look up a name in a cell within a massive description

[CSillanagy]

Hi,

I am trying to extract a name from a description but the description is not always the same length and the name either
I have attached a spreadsheet.
So I want in column A the person's name who's name is in the description of column B.
But I don't really know how, however I have a staff data list as well, its on the second page.
Basically we want to allocate that single row/cell description to a person who actually used that travel service.

I hope somebody can help, I am open to anything,
usually I type in the names row by row which some days can take 3-4 hrs all in all the data is around 3000-4000 rows every month

Thanks again

Csilla

[shg]

Worksheet Staff List:

	B
1	Full Name
2	Margaret XYZ
3	John Limbuick
4	Thomas Beedford
5	Eleanor Finch
6	Tracey Tarr
7	Sara Eaton
8	Abigail Young

Worksheet Data:

	A	B
1	Name	Description
2	#N/A	05/12/176:30 AM512 FISHPONDS ROAD, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3DT / GFF FRONT FLAT-PARKWAY STATION, HATCHET ROAD, STOKE GIFFORD, BS34 8PA-Maragaret XYZ
3	Abigail Young	Abigail Young : 13/12/17 - Evening Meal for when in Bristol office for 2 days
4	Sara Eaton	Sara Eaton: 14/12/17 - Evening Meal while in Leeds
5	#N/A	Bank PLC, Card Services -Havery-14/11/17-WWW.TROPHIESPLUSMEDAL-Marketing medal - Amount refunded on 26.11.2017
6	#N/A	FCm Travel Solutions -COULTER/WILL-12/13/2017-CHELTENHAM SPA/LONDON PADDINGTON-RAIL -
7	#N/A	FCm Travel Solutions -*BENNETT/BRENDAN-11/22/2017-THISTLE HOLBORN THE KINGSLEY - HOTELS -
8	#N/A	FCm Travel Solutions -*BEEDFORD/THOMAS-11/16/2017-PREMIER INN LONDON CITY - HOTELS - DOMES
9	#N/A	VRWC Transcription Ltd - 07.12.2017 - 06.01.2018`Rental charges for lease and services - 0 PJ63ZHG - Sara May
10	#N/A	VRWC Transcription Ltd - 07.12.2017 - 06.01.2018`Rental charges for lease and services - 0 PJ63ZHG - Sara May
11	John Limbuick	John Limbuick ; 15/11/17 - Oyster Card for tube travel from Paddington to Tower Hill for November 2017
12	#N/A	Veezu Ltd T/A Dragon Taxis Newport- service charge fee
13	#N/A	Veezu Ltd T/A Dragon Taxis Newport- 20/12/2017 10:00 ellie finch newport train station to dac newport
14	Tracey Tarr	Tracey Tarr : 16/11/17 - Parking at Rainham station for travel to London office for COP Seminar

The formula in A2, confirmed with Ctrl+Shift+Enter and then copied down, is

=INDEX('Staff List'!$B$2:$B$5, MATCH(TRUE, ISNUMBER(SEARCH('Staff List'!B2:B5, Data!B2)), 0))

[CSillanagy]

Thank you for the quick reply
I will try this out and I think I will need to add a few columns to use "left" and "right" to try to extract the names in the middle of the text for vendors used regularly