Re: Need formula to extract a numeric value from a free-format tex

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First off, before answering your questions, here is a revised formula (the previous one could not detect an 8 or more digit number in front of the 7 digit number you wanted to find...

=MID(A1,MIN(IF(ISNUMBER(--MID(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ","x"),ROW(1:99),7))*
ISERR(SEARCH("e",MID(A1,ROW(1:99),7)))*ISERR(FIND("/",MID(A1,ROW
(1:99),7)))*ISERROR(--MID(A1,ROW(1:99),8))*IF(ROW(1:99)>1,ISERROR
(--MID(A1,ROW(1:99),ROW(1:99)-1))),ROW(1:99))),7)

I also changed the limit to text strings up to 99 characters long. If you could have longer text strings for this formula to process, then change *all* the 99's in my formula to a number that is equal to the largest total number of characters that your text could be. I also changed the formulas cell reference from the arbitrary F5 I used in my previous submission to the more standard A1 cell reference that is used when the actual cell reference is unknown.

Okay, first off, the double minus sign is a means of converting the text representation of a number into an actual numeric value. Excel will does this conversion automatically whenever the text representation of a numeric value is used in a numerical calculation. Putting the double minus sign in front force Excel to attempt to multiply the text by minus one twice (--TextNumber is the same as doing this...

-1*-1*TextNumber

If TextNumber is the actual representation of a numerical value, then that number will be returned (because minus one times minus one is equivalent to plus 1); if it is not the actual representation of a numerical value, attempting to multiply it by the first minus sign (which is equivalent to minus 1) will generate an error. So my code uses the double minus sign to attempt to change the text at each point of the array's iteration to see if ISNUMBER and ISERROR is true or not in order to calculate the values necessary to retrieve the 7 digit number you are after.

And the above explanation is the key to understanding the second part of your question. There are two problems with converting the text representation of a number to an actual value... numbers that are powers of 10 (Excel uses and E, for exponent I'm guessing, to indicate a power of 10; for example 1.23E4 is the same thing as 1234) and dates (which Excel works with as offsets for January 1, 1900; so the human readable date of 7/20/2009 is really 40014). So, as the array formula iterates down the text, it will would see text constructions like these 7 character long pieces of text... 1.23E45 and 07/20/09... as numbers when the double minus sign is applied to them, so I needed to filter these "false positives" out if they occurred before your actual 7 digit number. I handled this by looking for an embedded "e" (either upper or lower case), for the E-Notation problem, or a date separator symbol which is the slash in my system (but which can vary depending on regional settings).

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"Eric_NY" <EricNY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:71DB9352-C9BB-4D3C-B7E1-A4472C48F43E@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks. I'll need to take some time to decipher this. But first, can you
explain:

- What's the function of the double minus sign in the formula?
- Why does the date separator come into play here at all? The only thing I
need to do is to look for a 7-digit number in a text field where we know
nothing at all about the rest of the contents. Why should the operation of a
formula be dependent upon extraneous information, such as how a date is
formatted? The rest of the text string needs to be considered as a fully
arbitrary series of characters; in other words, the function needs to work
entirely irrespective of the remainder of the field.

Thanks for your help.

"Rick Rothstein" wrote:

I forgot to include the note regarding array-entered formulas. Here is my
message again, but with the note...

In case you want to consider it, here is a non-RegEx array-entered** formula
that will do what you want...

=MID(F5,MIN(IF(ISNUMBER(--MID(SUBSTITUTE(F5," ","x"),ROW(1:30),7))*
ISERR(SEARCH("e",MID(F5,ROW(1:30),7)))*ISERR(FIND("/",MID(F5,ROW
(1:30),7))),ROW(1:30))),7)

**Commit this formula using Ctrl+Shift+Enter, not just Enter by itself

Note though, that this formula is dependent on what your default date
separator is. Mine is the slash character (/) and that is what I used in the
FIND function call... if your default date separator is a different symbol,
then just replace my slash with that character.

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"Rick Rothstein" <rick.newsNO.SPAM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23lJyL5UCKHA.4376@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> In case you want to consider it, here is a non-RegEx array-entered**
> formula that will do what you want...
>
> =MID(F5,MIN(IF(ISNUMBER(--MID(SUBSTITUTE(F5," ","x"),ROW(1:30),7))*
> ISERR(SEARCH("e",MID(F5,ROW(1:30),7)))*ISERR(FIND("/",MID(F5,ROW
> (1:30),7))),ROW(1:30))),7)
>
> Note though, that this formula is dependent on what your default date
> separator is. Mine is the slash character (/) and that is what I used > in
> the FIND function call... if your default date separator is a different
> symbol, then just replace my slash with that character.
>
> -- > Rick (MVP - Excel)
>
>
> "Eric_NY" <EricNY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:ADF5A7F2-528A-49B6-83BE-5B625E33D063@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>I just read your message from last Friday.
>>
>> The text is free format. Users can enter it in whatever format they >> want.
>> The 7-digit number is somewhere within the text. I've glanced through >> it
>> and
>> in the samples I've seen, there's no consistency in what appears >> before
>> or
>> after the 7-digit number.
>>
>> I used the regex solution that Ron Rosenfeld suggested, and adjusted >> the
>> regular expression by removing the "\b" before and after the "\d{7}".
>>
>> "Rick Rothstein" wrote:
>>
>>> I would still be interested in the answer to my questions...
>>>
>>> "Is the number always precede by a space when the number
>>> is interior to the text? What about that "dot" after it... is >>> there
>>> always a dot following it? If the dot might not always be
>>> there, is there always a space after the number when it is
>>> interior to the text?"
>>>
>>> -- >>> Rick (MVP - Excel)
>>>
>>>
>>> "Eric_NY" <EricNY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>>> news:6D1CC44F-C9E9-41D4-ABF1-BBF27BD6C2D1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> > "However, with the morefunc add-in there is an option, I believe it >>> > is
>>> > a
>>> > menu
>>> > option, to install the add-in as part of the workbook. "
>>> >
>>> > I can't find that option. Where should I look for it? Which menu?
>>> >
>>> > "Ron Rosenfeld" wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:04:04 -0700, Eric_NY
>>> >> <EricNY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> >> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> >Ron - Thanks. I'm going to try the Longre morefunc add-in.
>>> >> >
>>> >> >If I use the add-in functions and then send the sheet to someone >>> >> >by
>>> >> >email,
>>> >> >will the formulas still work? Or does the recipient also have to
>>> >> >install
>>> >> >the
>>> >> >add-in separately on his own machine?
>>> >> >
>>> >> >Thanks for your help.
>>> >>
>>> >> Ordinarily no. They would have to install it themselves. >>> >> However,
>>> >> with
>>> >> the
>>> >> morefunc add-in there is an option, I believe it is a menu option, >>> >> to
>>> >> install
>>> >> the add-in as part of the workbook. If you do that, it will then >>> >> be
>>> >> usable by
>>> >> the recipient with no particular effort on his part.
>>> >>
>>> >> One caution concerning the add-in -- it will not work on strings >>> >> that
>>> >> are
>>> >> longer than 255 characters. This, apparently is an .xll >>> >> limitation,
>>> >> and
>>> >> there
>>> >> is no good way around it within the add-in.
>>> >>
>>> >> By the way, if you should use the UDF approach, the UDF should be
>>> >> embedded
>>> >> within the workbook, so its use should be transparent to your >>> >> user.
>>> >> But
>>> >> there
>>> >> are a lot of other useful functions in morefunc.
>>> >> --ron
>>> >>
>>>
>>>
>



.

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