How to select up to a certain character?

**Mark53** · 04-13-2011, 12:14 AM

Hi, people.

I Love this forum.
Yous Peoples are Very Helpful !

Using Excel 2007, I've got a Lot of IP numbers in Column A, like...
11.22.33.44
67.34.45.56
222.33.44.55
333.44.55.66
333.34.34.34
334.34.34.34
Like... there are 900,000 rows of 'em.

WITHOUT using a macro...
How can I put ONLY the first few characters, up to the first "." in Column B?
So Column B will look like:
11
67
222
333
333
334

AND... (an entirely different question, actually)...
double-clicking the lower-right corner of a formula
SHOULD propagate that formula all the way down.
It doesn't work when there are a LOT of (like, a million) rows.
Is there a solution to THAT ?

Thanks very much, in advance.

Mark53

**Sadath31** · 04-13-2011, 02:14 AM

use this formula
=LEFT(A1,FIND(".",A1)-1)

Hold Shift key
use End (key bord button) and Down arrow (also keybod button) to select huge range quickly

**Mark53** · 04-13-2011, 04:47 AM

BRILLIANT ! , Sadath !
That gets the first few characters.
Just what I wanted.

The "select down" thing Does SELECT those rows,
but that's all it does. It only highlights them.
It doesn't copy the formula into those selected rows.
Did I do something wrong?

Thanks very much.

**zbor** · 04-13-2011, 05:15 AM

Enter formula in first cell

then move your cursor to the bottom right corner of that cell until black cross (+) appear
Left click (like select) and pull down your formula

If you have much rows then select first cell (where formula is)
copy
hold together ctrl shift
then click DOWN arrow and paste