About This Article
This article was generated using an automated workflow leveraging generative AI. It is organized based on the Microsoft Support specifications for TEXTBEFORE / TEXTAFTER, using dummy examples that do not alter the source data.
Verification Status: Based on official Microsoft specifications; not verified on physical Excel hardware.
When you want to split email addresses or management codes before and after a delimiter, using TEXTBEFORE / TEXTAFTER in Microsoft 365 Excel makes the intent of the formula easier to read.
First, Look at the Results with Dummy Data
Enter user@example.com in A2.
=TEXTBEFORE(A2,"@") =TEXTAFTER(A2,"@")
The expected results are user and example.com respectively. The original A2 remains unchanged.
Changing Just One Part
Change A2 to sales@example.co.jp. The first half becomes sales, and the second half becomes example.co.jp, allowing you to observe that it returns the text before and after with "@" as the boundary.
Considering Rows Without Delimiters
Practical data often contains exceptions like no-at-mark. Because TEXTBEFORE / TEXTAFTER allow you to specify a return value when the delimiter is not found, it is safer to design data ingestion processes so that exceptional rows are clearly visible.
For Business Use
This can be used for tasks such as verifying domains in email lists, separating prefixes in employee IDs, and preprocessing to extract classification codes from file names. Being able to observe results in a separate column before performing bulk replacements is crucial.
Notes
Check the Excel version to ensure support for TEXTBEFORE / TEXTAFTER. For data with inconsistent delimiter notation or differences between full-width and half-width characters, verify data quality first.
Summary
Observe text before delimiters using TEXTBEFORE and after using TEXTAFTER
Verify separation results while keeping the original data intact
Anticipate rows without delimiters in advance for practical work
