# Separating one source field into multiple target fields

In a data mapping, you can separate a compound source field into multiple target fields. For example, map the `Name` field to the `FirstName` and `LastName` fields.

Prerequisite

For the source field, you must know what type of content is in each part of this compound field, the order and index of each part of the content, and the separator between parts, such as a space or comma. See [example-missing-unwanted-data].

Procedure

1. In the Source panel, navigate to the field that contains the content you want to separate and click .

2. In the Target panel, for each field into which you want to map part of the source field’s content, navigate to the field and click .

   The data mapper automatically changes the mapping type to Split.

   When you are done selecting target fields, you should see lines from the source field to each of the target fields.

3. In the Mapping Details panel, in the Delimiter field, select the character in the source field that indicates where to separate the source field values. The default is a space.

4. In the Mapping Details panel, under Targets, ensure that the target fields are in the same order as the corresponding content in the compound source field.

   If necessary, increase or decrease the indexes next to a target field to achieve the desired order.

5. Optionally, preview the data mapping result:

   1. In the toolbar, click to display a text input field on the source field and read-only result fields on each target field.

   2. In the source field’s data input field, enter text. Be sure to enter the separator character between the parts of the field. Click outside the text box to display the mapping result in the read-only fields on the target fields.

      If you reorder the target fields or add a transformation to a target field then the result fields on the target fields reflect this. If the data mapper detects any errors, it displays informative messages at the top of the Mapping Details panel.

   3. Hide the preview fields by clicking again.

      If you redisplay the preview fields, any data that you entered in them is still there and it remains there until you exit the data mapper.

6. To confirm that the mapping is correctly defined, click to display defined mappings. A mapping that separates the value of a source field into multiple target fields looks like this: .

   You can also preview mapping results in this view. Click and enter text as described in the previous step. Preview fields appear for only the selected mapping. Click another mapping in the table to view preview fields for it.