Extracting data from cells based on criteria in other cells

Hello all!

I have this formula that I'm sure can be written in a much simpler way.

To explain how the sheet is set up:
In Column A, there is the full name of there person
In Column B, there is the preferred name of the person (can include other information in parenthesis)
In Column C, the formula

How the formula should work:
The formula should include only their preferred name (everything before the "(") or if Column B is blank, just return their first name from Column A (everything before the first space)

The formula I have works completely. I just seems abnormally long to do something this simple. My formula is (on row 46):

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I've also attached the excel sheet I used to build this formula. I have several tests set up just to make sure all the logic functions like I want it to.

My contribution

For Row 43

=TRIM(IF(OR(ISBLANK(B43), LEFT(TRIM(B43),1)="("), MID(A43, 1, SEARCH(" ",A43)-1), MID(B43, 1, SEARCH("(", B43&"(")-1)))

Try this in D43 copied down--
=IF(AND(SUBSTITUTE(B43,"(","")=B43,B43<>""),B43,LEFT(A43,FIND(" ",A43)))

Okay so here's the answer
Try this in D43 copied down--
=IF(AND(SUBSTITUTE(B43,"(","")=B43,B43<>""),B43,LEFT(A43,FIND(" ",A43)))

Ohh i forgot that
Then it should be this--

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Slightly shorter--

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Glad to know that helped!!
Thanks for the reputation and feedback..
Just to remove the last space slight editing-
=IF(B43="",LEFT(A43,FIND(" ",A43)-1),IFERROR(LEFT(B43,IFERROR(FIND("(",B43)-2,LEN(B43))),LEFT(A43,FIND(" ",A43)-1)))

Just a quick question for ChemistB: what is the reason why you picked mid over left?

I'm just more comfortable with MID. LEFT probably would have made more sense.