Google Sheets overrides the original data. If you want to use full names later, copy the rows, paste them to another column or sheet, and run the Split text to columns function.

How to Split Columns in a Google Docs Spreadsheet. When you're working on a data set, you occasionally need to split a column into two or more new columns. For example, if you imported a database ...

So there you go, a solution to split full names into first and last names, no matter how long the names. Time to split some names yourself!

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How to split comma separated text in Google Sheets In this case, Google Sheets is not as smart as Microsoft Excel. Although you can split all comma-separated texts, you cannot retain the source ...