Parsing formatted data

[Tufts]

I received a spreadsheet with the address already pre-formatted for a label
but I need to parse that data into individual fields. The pre-formatted data
has a next line/carriage return at the end of each line. How do I do a parse
when the delimiter is several carriage returns within a single cell?

 

[Dave Peterson]

If the delimiter is the alt-enter (like you use when you force a new line in a
cell), you can try this:

Select the single column range to parse.
Data|Text to columns (xl2003 menus)
delimited
and check other
Use ctrl-j (hold the control key when you hit lower case j)

And finish up.

Does it work?

 

[Tufts]

Thanks Dave. Worked like a charm! I appreciate the help.

Phillip

 

[Dave]

Hi DP,
Amazing!
How are mere mortals supposed to know this? I can't find it in the Help.
Regards - Dave.

 

[Dave Peterson]

You're too young!

Back in the caveman days of pcs, there was DOS and there were text editors (aka
stoneage wordprocessors). Lots of text editors reacted to the ctrl-j to insert
a line feed (ctrl-n forced a page break, IIRC).

If you hang around these here newsgroups long enough, you'll see people suggest
using alt-0010 (using the number pad keys).

ctrl-j is the equivalent, but it's easier to explain and do.

======
You may find some stuff on the web like:

We all were^h^h^h^hare happy.

^h was the destructive backspace.
^g was the bell character (really!)
^m was the carriage control (different from line feed)
if ^l was sent to the printer, it ejected the page.

And people think Windows is a pain to learn <hehehe>

 

[Dave]

Hey, thanks for the history lesson. I was a computer newbie in Dos days. My
first PC ran Windows 3.1!! Dos was just the weird stuff in the background. I
quickly discovered that if I played there, I could mess up real fast.
Regards - Dave.

 

[Dave Peterson]

And now with the speed of the new pcs, you (ahem, and me!) can mess up even
faster!