How do you extract numbers from a string of chacters in a cell (E.

[Guest]

How do you extract numbers or dates from a string of characters in a cell?
I have a string of characters. My dog has 3330 fleas. I want to place the
number in its own cell.

 

[Guest]

Hi
do you only have one occurence of strings in your cell? If yes you may try
the following array formula (entered with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER:
=--MID(A1,MIN(IF(ISNUMBER(-MID(A1,seq,1)),seq)),LOOKUP(2,1/ISNUMBER(-MID(A1,seq,1)),seq)-MIN(IF(ISNUMBER(-MID(A1,seq,1)),seq))+1)

where seq is a defined name with the formula:
seq: =ROW(INDIRECT("1:1024"))

 

[Aladin Akyurek]

=--REPLACE(LEFT(A2,MAX(FIND(0,SUBSTITUTE(A2,{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9},0)&0)+1)),1,MIN(FIND(0,SUBSTITUTE(A2,{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9},0)&0)-1),"")

where A2 houses a target string with a number.

 

[Guest]

Hi Aladin
like your non-array formula approach but this version will only work if the
string contains at least one zero. Otherwise your formula returns for me
#VALUE. e.g. for
'my dog has 3111 flees'

Also embedded numbers such as 3011 would lead to a wrong result (would yeald
301 instead of 3011)

 

[Aladin Akyurek]

Indeed. The OP should ignore this approach which is a wron
generalization of a solution for different type of task.

Hi Aladin
like your non-array formula approach but this version will only work i
the
string contains at least one zero. Otherwise your formula returns fo
me
#VALUE. e.g. for
'my dog has 3111 flees'

Also embedded numbers such as 3011 would lead to a wrong result (woul
yeald
301 instead of 3011)

 

[Gord Dibben]

Copy the entire column and run this macro on that copy.

OR run it on the original column if you don't care to preserve the alphas.

Sub RemoveAlphas()
'' Remove alpha characters from a string.
Dim intI As Integer
Dim rngR As Range, rngRR As Range
Dim strNotNum As String, strTemp As String
Set rngRR = Selection.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeConstants, _
xlTextValues)
For Each rngR In rngRR
strTemp = ""
For intI = 1 To Len(rngR.Value)
If Mid(rngR.Value, intI, 1) Like "[0-9,.]" Then
strNotNum = Mid(rngR.Value, intI, 1)
Else: strNotNum = ""
End If
strTemp = strTemp & strNotNum
Next intI
rngR.Value = strTemp
Next rngR
End Sub

Gord Dibben Excel MVP

 

[Harlan Grove]

Copy the entire column and run this macro on that copy.

OR run it on the original column if you don't care to preserve the alphas.

Sub RemoveAlphas()
'' Remove alpha characters from a string.
Dim intI As Integer
Dim rngR As Range, rngRR As Range
Dim strNotNum As String, strTemp As String
Set rngRR = Selection.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeConstants, xlTextValues)
For Each rngR In rngRR
strTemp = ""
For intI = 1 To Len(rngR.Value)
If Mid(rngR.Value, intI, 1) Like "[0-9,.]" Then
strNotNum = Mid(rngR.Value, intI, 1)
Else: strNotNum = ""
End If
strTemp = strTemp & strNotNum
Next intI
rngR.Value = strTemp
Next rngR
End Sub

....

Inefficient. Also questionable including commas.

First pass, simplify the If block, access the range's .Value property only
once, and call Mid only once per iteration.


For Each r In rng
v = r.Value
t = ""
For i = 1 To Len(v)
c = Mid(v, i, 1)
If c Like "[0-9.]" Then t = t & c
Next i
r.Value = t
Next r


Second pass, eliminate the 1-char temp variable.


For Each r In rng
v = r.Value
For i = 1 To Len(v)
If Mid(v, i, 1) Like "[!0-9.]" Then Mid(v, i, 1) = " "
Next i
r.Value = Application.WorksheetFunction.Substitute(v, " ", "")
Next r


But for maximum flexibility on systems with Windows Script Host installed
(so 99.44% of PCs running Windows 98SE or 2K or later, and most running
Windows NT4), nothing beats regular expressions.


Sub foo()
Dim rng As Range, c As Range, re As Object

Set rng = Selection.SpecialCells( _
Type:=xlCellTypeConstants, _
Value:=xlTextValues _
)

Set re = CreateObject("vbscript.regexp")
re.Pattern = "[^0-9.]+" 'or use an InputBox to set
re.Global = True

For Each c In rng
c.Formula = re.Replace(c.Formula, "")
Next c
End Sub