how do i separate this string into various columns?

[bigdan]

This'll be a bit complicated I think. Hopefully the geniuses here can advise

I've got thousands of strings. Here's one example:
Computer-H000097050-LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL INC-Outside Processing [Shipping fee]-Nov

Hyphens separate what should be columns for the most part but not always.
So Computer should be a category, that belongs in one column.
H000097050-LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL INC should be the Vendor Name, that belongs in the next column. As you can see that has a hyphen in the name so that complicates things.
Outside Processing [Shipping fee] is the Desc, which goes in another column. In this case that looks clean enough but in some cases the Desc has a bloody hyphen, which kinda sucks.
And then there's the month which is self-explanatory.

So I think to start I'd like to pull out the Category and Month from this, and be left with a string of Vendor and Desc, from which I can try to figure things out further.

Can someone help with this please? I'd appreciate it.

 

[bebo021999]

Are there alway 4 hyphens inside?
Computer - Name1 - Name 2 - Desc - Month
Is this true?
Before 1st: Computer
After 1 st and before 3rd: Name 1 & 2
between 3rd and 4th: Desc
after last: Month

 

[bigdan]

Are there alway 4 hyphens inside?
Computer - Name1 - Name 2 - Desc - Month
Is this true?
Before 1st: Computer
After 1 st and before 3rd: Name 1 & 2
between 3rd and 4th: Desc
after last: Month

There's always hyphens between the categories. But the Vendor name apparently also has a hyphen sometimes, which complicates things.
Computer is a category. It wont always say Computer.

 

[bebo021999]

Could you give more sample, using Xl2BB?

XL2BB - Excel Range to BBCode

Excel 'mini-sheet' in messages - XL2BB Although experts prefer to read your description and question instead of working in your actual file to solve your problem, there are times that it is difficult to explain an issue without providing actual...

www.mrexcel.com

 

[kweaver]

Meeting part of your request, assuming the month is always a 3-character abbreviation:

Book3
	A
1	Computer-H000097050-LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL INC-Outside Processing [Shipping fee]-Nov
2	Computer
3	Nov
Sheet1

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
A2	A2	=LEFT(A1,FIND("-",A1)-1)
A3	A3	=RIGHT(A1,3)