How to split text into separate columns with a formula
✓ Verified in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 Google Sheets returned something else (2026-08-30)Break a delimited string (like a comma-separated list) into separate cells, spilling across columns.
The formula
| App | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | =TEXTSPLIT(A2,",") | Excel 365. Spills across columns. Second delimiter arg can split rows too. |
| Google Sheets | =SPLIT(A2,",") | Google Sheets uses SPLIT; TEXTSPLIT is Excel 365 and LibreOffice 25.8+ — executed 2026-08-30, =TEXTSPLIT(A2,",") returned #NAME? in Google Sheets against a, b, c in LibreOffice. Documented Sheets syntax, carrying no executed result of its own. |
| LibreOffice Calc | =TEXTSPLIT(A2,",") | LibreOffice 25.8 supports TEXTSPLIT. |
How it works
TEXTSPLIT(text, column_delimiter) breaks the string at each delimiter and spills the pieces across columns. Google Sheets calls the same thing SPLIT(). For older Excel, use the Data > Text to Columns wizard.
The Google Sheets alternative
Google Sheets needs different syntax for this task. The formula below is Sheets-specific — it was executed in Google Sheets (2026-08-30) against the same sample data as the worked example, and the value beside it is what Google returned. The LibreOffice column reads n/a because the formula is outside LibreOffice’s dialect, so there is nothing of ours to report there.
| Formula | What it does | Returned by LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 | Returned by Google Sheets (executed 2026-08-30) |
|---|---|---|---|
=SPLIT(A2,",") | SPLIT — Google Sheets' name for what Excel 365 and LibreOffice 25.8+ call TEXTSPLIT | n/a (Sheets-only formula) | a, b, c Google Sheets alternative (executed 2026-08-30) |
Verified, not just documented
We ran =TEXTSPLIT(A2,",") in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 (headless, with forced recalculation) and it returned a, b, c — exactly the expected result. We then ran the same formulas in Google Sheets, executed 2026-08-30: a formula-only workbook goes into Google Drive, which converts it to a Sheet and recalculates every formula with Google’s own engine, and comes back out as .xlsx carrying the values Google computed. For the worked example Google Sheets returned #NAME?, which is not what LibreOffice returned (a, b, c) — both values are shown as each engine produced them, and the disagreement itself is the finding. A further 1 row is a Google Sheets alternative: Sheets-specific syntax, executed in Google Sheets only, so the LibreOffice column reads n/a for it. Both engines’ numbers on this page are executed results. The Excel formula follows Microsoft’s official documented syntax — we do not run Excel.
Functions used
TEXTSPLIT · SPLIT — see full Excel, Google Sheets & LibreOffice compatibility for each.