Extracting data from a variable length string

[austenr]

try:
=MID(A1,FIND(" - ",A1)+3,FIND(" - ",A1,FIND(" - ",A1)+1)-FIND(" - ",A1)-3)
to get the xx

=MID(A1,FIND(" - ",A1,FIND(" - ",A1)+1)+3,999)
to get the john

=LEFT(A1, FIND(" - ",A1)-1 )
to get the smith.

Thanks guys. Both work well.