Question

Parsing a string from cell values

Asked by: dsr79

I have an excel file with 6,000 records.  I have a column in the file that has first names in it.  Some of the names are in the following format.

Jonathan (John)
Richard (Dick)

I need a macro that will replace the values in these cells with only the value between the parenthesis.  In the example above, after the macro is run, the cells should have the following values

John
Dick

The macro should leave the cells where there are no parenthesis untouched.

Thanks,
Ram.

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Asked On
2009-11-03 at 09:59:59ID24868067
Tags

Excel

,

VBA

Topics

Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet Software

,

VB Script

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
4

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Answers

 

by: saurabh726Posted on 2009-11-03 at 10:03:51ID: 25731684

Ram,

Assuming you have value in A1 then in B1 you can use this formula...

=MID(A1,FIND("(",A1)+1,FIND(")",A1)-FIND("(",A1)-1)

This will give you the return what you are looking for...

Saurabh...

 

by: barryhoudiniPosted on 2009-11-03 at 10:53:56ID: 25732160

You could just use Edit > Replace

First replace *( with nothing and then replace )* with nothing....

regards, barry

 

by: rejoinderPosted on 2009-11-03 at 13:37:38ID: 25734060

You can try a macro like this...
Adjust the start column/row - Range("C2").Select to match your spreadsheet.
The macro will stop at an empty cell.

Sub ShortenName()
    Range("C2").Select
    Do Until IsEmpty(ActiveCell)
        POS1 = InStr(ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1, "(")
        If POS1 > 0 Then
            POS2 = InStr(ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1, ")")
            ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = Mid(ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1, POS1 + 1, POS2 - POS1 - 1)
        End If
        ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select
    Loop
End Sub

                                              
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by: dsr79Posted on 2009-11-04 at 04:36:01ID: 31649542

Very simple..thanks.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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