Parse column and extract matching string

[hoyonono]

Hi everybody,

I got programming skills, but never had to deal with VBA. I can read it but I can’t do it from scratch.
I tried a lot of research but failed to find something that was matching my problem.
I understand that my problem must be a classic use case but I couldn’t find the right way to search about it.

My problem:
I got a scanned invoice gone through an OCR, giving me 1200rows for ~500 “codes”.
I need to extract all the “code” in the text of column A.
I got the A column, I want to obtain B column.

	A	B
1	0	TER1234567890
2		TER1234567891
3	sdf sdfsdfsdfsdf	RS1234567890
4	sdf5454sdf TER1234567890 sdfjklslkdfjkj	RS1234567891
5	sdkljfklsjdklfj TER1234567891	TER1234567899
6	RS1234567890	…
7
8	dfgdfgdfgdfgdfg
9	RS1234567891 TER1234567899 sdfgdfgdf
10	0
…	…

<tbody>
</tbody>

link to xls file : http://wikisend.com/download/803406/sample_****ty_data.xlsx

Every A cells :
· Got 0, 1 or more “code”
· Got a space “ “ before the “code” or is the first string in the cell
· Got a space “ “ after the “code” or is the last string in the cell

I can define all “codes” like:
· “ TER?????????? ”
· “ RS??????????? “
· …
· Always 2 or 3 letters + 10 numbers



I can define B like:
FOR EACH cells in A column
IF text in cell contains “TER??????????“ or “RS??????????“ or …
Extract the “code” to first empty cell in B column (if there is 2 or more “code” in the A cell, I need to extract each code in 1 row in B column)
ELSE nothing


How can I extract the B column from A ?
All hints are welcomed (even like: ‘goat, go search that : “problem expressed clearly for coherent search results” )!

Thanks for your attention excel masters,
Hoyoyonono, excel goat.

 

[hoyonono]

I dont know, something like :

bool no_more_code;
int j = 0;

FOR EACH cell in A column
    no_more_code = false;
    WHILE (no_more_code = false)
        IF string match regex and not in B
            Extract code in Bj
            j++
        ELSE
            no_more_code = true;
END FOR EACH

 

[Rick Rothstein]

Will the 10 digits in your codes always be the only 10-digit numbers within the text that is in each cell?

 

[hiker95]

hoyonono,

Welcome to the MrExcel forum.

1. What version of Excel and Windows are you using?

2. Are you using a PC or a Mac?


The following macro is based on your displayed text strings .


Sample raw data in worksheet Feuil1:

Excel 2007
	A	B
1	0
2
3	sdf sdfsdfsdfsdf
4	sdf5454sdf TER1234567890 sdfjklslkdfjkj
5	sdkljfklsjdklfj TER1234567891
6	RS1234567890
7
8	dfgdfgdfgdfgdfg
9	RS1234567891 TER1234567890 sdfgdfgdf
10	0
11
Feuil1

After the macro:

Excel 2007
	A	B
1	0	TER1234567890
2		TER1234567891
3	sdf sdfsdfsdfsdf	RS1234567890
4	sdf5454sdf TER1234567890 sdfjklslkdfjkj	RS1234567891
5	sdkljfklsjdklfj TER1234567891	TER1234567890
6	RS1234567890
7
8	dfgdfgdfgdfgdfg
9	RS1234567891 TER1234567890 sdfgdfgdf
10	0
11
Feuil1

Please TEST this FIRST in a COPY of your workbook (always make a backup copy before trying new code, you never know what you might lose).

1. Copy the below code
2. Open your NEW workbook
3. Press the keys ALT + F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor
4. Press the keys ALT + I to activate the Insert menu
5. Press M to insert a Standard Module
6. Where the cursor is flashing, paste the code
7. Press the keys ALT + Q to exit the Editor, and return to Excel
8. To run the macro from Excel press ALT + F8 to display the Run Macro Dialog. Double Click the macro's name to Run it.

Sub ExtractStrings()
' hiker95, 12/09/2014, ME823147
Dim c As Range, s, i As Long, nr As Long
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
With Sheets("Feuil1")
  nr = 0
  For Each c In .Range("A1", .Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp))
    If c <> "" And c <> 0 Then
      If WorksheetFunction.IsText(c) Then
        If InStr(Trim(c), " ") Then
          s = Split(Trim(c), " ")
          For i = LBound(s) To UBound(s)
            If Left(s(i), 2) = "RS" And Len(s(i)) = 12 And IsNumeric(Right(s(i), 10)) Then
              nr = nr + 1
              .Cells(nr, 2) = s(i)
            ElseIf Left(s(i), 3) = "TER" And Len(s(i)) = 13 And IsNumeric(Right(s(i), 10)) Then
              nr = nr + 1
              .Cells(nr, 2) = s(i)
            End If
          Next i
        ElseIf Left(Trim(c), 2) = "RS" And Len(Trim(c)) = 12 And IsNumeric(Right(Trim(c), 10)) Then
          nr = nr + 1
          .Cells(nr, 2) = Trim(c)
        ElseIf Left(Trim(c), 3) = "TER" And Len(Trim(c)) = 13 And IsNumeric(Right(Trim(c), 10)) Then
          nr = nr + 1
          .Cells(nr, 2) = Trim(c)
        End If
      End If
    End If
  Next c
  .Columns(2).AutoFit
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

Before you use the macro with Excel 2007 or newer, save your workbook, Save As, a macro enabled workbook with the file extension .xlsm

Then run the ExtractStrings macro.

 

[hiker95]

hoyonono,

IF text in cell contains “TER??????????“ or “RS??????????“ or …

I missed the or ...

Can we see some other examples of the or ...?

Or, can it always be any 2 or 3 uppercase letters with 10 numbers?

 

[hiker95]

hoyonono,

If it can it always be any 2 or 3 uppercase letters with 10 numbers, then:

With the same screenshots as my reply #4:

Please TEST this FIRST in a COPY of your workbook (always make a backup copy before trying new code, you never know what you might lose).

Sub ExtractStrings_V2()
' hiker95, 12/09/2014, ME823147
Dim c As Range, s, i As Long, nr As Long
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
With Sheets("Feuil1")
  nr = 0
  For Each c In .Range("A1", .Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp))
    If c <> "" And c <> 0 Then
      If WorksheetFunction.IsText(c) Then
        If InStr(Trim(c), " ") Then
          s = Split(Trim(c), " ")
          For i = LBound(s) To UBound(s)
            If Left(s(i), 2) Like "[A-Z][A-Z]" And Len(s(i)) = 12 And IsNumeric(Right(s(i), 10)) Then
              nr = nr + 1
              .Cells(nr, 2) = s(i)
            ElseIf Left(s(i), 3) Like "[A-Z][A-Z][A-Z]" And Len(s(i)) = 13 And IsNumeric(Right(s(i), 10)) Then
              nr = nr + 1
              .Cells(nr, 2) = s(i)
            End If
          Next i
        ElseIf Left(Trim(c), 2) Like "[A-Z][A-Z]" And Len(Trim(c)) = 12 And IsNumeric(Right(Trim(c), 10)) Then
          nr = nr + 1
          .Cells(nr, 2) = Trim(c)
        ElseIf Left(Trim(c), 3) Like "[A-Z][A-Z][A-Z]" And Len(Trim(c)) = 13 And IsNumeric(Right(Trim(c), 10)) Then
          nr = nr + 1
          .Cells(nr, 2) = Trim(c)
        End If
      End If
    End If
  Next c
  .Columns(2).AutoFit
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

Before you use the macro with Excel 2007 or newer, save your workbook, Save As, a macro enabled workbook with the file extension .xlsm

Then run the ExtractStrings_V2 macro.

 

[Rick Rothstein]

Will the 10 digits in your codes always be the only 10-digit numbers within the text that is in each cell?

If all 10-digit numbers in the text will only belong to codes, then there would be no need to maintain a list of acceptable codes as this macro should do what you want...

Sub ExtractCodes()
  Dim R As Long, P As Long, N As Long, LastRow As Long, Space As Long, Combined As Variant, vOut As Variant
  LastRow = Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row
  Combined = Range("A1:A" & LastRow)
  ReDim vOut(1 To UBound(Combined), 1 To 1)
  For R = 1 To UBound(Combined)
    For P = 1 To Len(Combined(R, 1))
      If Mid(Combined(R, 1), P, 10) Like "##########" Then
        N = N + 1
        Space = InStrRev(" " & Combined(R, 1), " ", P)
        vOut(N, 1) = Mid(Combined(R, 1), Space, P - Space + 10)
      End If
    Next
  Next
  Range("B1:B" & LastRow) = vOut
End Sub

 

[hoyonono]

Yey! That's it

Thanks for your fast and accurate answer hiker95 and Rick Rothstein.

hicker95, ExtractStrings_V2 works great, i just needed to make very little change as there was also 2 letter/11numerics and others but its on my side. Your macro is great for the informations i provided

Rick Rothstein, working great too i just used 1 more step for filter cells strating by "XXX..." , there was a lot of unexpected numbers extracted. But same as hicker95, working perfectly with informations i provided.

Thank you both,
Cya

 

[hiker95]

hoyonono,

Thanks for the feedback.

You are very welcome. Glad we could help.

And, come back anytime.

i just needed to make very little change as there was also 2 letter/11numerics and others but its on my side.

If you can give us more details, and, examples, we can update our macros for you.