Split string into array

[gauntletxg]

Say I have a string, "a test array." I want to split this into an array where each character is an element. I was thinking something like

Dim MyArray As Variant
Dim MyString As String
MyString = "a test array"
MyArray = Split(MyString, "", Len(MyString), vbTextCompare)

But this doesn't work because Split() returns the entire string when the delimiter is a zero-length string. How would I go about doing this?

Thanks.

 

[gauntletxg]

Why do I always forget about Mid?

Function StringToArray(MyString As String) As Variant
Dim MyArray() As Variant

Dim i, iMax As Integer
iMax = Len(MyString)
ReDim MyArray(1 To iMax)
For i = 1 To iMax
    MyArray(i) = Mid(MyString, i, 1)
Next i
StringToArray = MyArray
End Function

Suggestions anyone?

 

[xenou]

I was just thinking about this last week, perhaps from a similar post. To the best of my knowledge, VBA does not have an inbuilt function to slice a string (VB does, or at least VB.NET does). Although I may be mistaken. Here's one way. Does anyone have a better?

Sub TestIt()
Dim a() As String
Dim s As String

    s = "a test array"
    Call Split_String(a, s)
    Call TestOutput(a)

End Sub
'----------------------------------------------------
Sub Split_String(ByRef arrStringArray() As String, _
    ByVal strText As String)
Dim i As Long

    ReDim arrStringArray(Len(strText) - 1)
    For i = 0 To Len(strText) - 1
        arrStringArray(i) = Mid(strText, i + 1, 1)
    Next i

End Sub
'----------------------------------------------------
Sub TestOutput(ByRef a() As String)
Dim i As Long
    
    For i = 0 To UBound(a)
        Debug.Print i & ":" & String(5 - Len(CStr(i)), " ") & a(i)
    Next i

End Sub

 

[xenou]

I see you've nearly done the same thing.

So, if we have
a() = StringToArray
and in StringToArray we have StringToArray() = MyArray(),
are all of these variables pointing to the same memory location?

I would think "yes" - I may have gone a little too carefully trying to avoid using extra memory (passing the variable explicitly and using it "ByRef").

--AB

 

[jindon]

try

Sub test()
Dim MyArray As Variant
Dim MyString As String
MyString = "a test array"
MyArray = mySplit(MyString, "", Len(MyString), vbTextCompare)
MsgBox Join(MyArray, vbLf)
End Sub
 
Function mySplit(txt As String)
Dim i As Long, a() As String, n As Long
ReDim a(1 To Len(txt))
For i = 1 To Len(txt)
    If (Mid$(txt, i, 1) <> " ") + (Mid$(txt, i, 1) <> "") Then
        n = n + 1 : a(n) = Mid$(txt, i, 1)
    End If
Next
ReDim Preserve a(1 To n)
mySplit = a
End Function

 

[xenou]

I believe this edit is needed in Jindon's solution:

Change:

MyArray = mySplit(MyString, "", Len(MyString), vbTextCompare)

To:

MyArray = mySplit(MyString)

As usual, very nice code. --AB

 

[jindon]

I believe this edit is needed in Jindon's solution:

Change:

MyArray = mySplit(MyString, "", Len(MyString), vbTextCompare)

To:

MyArray = mySplit(MyString)

As usual, very nice code. --AB

OOps, thanks.

I just copied those lines..

 

[Fencliff]

Here's my solution:

Public Function StringToCharArray(ByRef sIn As String) As String()

    StringToCharArray = Split(StrConv(sIn, vbUnicode), Chr(0))

End Function

No iteration required

Here's a test harness if you want to try it out yourself

Sub Test()
    
    Const TEST_STRING = "Hello World!"
    
    Dim a() As String
    Dim check As String
    
    'Convert string into char array
    a = StringToCharArray(TEST_STRING)
    
    'Join array back together
    check = Join(a, vbNullString)
    
    'Verify that no data was lost in the conversion
    Debug.Print "a() and input string are equivalent:", TEST_STRING = check
    
End Sub

 

[Richard Schollar]

That's a great function, Fencliff

 

[jindon]

Nice! Fencliff