The Problem: Date and Description in One Cell
Text copied from a statement often lands in a single cell, such as "2026-09-02 - Fresh Basket Market". To sort by date or total by merchant you want the date and the description in separate columns. Google Sheets gives you two ways to do this, and they behave a little differently, so it helps to know both.
The examples in this article use made-up merchants only. Whether a given split fits your data depends on how consistent the separator is in your own rows.
Option 1: The SPLIT Function
Google documents the function as SPLIT(text, delimiter, [split_by_each], [remove_empty_text]). It divides text around a delimiter and places each piece in its own cell in a row. The delimiter characters themselves do not appear in the results.
If a clean, unusual character separates the two parts, SPLIT is simple. Suppose cell A2 contains the text below, with a vertical bar between the date and the description:
2026-09-02|Fresh Basket MarketThen this formula puts the date text in one cell and the description in the next cell to its right:
=SPLIT(A2, "|")The Delimiter Gotcha: split_by_each
By default, each character in the delimiter is treated separately. Google's own illustration is that a delimiter of "the" splits on "t", "h" and "e" individually. The third argument, split_by_each, is TRUE by default, and setting it to FALSE makes SPLIT use the whole delimiter string instead.
This matters when the text is "2026-09-02 - Fresh Basket Market" and you write =SPLIT(A2, " - "). With the default, the delimiter is treated as a space and a hyphen, so the hyphens inside the date are also split points. The date breaks into 2026, 09 and 02, and the description breaks at its spaces into Fresh, Basket and Market. To split only at the three-character separator, turn off split_by_each:
=SPLIT(A2, " - ", FALSE)The remove_empty_text argument is TRUE by default, which means consecutive delimiters count as one. Set it to FALSE if you want empty cells to appear between delimiters that sit next to each other, for example where a column was blank in the original.
Check a few rows after splitting. Descriptions that themselves contain your separator will be cut into more pieces than you expect, and the result will not line up with rows that do not.
Option 2: Split text to columns
The same help centre covers a built-in feature for splitting without writing a formula. Per Google's instructions for the desktop version, select the cells you want to split, then click Data and then Split text to columns. To change the character Sheets uses to divide the data, use the dropdown next to "Separator". If the columns spread out unevenly, open the menu next to "Separator" and select Detect automatically.
The feature changes the cells in place rather than returning a result from a formula, so it suits a one-off clean-up. SPLIT suits a column you will keep refreshing, because a new pasted value in A2 re-splits without further steps. The page does not describe what happens to adjacent cells that already contain data, so leave space to the right of the column you split, or work on a copy.
Starting From a Cleaner Source
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Frequently Asked Questions
By default SPLIT treats each character of the delimiter separately. A delimiter of " - " therefore splits on spaces and hyphens, including the hyphens in a date such as 2026-09-02. Set the third argument, split_by_each, to FALSE to split on the whole delimiter string.
No. Google states that the delimiter characters do not appear in the results of SPLIT.
On desktop, select the cells, click Data, then Split text to columns. Use the dropdown next to "Separator" to change the splitting character, or choose Detect automatically if the columns spread out unevenly.
Primary Evidence & Official References
- SPLIT function - Google Docs Editors Help — support.google.com (Verified 2026-10-29). Official source documentation →
- Split text, remove duplicates, or trim whitespace - Google Docs Editors Help — support.google.com (Verified 2026-10-29). Official source documentation →