Extracting first initial of last name

[bearcub]

I need to create a field that extracts the first initial from the last name so I can sort members alphabetically by last name. I'm using the Left function which does the trick but I ran into a situation where someone has a maiden name in front of the last name so all the is being returned are the beginning and ending hyphens.

Example
last name: Smith
Result : -S-
This is what I expected to happen - this is what I need


last name: (PERRY) TORRANO
result now: - -
needed : -T-
How do I get the formula to pick up the T instead of the " "?

The left function is ignoring the "(" and replacing it with a " ".

The majority of the people just have a last name. Is there a workaround for this problem?

Thank you for your help.

 

[Joe4]

Try this:

IIf(InStr([Buyer],")")>0,Mid([Buyer],InStr([Buyer],")")+2,1),Left([Buyer],1))