Replace using wildcards

[Guest]

Hi,
I'm a newbie to Excel and this group so please excuse my ignorance.

I'm trying to do what should be a pretty simple find and replace. I want to
replace:
base=xyz*cntry=123*type=simple
wist
base=differentbase*cntry=123*type=simple

I have to include the type field in my search and the asterik's are part of
the text, not wildcards. The only thing I want to change is the base.
I put this in for the search criteria:
base=xyz*cnty=???*type=simple
This finds all the lines I'm looking for so, so far, so good.
For the replace string, I use this:
base=differentbase*cntry=???*type=simple

The result is that it changes all the cntry='s to ??? instead of just
leaving them alone.

Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[Guest]

Precede the wildcard with a tilde

~* instead of *

Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

 

[Guest]

Peo,
Thanks for the suggestion but I did that, too. I did this find:
base=xyz~*cnty=???~*type=simple
For the replace string, I used this:
base=differentbase~*cntry=???~*type=simple
I also used this replace with the find above:
base=differentbase~**

The result in both cases was that the string got changed to the EXACT string
I typed in, tilde's and all.

John

 

[swatsp0p]

Excuse me for jumping into this, but <only> use the wildcards in the
Find operation, not the replace. Type in the EXACT information you
want the cell to end up with.

Good Luck!

 

[Guest]

Thanks but I can't do it that way. There are hundreds of different cntry's in
the find list. So it could be 123 or 456, etc. That's why I use ??? in the
find statement, so I find them all. But I don't want to change that value
when I do the replace.

So the lines I'm searching for could be:
base=xyz*cntry=123*type=simple
base=xyz*cntry=456*type=simple
base=xyz*cntry=789*type=simple

I want to find all the different cntry's but only of type simple. There are
multiple type's, too, so I have to define it in my search.

John

 

[Dave Peterson]

Any chance these strings are in one column?

If yes, you could apply Data|Filter|autofilter to that column.
Filter using Custom
contains type=simple

and then do your edit|replace.

(heck, with just a few columns, it wouldn't be too difficult to do a few times)

 

[Guest]

Thanks Dave! That's what I needed.

John