SPLIT Function (LibreOffice Calc — Modern/Array-Compatible)

• Splits text into multiple parts based on a delimiter
• Returns a dynamic array (spills into adjacent cells)
• Supports multi-character delimiters
• Supports optional instance limits
• Works with text, numbers (converted to text), and formulas

It is designed to be clean, modern, and extremely powerful for structured parsing.

SPLIT(text; delimiter; [limit]; [match_mode])

Arguments

• text:
  The text to split.

• delimiter:
  The text or pattern used to split.

• limit: (optional)
  Maximum number of splits.

  • Omitted → split all occurrences
  • 1 → return entire text as a single element
  • 2 → split into two parts (first delimiter only)

• match_mode: (optional)

  • 0 → case-sensitive (default)
  • 1 → case-insensitive

Split a hyphen-separated string

=SPLIT("A-B-C"; "-")

Returns array: {“A”; “B”; “C”}

Split a CSV fragment

=SPLIT("A,B,C"; ",")

Split only at the first delimiter

=SPLIT("A-B-C"; "-"; 2)

Returns {“A”; “B-C”}

Case-insensitive split

=SPLIT("A|b|C"; "B"; ; 1)

Returns {“A|”; “|C”}

Split a file path into components

=SPLIT(A1; "/")

Split an email into username and domain

=SPLIT(A1; "@"; 2)

Split a product code

=SPLIT(A1; "-")

Split on multi-character delimiter

=SPLIT(A1; " - ")

Split a sentence into words

=SPLIT(A1; " ")

Split with dynamic delimiter

=SPLIT(A1; B1)

Split only the first N parts

=SPLIT(A1; ","; 3)

Split and recombine with TEXTJOIN

=TEXTJOIN(" | "; TRUE; SPLIT(A1; ","))

Extract the last element using INDEX

=INDEX(SPLIT(A1; "-"); -1)

Extract the first element

=INDEX(SPLIT(A1; "-"); 1)

Split and clean each element

=TRIM(SPLIT(A1; ","))

Split and uppercase each element

=UPPER(SPLIT(A1; ","))

delimiter not found → returns entire text as a single element

=SPLIT("ABC"; "-") → {"ABC"}

delimiter empty → Err:502

limit = 1 → returns entire text unchanged

limit > number of delimiters → remaining elements empty

match_mode controls case sensitivity

text is a number → converted to text

=SPLIT(2024; "2") → {"", "0", "4"}

SPLIT of an error propagates the error

=SPLIT(#N/A; ",") → #N/A

Multi-character delimiters are treated literally

Dynamic array behavior

• Output spills into adjacent cells
• Overlapping content → #SPILL! (in engines that support it)

LibreOffice support

• SPLIT is part of the modern function roadmap
• Behavior may vary depending on version and dynamic array support

• Use SPLIT for clean, readable parsing instead of FIND/MID chains
• Use INDEX to extract specific elements
• Use TEXTJOIN to recombine elements
• Use TRIM and CLEAN to normalize split output
• Use multi-character delimiters for structured text
• Use limit to control output size

• Use TEXTBEFORE and TEXTAFTER for targeted extraction
• Use SEARCH or FIND for positional parsing
• Use LEFT, RIGHT, MID for manual extraction
• Use SUBSTITUTE for delimiter normalization
• Use TEXTJOIN for recombining split elements

By mastering SPLIT and its companion functions, you can build powerful, modern, and highly readable text‑processing workflows in LibreOffice Calc.