Contact List - Extract First / Last Name?

Manu

Is it possible to target the first or last name of a contact inside an alert email?

So e.g. if I have a contact called "John Doe" in a [Contact] column, and I send an alert with Dear {{Contact}} I will get the full name. Is there a way to only get the first name?

Paul Newcome

Yes. Something like

=LEFT([Contact Column]@row, FIND(" ", [Contact Column]@row) - 1)

Paul Newcome

You would need to pull this data into a separate column and then use your placeholder on that.

Manu

You would need to pull this data into a separate column and then use your placeholder on that.

via string manipulation of the [Contact] column? e.g. search for the separating space between first and last name and the LEFT X?

Paul Newcome

Yes. Something like

=LEFT([Contact Column]@row, FIND(" ", [Contact Column]@row) - 1)

Lauren Darvesh

Hi @Paul Newcome , Wow, your formula worked perfectly, I've been trying to do exactly the same thing as @Manu for weeks now. So thank you so much!

I do often have contact columns where there are 2 contact names and I ineed to personalise to both the first name (together though obviously, so it would be 'Dear John, Jane' for example, which is fine. Can I put a formula to pull both first names from the single helper column.

How can I do this please? Can I put a +FIND somewhere in the formula? I am really terrible with formulas. Despit having watched numerous training videos and YouTube etc. I get totally confused with brackets and commas etc. And the whole structure of formulas is bewildering to be honest.

I will really appreciate your help.

Many thanks

😁

Lauren

Paul Newcome

@Lauren Darvesh Can you provide a screenshot with some "dummy data" so I can see exactly what you are working with and what you are trying to do?

LLL

Hello, i would need something simmilar with the first thread, but ... I need to have the full name ( when you use the email address from the contact list, the autocompletion function will give you the whole name )

Exeample :

I have on a multi contactilist cell : John Doe and Jane Doe

I would like to have the formula get me the first name ( complete ) : John Doe

I tried to lookup after the email address but not sure if this is the right approach. Any hints will help me get it right

As a remark ... there are some compose name like : John-First Doe or ... Im trying to llok for the secound " " (space) assuming that between the first person`s full name and the secound one`s there is a " " ( space ) , or a coma ( , ) separator.

This is what i have .. addapted from excel ... is working but it give-s me a coma after the first name extracted

=SUBSTITUTE(IF(ISERROR(FIND(",", Accountable@row, FIND(",", Accountable@row, 1))), Accountable@row, LEFT(Accountable@row, FIND(" ", Accountable@row, FIND(" ", Accountable@row, 1) + 1))), ",", " ")

Result obtained: John Doe

i subtituted comma with space... not sure if this is ok to do, and modified a little to have in case of single contact ...the return of that single contact.

What do you think this will work ?

*Accountable is the row that has the multiple contact list values.

Thanks in advance.

Paul Newcome

@LLL Try this one...

=LEFT(Accountable@row, FIND(" ", Accountable@row, FIND(" ", Accountable@row) + 1) - 2)

Peggy Parchert

@Paul Newcome -

I'm trying to do the same thing - extract just the First name only (and each First name is different lengths). Is there some way to do this using a formula?

Below is a screenshot of a pared down sheet that I would use. I need to figure out some way to populate the First name column (without having to go thru line by line and manually do it

Thank you for any assistance.

Paul Newcome

@Peggy P Assuming "Goofy" is the first name, you would want something like this...

=IFERROR(LEFT(Name@row, FIND(" ", Name@row) - 1), Name@row)

Peggy Parchert

@Paul Newcome - THANK YOU!!! You are brilliant!

Paul Newcome

@Peggy P P.S. Goofy's full name is listed as

George G. "Goofy" Goof

😉😂

Paul Newcome

@Peggy P Happy to help. 👍️

Melvin Collins

@Paul Newcome I'm trying to pull the users first name from from the User Full Name column with this format: Smith, John. All of the user names have different lengths so this formula doesn't work, results vary.

using this formula based on the formula in the string above

=IFERROR(RIGHT([User Full Name]@row, FIND(" ", [User Full Name]@row) - 1), [User Full Name]@row)

Thank you in advance for your help

Paul Newcome

@Melvin Collins Pulling the first name would look more like this...

=IFERROR(RIGHT([User Full Name]@row, LEN([User Full Name]@row) - FIND(" ", [User Full Name]@row)), [User Full Name]@row)

Melvin Collins

Worked perfectly!!!!! Thank you! I'm unfamiliar with the LEN function and I appreciate the information!!!