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If you run a business, agency, or sales team, your Google Sheets are probably full of Franken-cells: names jammed into one field, addresses glued together, UTM links stuffed into a single line. Splitting those cells into clean, structured columns turns chaos into something you can sort, filter, and actually act on. Marketing lists become segmentable. Lead sheets sync cleanly with CRMs. Finance exports stop breaking your formulas.Automating this with an AI computer agent means you never again spend a Friday night wrestling CSVs. Instead of manually selecting ranges and tweaking SPLIT formulas, you describe the pattern once, and the agent handles every future import, at any scale, in the background — repeatable, transparent, and tireless.
Most people learn to split cells in Google Sheets the hard way: one column at a time, scrolling through an ocean of data. It works — until your next export lands and you’re doing it all over again.This guide walks through the best ways to split cells, from simple manual tricks to fully automated pipelines powered by AI agents.## 1. Manual Split: Data → Split Text to ColumnsUse this when you have a single column of text that follows a clear pattern (commas, spaces, semicolons).**Steps**1. Select the cells you want to split.2. In the top menu, click **Data → Split text to columns**.3. At the bottom of the selection, open the **separator** dropdown.4. Choose **Comma, Space, Semicolon, Custom**, or **Detect automatically**.5. Sheets instantly spills the pieces into adjacent columns.**Pros**- Very fast for one-off cleanup.- No formulas to remember.- Great for basic CSV-style data.**Cons**- Not dynamic: change the source cell and nothing updates.- Easy to overwrite neighboring columns if you forget to insert space first.- You must repeat the steps every time new data arrives.## 2. Formula Method: The SPLIT FunctionWhen you need something repeatable, SPLIT is your friend.**Basic syntax**`=SPLIT(text, delimiter, [split_by_each], [remove_empty_text])`**Example: split full name into first and last**1. Suppose `A2` contains `"John Doe"`.2. In `B2`, enter: `=SPLIT(A2, " ")`.3. `John` appears in `B2`, `Doe` in `C2`.**Example: split emails into user and domain**1. `A2` contains `"alex@agency.com"`.2. In `B2`, use: `=SPLIT(A2, "@")`.3. You now have `alex` and `agency.com` in separate cells.**Pros**- Dynamic: when source data changes, outputs update.- You can drag formulas down thousands of rows.- Works well in combination with other functions like TRIM, ARRAYFORMULA, and REGEXREPLACE.**Cons**- More intimidating for non-technical teammates.- Complex patterns can become hard to debug.- Still requires manual setup and maintenance whenever the data shape changes.## 3. Power Moves: ARRAYFORMULA and RegexFor marketers and analysts dealing with big ranges:- Wrap SPLIT inside **ARRAYFORMULA** to apply it to a whole column without copying formulas: - `=ARRAYFORMULA(SPLIT(A2:A, ","))`- Pre-clean data with **REGEXREPLACE** before splitting (for weird delimiters or mixed content).These tricks make Sheets feel more like a data pipeline, but they still demand someone who’s comfortable tinkering with formulas.## 4. At Scale: Automating Splits With an AI AgentManual methods break down when:- You download new CSVs from tools daily.- Every client or campaign uses a slightly different format.- Your team keeps making copy‑paste errors.This is where an AI computer agent, like a Simular agent, changes the game. Instead of hard-coding formulas or writing Apps Script, you:1. **Describe the job in plain language** “Whenever a new export hits this Google Drive folder, open it in Google Sheets, split column A into first name, last name, and company using commas, then save a cleaned version in the ‘Ready for CRM’ folder.”2. **Let the agent use the actual interface** It clicks Data → Split text to columns, inserts safe buffer columns, or writes SPLIT formulas — the same way a human would — but reliably, thousands of times.3. **Chain tasks into workflows** After splitting, the agent can validate row counts, color‑code bad rows, or paste results into a master report.**Pros of AI-driven automation**- No need to maintain brittle formulas or scripts.- Works across desktop, browser, and cloud tools, not just inside Sheets.- Transparent: every action is visible and auditable.- Scales to tens of thousands of rows and recurring imports.**Cons**- Best payoff when you have recurring or high‑volume work.- You’ll spend a bit of time upfront defining the workflow and edge cases.## 5. Choosing the Right Approach- Use **Split text to columns** for quick, one-time cleanups.- Use **SPLIT + ARRAYFORMULA** when you want in‑sheet logic that updates as data changes.- Use an **AI agent** when splitting cells is part of a larger, repetitive workflow you never want to touch manually again.Once you reach the point where “just fixing the sheet” quietly eats hours every week, it’s time to hand that work to an agent and keep your human attention on strategy, not separators.