When I opened the door, there was an adorable slime. This was the first time I had come across something that seemed to be from an isekai fantasy.
“That’s the SPLIT function.”
“Oh, I know that one.”
The SPLIT function shook as it showed its affection.
“The basic syntax is simple.”
Inoue began to explain while writing on the wall.
=SPLIT(Text, Delimiter)
“This will divide ‘Text’ using the ‘Delimiter’ character. For example, let’s use the sample advertisement that Takahashi-san was dealing with the other day.”
=SPLIT(“Female model 1_Hourly rate 3_Green”, “_”)
“When you run this, the original text will be split into three parts, “Female model 1”, “Hourly rate 3”, and “Green”
“Split? What do you mean? Wasn’t it already split by the underscores?”
“No, that’s why it splits it.”
“Since the result of a function is returned in a cell, does that mean it gets split with commas?”
“Oh, now that I think about it, you haven’t seen it yet, the GOOGLE function.”
“?”
“I’sll handle one of them. Then you’ll understand.”
Inoue approached the SPLIT function.
“Don’t run away SPLIT-chan, you’re a good girl. SPLIT!!”
Normally, a function would be sucked into the cell and disappear, but to my surprise, the slime split into three slimes instead.
“This is the SPLIT function. The result of the function affects multiple cells. If the previous ad example was written int cell A1, cell A1 would have ‘Female model 1’, cell B1 would have ‘Hourly rate 3’, and ‘Green’ would be in cell C1.”
“Huh, no way. A function that returns something in multiple cells.”
“Those are just constraints you put on your own thinking. Of course, if the destination cell is already filled, an error will occur, but if it isn’t, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work.”
I was surprised, no, scared. I didn’t understand how a returned value could go into a different cell other than the cell where the function was written. My common sense had collapsed. I though that functions, or rather, formulas in Excel simply returned their results in the same cell. However, such a restriction was just a limitation of Excel, there was nothing restricting that in a spreadsheet itself. In fact, Google had done just that.
“That’s amazing……right, SPLIT. So, can we just leave them alone?”
“Ah! I forgot!!”
Inoue hurriedly ran over to the slimes, which were now split into three, and place her hand on each one before saying ‘split’. Apparently, it was necessary to process as many cells as the function expanded to. As a user it seemed easy, but for us workers, it was quite tiring.
At that moment, another SPLIT appeared.
“The syntax seems easy, I’ll try processing one. SPLIT!”
For some reason, the SPLIT function didn’t split and turned into a huge dog instead.
※Functions
SPLIT https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3094136
Author’s Notes.
The SPLIT function was actually the function that led me to switch from Excel to Google Spreadsheets.
If you have never used it before, it might be difficult to get a feel for it, but please try using the SPLIT function in your own spreadsheets and give it a go.