Formula to Pick Out Characters within a Text String

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I'm trying to create a formula that will pick out certain characters within a
text string, but the characters aren't a uniform length, nor are they always
the same character number within the string. For example, I would like to
pick out the dollar amounts in the following strings.

Distributed 1 $91.00 2 $419.00
Distributed 1 $1,980.00 2 $2,519.00
Distributed 1 $94,181.00 2 $42,014.00

I can use the MID function to pick out the first amount, but I can't figure
out how to pick out the last amount, since there are a differing number of
characters on each line.

Let me know if you have any secrets. I would even appreciate a macro that
would accomplish the same thing.
 
assuming "Distributed 1" is common to all strings and there are always 2 $
amounts:

For the first $ amount:

=LOOKUP(99^99,--MID(A1,16,ROW(INDIRECT("1:255"))))

For the second $ amount:

=MID(A1,FIND("$",A1,FIND("$",A1)+1)+1,255)+0

You'll have to format to get the decimal 0's back

Biff
 
Try this:

For a text string with your posted general structure in cell A1

This formula returns the first number in the string:
B1: =--MID(LEFT(A1,FIND(" 2 ",A1)-1),FIND("$",A1)+1,255)

and this formula returns the second number in the string:
C1: =--MID(A1,FIND(" 2 $",A1)+4,255)

Copy those formulas down as far as you need.

Note: Both returned values are numeric.

Is that something you can work with?
***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP
 
This works perfectly. Thanks for your help.

T. Valko said:
assuming "Distributed 1" is common to all strings and there are always 2 $
amounts:

For the first $ amount:

=LOOKUP(99^99,--MID(A1,16,ROW(INDIRECT("1:255"))))

For the second $ amount:

=MID(A1,FIND("$",A1,FIND("$",A1)+1)+1,255)+0

You'll have to format to get the decimal 0's back

Biff
Click to expand...
 
Another way would be to do Data > TextToColumns, and use the $ as the
delimiter........then do Edit > Replace space-2 with nothing on column B to
get rid of the "2"
If you do this frequently, it could be "macroized"

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3
 
Back
Top