Text to Columns Online
Split full names, pasted lists, locations, codes, and other delimited Excel cell values into clean separate columns.
Drop your file here or click to upload
Supports .xlsx, .xls, .xlsm, .xlsb · up to 50MB · or paste a file from your clipboard
Exactly What the Split Does
Pick one source column and one delimiter. Every data row's cell in that column is read as text and cut at each occurrence of the delimiter, and each resulting piece has its surrounding spaces trimmed. The tool then looks at the whole column to find the row that produced the most pieces, and gives every row that many new columns - shorter rows are padded with empty cells so the grid stays rectangular. The new columns are named after the source header with a number appended.
| Full Name (before) | Full Name 1 | Full Name 2 | Full Name 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grace Hopper | Grace | Hopper | |
| Ada King Lovelace | Ada | King | Lovelace |
| Alan Turing | Alan | Turing |
Splitting on a space gives three columns here, because one name has a middle element. That is the behaviour to watch for on names and addresses: a single long row widens the whole sheet.
Delimiters and the Replace Option
Space, Comma, Semicolon, and Tab cover most pasted data. Custom takes anything you type, including more than one character - use - with its surrounding spaces to split Ticket - Priority cleanly, or | for pipe-separated exports. A custom delimiter left empty falls back to a comma. Replace source column is on by default and drops the original once it has been split; untick it to keep the original beside the parts while you check the result. Either way the columns on both sides of the source keep their positions and the rest of the sheet is untouched.
Edge Cases
There is no quote handling: "Smith, John" split on a comma becomes two pieces with the quote marks still attached. Consecutive delimiters produce empty pieces, so a double space yields a blank column in the middle - the Clean tab's Collapse repeated spaces fixes that before you split. Non-text cells are converted to text first, so splitting a number on . separates its decimal part, and every output piece is stored as text, which is worth remembering if you intended to sum the results. With First row headers off there is no header to name the new columns after, so they are numbered from the generic column label instead. The preview shows the first 30 rows; the download writes all of them to a single sheet.
How to Split a Column
- Upload the workbook - .xlsx, .xls, .xlsm, or .xlsb, read in your browser.
- Choose the source column - the one holding the joined values.
- Choose the delimiter - or type your own under Custom.
- Check the preview - especially the widest row, which sets the column count for everyone.
- Download Split Excel - a new workbook; your original file is never modified.
When a Different Tool Fits Better
If the values have no separator at all and you are cutting by character position, the LEFT, RIGHT and MID generator is the right approach. If the file is real CSV text with quoted fields, let CSV to Excel parse it properly instead of splitting it after the fact. When you want the split to stay live in the sheet rather than becoming a static download, the TEXTSPLIT generator writes the formula. To pull one specific thing out of a messy cell - an email inside a sentence - use Excel Data Extractor. And to go the other way and glue columns together, use Combine Columns.
Frequently Asked Questions
As many as the row with the most parts needs. If one address in a thousand splits into six pieces and the rest into four, every row gets six columns and the short rows are padded with empty cells - nothing is truncated or spilled into a neighbouring column.
No. The split is a plain text split on the delimiter you choose, with no quote awareness, so "Smith, John" splits into two parts and the quote characters stay in the data. For genuinely CSV-quoted text, import the file through the CSV to Excel converter, which parses quoting properly.
You get an empty column between them. Splitting 'John Smith' on a single space produces John, an empty cell, and Smith, because there are two spaces. Collapse repeated spaces in the Clean tab first and the split then behaves as expected.
Yes. Untick Replace source column and the original stays in place, immediately to the left of the new parts, so you can check the split before discarding it.
No. Excel's Text to Columns wizard offers Delimited and Fixed Width; this tool implements the delimited half only. A fixed-width layout with no separator character cannot be split here.
Related Tools
Combine Columns
The reverse - join fields back into one
TEXTSPLIT Generator
The same split as a live Excel formula
LEFT, RIGHT, MID Generator
Split by position when there is no delimiter
CSV to Excel
Proper quote-aware parsing of CSV text
Excel Data Extractor
Pull a pattern out of a cell instead of splitting it