Parsing text strings when the source is not consistent

[rizzo93]

I'm trying to parse out text strings from a source that is not consistently formatted. These extractions will be inserted into separate cells.

In a "perfect scenario", the data source should be formatted in the following manner:

Cell C1
1. Business, Clark Kent 2. Solution, Diana Prince 3. Operational, Bruce Wayne 4a. Pilot, Hal Jordan 4b. Engineering, Barry Allen 4c. IT, Peter Parker 4d. Security, Tony Stark

The use of numbers, spaces and commas should always be constant. Blue text can be considered my markers with which to find things.

Sometimes the data comes over like this:

1. Business, Clark Kent 2. Solution, Diana Prince 3. Operational, 4a. , Hal Jordan 4b. , 4c. , 4d. ,
1. Business, Clark Kent 2. Solution, Diana Prince 3. Operational, Bruce Wayne 4a. , Hal Jordan 4b. , Barry Allen 4c. , Peter Parker 4d. , Tony Stark
Business, Clark Kent 2. Solution, Diana Prince 3. Operational, 4a. , Hal Jordan

I need to allow for these variances and extract the names and areas of expertise (the descriptions that are sometimes included just before the person's name like Engineering and Security above).

So using the "perfect scenario" above, it would look like this:

A	B	C	D	E	F	G
Clark Kent	Diana Prince	Bruce Wayne	Pilot, Hal Jordan	Engineering, Barry Allen	IT, Peter Parker	Security, Tony Stark

<tbody>
</tbody>

My formulas so far look like this, but I end up having to add special tweaks to cells E, F and G:

A	B	C	D	E	F	G
=TRIM(MID($C1,14,FIND("2",$C1)-14))	=TRIM(MID($C1,FIND("n,",$C1)+2,FIND("3",$C1)-FIND("n,",$C1)-2))	=TRIM(MID($C1,FIND("l,",$C1)+2,FIND("4",$C1)-FIND("l,",$C1)-2))	=IF($G$4=TRUE,IF(LEFT(MID($C$1,FIND("4a",$C1)+4,(FIND("4b",$C1)-FIND("4a",$C1))-5),1)=",",MID($C$1,FIND("4a",$C1)+6,(FIND("4b",$C1)-FIND("4a",$C1))-7),MID($C$1,FIND("4a",$C1)+4,(FIND("4b",$C1)-FIND("4a",$C1))-5)),RIGHT($C1,LEN($C1)-FIND("4a",$C1)-5))	=IF($H$4=TRUE,IF(LEFT(MID($C$1,FIND("4b",$C1)+4,(FIND("4c",$C1)-FIND("4b",$C1))-5),1)=",",MID($C$1,FIND("4b",$C1)+6,(FIND("4c",$C1)-FIND("4b",$C1))-7),MID($C$1,FIND("4b",$C1)+4,(FIND("4c",$C1)-FIND("4b",$C1))-5)),RIGHT($C1,LEN($C1)-FIND("4b.",$C1,LEN($F7))-3))	Gets confusing at this point	Gets confusing at this point

<tbody>
</tbody>

Any help would be very, very welcome.

 

[Andrew Fergus]

Hi

This isn't perfect but hopefully this helps.

We can use a custom formula to get the Business value and the Security value, but we can use a generic formula to get all the other values.
This relies on having some headings with the correct value, as follows:

Assumes the following data is in cells A2:A5:

1. Business, Clark Kent 2. Solution, Diana Prince 3. Operational, Bruce Wayne 4a. Pilot, Hal Jordan 4b. Engineering, Barry Allen 4c. IT, Peter Parker 4d. Security, Tony Stark 1. Business, Clark Kent 2. Solution, Diana Prince 3. Operational, 4a. , Hal Jordan 4b. , 4c. , 4d. , 1. Business, Clark Kent 2. Solution, Diana Prince 3. Operational, Bruce Wayne 4a. , Hal Jordan 4b. , Barry Allen 4c. , Peter Parker 4d. , Tony Stark Business, Clark Kent 2. Solution, Diana Prince 3. Operational, 4a. , Hal Jordan <tbody> </tbody>

<tbody>
</tbody>

In cell B1 enter the value: 1. Business,
in C1: 2. Solution,
in D1: 3. Operational,
in E1: 4a.
in F1: 4b.
in G1: 4c.
in H1: 4d.
These are the headings that the formulas rely on.

Formula in cell B2:
=TRIM(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(LEFT($A2,FIND(C$1,$A2)-1),B$1,""),"Business,",""))
copy down.

Formula in cell C2:
=IFERROR(TRIM(MID($A2,FIND(C$1,$A2)+LEN(C$1),FIND(D$1,$A2)-FIND(C$1,$A2)-LEN(C$1))),"")
copy down and across to column G

Formula in cell H2:
=IFERROR(TRIM(RIGHT($A2,LEN($A2)-FIND(H$1,$A2)-LEN(H$1)+1)),"")
Copy down.

Notice this leaves behind leading commas where the "security" (etc.) value is missing. If however we remove this using a substitute function, then the comma disappears where we want it to remain.

These are the results I am seeing in cells B1:H5....

1. Business,	2. Solution,	3. Operational,	4a.	4b.	4c.	4d.
Clark Kent	Diana Prince	Bruce Wayne	Pilot, Hal Jordan	Engineering, Barry Allen	IT, Peter Parker	Security, Tony Stark
Clark Kent	Diana Prince		, Hal Jordan	,	,	,
Clark Kent	Diana Prince	Bruce Wayne	, Hal Jordan	, Barry Allen	, Peter Parker	, Tony Stark
Clark Kent	Diana Prince

<colgroup><col span="7"></colgroup><tbody>
</tbody>

Hopefully this is enough to get you started?

Andrew

 

[rizzo93]

Thank you very much, Andrew! This definitely helps.

 

[Peter_SSs]

I'm guessing that this won't be perfect either and if it fails you might give a few more examples of data and expected results where it does fail.
For original data in A2 and down, the code produced the results shown below in columns B:H.

Sub Split_Data()
  Dim RX As Object
  Dim a As Variant, b As Variant, bits As Variant
  Dim i As Long, j As Long
  
  Set RX = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
  RX.Global = True
  RX.IgnoreCase = True
  RX.Pattern = "\b[\d\. ]*Business[ ,]*|[\d\. ]*Solution[ ,]*|[\d\. ]*Operational[ ,]*|4a\.[ ,]*|4b\.[ ,]*|4c\.[ ,]*|4d\.[ ,]*(\b|$)"
  a = Range("A2", Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp)).Value
  ReDim b(1 To UBound(a), 1 To 7)
  For i = 1 To UBound(a)
    bits = Split(RX.Replace(a(i, 1), "^"), "^")
    For j = 1 To UBound(bits)
      b(i, j) = bits(j)
    Next j
  Next i
  Range("B2").Resize(UBound(b), 7).Value = b
End Sub

Book1
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
1		1.Business	2. Solution	3. Operational	4a.	4b.	4c.	4d.
2	1. Business, Clark Kent 2. Solution, Diana Prince 3. Operational, Bruce Wayne 4a. Pilot, Hal Jordan 4b. Engineering, Barry Allen 4c. IT, Peter Parker 4d. Security, Tony Stark	Clark Kent	Diana Prince	Bruce Wayne	Pilot, Hal Jordan	Engineering, Barry Allen	IT, Peter Parker	Security, Tony Stark
3	1. Business, Clark Kent 2. Solution, Diana Prince 3. Operational, 4a. , Hal Jordan 4b. , 4c. , 4d. ,	Clark Kent	Diana Prince		Hal Jordan
4	1. Business, Clark Kent 2. Solution, Diana Prince 3. Operational, Bruce Wayne 4a. , Hal Jordan 4b. , Barry Allen 4c. , Peter Parker 4d. , Tony Stark	Clark Kent	Diana Prince	Bruce Wayne	Hal Jordan	Barry Allen	Peter Parker	Tony Stark
5	Business, Clark Kent 2. Solution, Diana Prince 3. Operational, 4a. , Hal Jordan	Clark Kent	Diana Prince		Hal Jordan
Extract Text Parts (2)

 

[rizzo93]

Hi Peter,
My apologies for the late reply (it's been a crazy week).
Thanks for your feedback. Very much appreciated.

 

[Peter_SSs]

Hi Peter,
My apologies for the late reply (it's been a crazy week).
Thanks for your feedback. Very much appreciated.

You are very welcome.