentence into words
This tutorial provides formulas to separate words of sentence into separated columns. - Split dollars and cents
To split dollars and cents into two columns with formulas in Excel.
Relative Functions
- LEFT function
Extract text from left side. - FIND function
find a string within another string, and returns the starting position of the string inside another one. - IF function
Test for conditions. - MID function
extract part of text from a cell value based on the location and length.
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