Explanation
FIND returns the position (as a number) of the first occurrence of a space character in the text. This position, minus one, is fed into the LEFT function as num_chars. The LEFT function then extracts characters starting at the left side of the text, up to (position - 1).
Handling one word
If a cell contains only one word, this formula returns an error. One way to fix this problem is to wrap the original formula in the IFERROR function like so:
=IFERROR(LEFT(B4,FIND(" ",B4)-1),B4)
Translated: if an error occurs, return the original text.
Another simple way to handle the error is to append a space to the cell value before running FIND:
=LEFT(B4,FIND(" ",B4&" ")-1)
This ensures that FIND will always find at least one space, and will therefore not throw an error. When a cell contains more than one word, there is no impact because the formula works only with the first space.
Related formulas
Extract nth word from text string
Extract word that begins with specific character
Split text string at specific character
Abbreviate names or words
Split text with delimiter
Related functions
LEFT Function
The Excel LEFT function extracts a given number of characters from the left side of a supplied text string. For example, =LEFT("apple",3) returns "app".
FIND Function
The Excel FIND function returns the position (as a number) of one text string inside another. When the text is not found, FIND returns a #VALUE error.
ISERROR Function
The Excel ISERROR function returns TRUE for any error type excel generates, including #N/A, #VALUE!, #REF!, #DIV/0!, #NUM!, #NAME?, or #NULL! You can use ISERROR together with the IF function to test for errors and display a custom message, or run a different calculation when an error occurs....
