Moving text

L

Lacey1941

I have a rather long list of names and some of them have a space at the
beginning while others don't.

Is there a way to move whole groups of names over one space or will I have
to move them manually one name at a time?
 
R

Ross

Question-Are they single names such as Mary or John, or are they combined as
in Mary Smith or John Doe?
 
D

Dave Peterson

If there are no internal spaces in the data in that list, then maybe you can
just:

select that range
edit|replace
what: (spacebar)
with: (leave blank)
replace all

If there are internal spaces in the data in that list, you could:

Insert a new column (to its right?)
and use a formula like:
=trim(a1)
to remove all leading and all trailing space characters. It'll also convert
multiple internal space characters to a single space.

Then you could drag this formula down the column.
Select the column
Edit|copy
and then select the original column
Edit|paste special|values

and delete that helper column that holds the formula.
 
L

Lacey1941

Surnames are in column A and given name is in column B. It's the given names
I want to move.
 
D

David Biddulph

In which case, use B2 instead of A2 in the formula! [If you just copy my
formula one cell to the right, it will automatically change the references
from A2 to B2 for you.]
 
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