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king daddyFlag for United States of America

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Excel macro to add hyphen

Greetings,

can someone post a macro that will add a hyphen between the 8th and 9th digits in the line below

original = 159,05480587,E101,14.00,BWC,11/17/2010,56,192.168.25.52,,

modified = 159,0548-0587,E101,14.00,BWC,11/17/2010,56,192.168.25.52,,

I have a text file with several hundred entries that I need to modify.

Thanks a lot
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jkunrein

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For a macro, try this:
Option Explicit

Sub InsertHypen()

    Dim i As Long
    Dim lastRow As Long
    Dim tempValue As String
    
    lastRow = Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
    
    For i = 2 To lastRow
        tempValue = Cells(i, 1).Value
        If tempValue <> "" Then Cells(i, 2).Value = Left(tempValue, 8) & "-" & Right(tempValue, Len(tempValue) - 8)
    Next i

End Sub

Open in new window

Book2.xls
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jkunrein

It's worth noting that my formula works assuming you just want the second item in the comma-delimited list. If there is another comma, then the formula will fail.

At the very least, it won't matter if the first entry is one digit or eight digits. It only looks for that first comma.
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ASKER

jkunrein: it does have to be a macro. Thanks

borgunit: thanks

broomee9: this adds the hyphen - thanks. However, it creates a new column with the hyphen. I would like it to create a new text doc with the hyphen and leave the original file alone. Also, this seems to skip the first entry. This is what I have:

Sub Copy()
'
' Copy Macro
'
' Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+q
'
Workbooks.OpenText Filename:="C:\copy.txt"

    Dim i As Long
    Dim lastRow As Long
    Dim tempValue As String
   
    lastRow = Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
   
    For i = 2 To lastRow
        tempValue = Cells(i, 1).Value
        If tempValue <> "" Then Cells(i, 2).Value = Left(tempValue, 8) & "-" & Right(tempValue, Len(tempValue) - 8)
    Next i
   
    ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:="C:\copyMAC.txt", FileFormat:= _
        xlTextPrinter, CreateBackup:=False

End Sub

Can you tweak it? Thanks again
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thanks - but it didn't work. It didn't produce the extra column, but it didn't add the hyphen either. Here is what I have now:

Dim wbkOrig As Workbook
    Dim wkShtOrig As Worksheet
    Dim wbkCopy As Workbook
    Dim i As Long
    Dim lastRow As Long
    Dim tempValue As String
    
    Set wbkOrig = ThisWorkbook
    Set wkShtOrig = wbkOrig.Worksheets(1)
    Set wbkCopy = Workbooks.Open("C:\copy.txt")
   
    lastRow = wkShtOrig.Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
   
    For i = 1 To lastRow
        tempValue = wkShtOrig.Cells(i, 1).Value
        If tempValue <> "" Then wbkCopy.Worksheets(1).Cells(i, 1).Value = Left(tempValue, 8) & "-" & Right(tempValue, Len(tempValue) - 8)
    Next i
   
    wbkCopy.SaveAs Filename:="C:\copyMAC.txt", FileFormat:= _
        xlTextPrinter, CreateBackup:=False

    Set wkShtOrig = Nothing
    Set wbkOrig = Nothing
    Set wbkCopy = Nothing

Open in new window


Thanks again for your help on this
This post works for me: 34233604

Add a blank text file to the C:\ drive and rename it to copy.txt.

Then run the macro and the new file called copyMAC.txt will be created with the data and the hypen in it.
If you can't make it work with that, then this will work without the copy.txt file existing.

By the way, the copy.txt file is only in there because of the code you posted.  It's not actually needed.
Option Explicit

Sub Copy()
'
' Copy Macro
'
' Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+q
'

    Dim wbkOrig As Workbook
    Dim wkShtOrig As Worksheet
    Dim wbkCopy As Workbook
    Dim i As Long
    Dim lastRow As Long
    Dim tempValue As String
    
    Set wbkOrig = ThisWorkbook
    Set wkShtOrig = wbkOrig.Worksheets(1)
    Set wbkCopy = Workbooks.Add
   
    lastRow = wkShtOrig.Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
   
    For i = 1 To lastRow
        tempValue = wkShtOrig.Cells(i, 1).Value
        If tempValue <> "" Then wbkCopy.Worksheets(1).Cells(i, 1).Value = Left(tempValue, 8) & "-" & Right(tempValue, Len(tempValue) - 8)
    Next i
   
    wbkCopy.SaveAs Filename:="C:\copyMAC.txt", FileFormat:= _
        xlTextPrinter, CreateBackup:=False

    Set wkShtOrig = Nothing
    Set wbkOrig = Nothing
    Set wbkCopy = Nothing

End Sub

Open in new window

Book2-v2.xls
OK. I opened the copy.txt file with Excel, added the macro code from your 34233604 post, saved it as a macro-enabled excel workbook, clicked crtl+q and it worked.

However, I need to be able to open a blank workbook, except for the macro, have it pull the data from the copy.txt file and output the changes to the copyMAC.txt file. The office manager will not open the copy.txt in Excel, or notepad for that matter, but rather open the excel macro, run it (ctrl+q), then import the copyMAC.txt file into the reporting system. Any ideas on how to accomplish that? I apologize if my post was not explained properly.

Thanks
posted above before seeing your last post, 34233810.

The copy.txt is needed as it holds the original file that is output by the copy system. the file format does not work with the new reporting software so we need a macro to alter the original file by adding the hyphen so the reports are formatted correctly.

Thanks
got it. This is what I came up with using a previous macro and some googling.

Workbooks.OpenText Filename:="C:\copy.txt", Origin:=437, _
        StartRow:=1, DataType:=xlDelimited, TextQualifier:=xlNone, _
        ConsecutiveDelimiter:=False, Tab:=False, Semicolon:=False, Comma:=True _
        , Space:=False, Other:=False, FieldInfo:=Array(Array(1, 1), Array(2, 1), _
        Array(3, 1), Array(4, 1), Array(5, 1), Array(6, 1), Array(7, 1), Array(8, 1), Array(9, 1), _
        Array(10, 1)), TrailingMinusNumbers:=True
    Columns("B:B").Select
    Selection.NumberFormat = "0000-0000"
    Columns("F:F").ColumnWidth = 10.57
    Columns("D:D").Select
    Selection.NumberFormat = "0.00"
    ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:="C:\copyMAC.txt", FileFormat:= _
        xlCSV, CreateBackup:=False

Open in new window


Thanks all for the help.
while the macro posted and accepted did what I asked in that it put the hyphen in where I wanted, it didn't do it exactly how I wanted which is why I posted what did work for my situation. That said, thanks for helping out to all who posted.