I am currently searching for a method to do a similar formula in excel.

I currently process around 120 students every 2 weeks into classroom databases. Currently when we recieve the spreadsheet, the names of students show as:
last, first middle initial in cells A1-A120.

I was wondering if there was a way to create a formula to break this cell down into three cells one for first, one for last and one for middle inital.

Example...

Smith, John C.
would be in cell A1

How could this be broken down into three seperate cells B1, C1 and D1?

I tried basing this off the above suggestions but peoples name have different lengths so I need a way to seperate them by commas and periods. any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks