Get first string first character and last string first character seperated with spaces

[ssphv]

I have a column with first, last and middle names together separated with spaces as below,

Stephen A

Jahn John F

Antony G

Mary G

Nick J N 

I would like to get the first letter of first name and last letter with initial as below. With few names having middle names I just want to get first and last initials. How can I get that,

S A

J F

A G

M G

N N 

[LordNeilLord · Accepted solution]

Hey @ssphv 

This uses one of favourite formulas in Alteryx...GetWord....

Left(GetWord([Field1], 0),1) + " " + Left(GetWord([Field1], CountWords([Field1])-1),1)

Neil

[JohnJPS]

Use the RegEx tool with the expression (.).*\s(.).* and set it to Parse.

This will grab the first character (.) then any number of characters .* until a string where we'll grab the first character (.), which will be followed by any number of characters .* (remaining in said string).

The parentheses mean those characters are "marked" and thus returned as fields in the tool output.

Hope that helps!

John

[ssphv]

That works as expected! Thank you!

[DeanLewis]

.