With many (and perhaps some yet unkown) variations, I probably wouldn't look
for a silver bullet. Rather, create a helper column the looks for particular
formats and returns TRUE for a match and FALSE otherwise. Ex:
=NOT(ISERROR(FIND(". ",A1)))
would pick up the instances of a middle initial.
Filter on TRUE and handle that particular case. Then handle the next case.
My two cents. --Bruce

"Danno" wrote:

> Good day. I am using Excel 2002 on Windows XP Pro. I have a worksheet
> contining names exported from a DBF database. I need to import this list of
> names into a relational database that looks for First Name, Middle Name, Last
> Name and Suffix. There are 900 names in this list.
>
> I am currently separating the names as best I can manually. I know there
> must be an easier way.
>
> The names are in many formats. For example:
>
> Test Tester
> Test T. Tester
> Test Tester Sr
> Test T. Tester Jr
>
> Is there a way to separate all of this into separate fields as mentioned. I
> am familiar with Left, Right, Mid functions and using Find within these
> functions, but I have not been able to find the magic solution. I would
> appreciate any help.
>
> Thanks, Danno...