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BonnyJH's avatar
BonnyJH
Copper Contributor
May 03, 2024

Can I split information in a field?

I have a cell that contains this:  00001/  /  /29100/  I would like 2 separate numeric cells, one cell that would contain 00001 and the second cell that contains 29100 omitting the slash marks completely.

Can this be done?  I don't have much experience with Excel.  

 

Thank you for your help.

Excel
  • mathetes's avatar
    mathetes
    May 03, 2024

    You could also employ =CHOOSECOLS(TEXTSPLIT(A1,"/"),1,4) if you have a new version of Excel or subscription to Microsoft 365. This formula has the advantage of working even if the strings of digits vary in length. (If the number of slash marks change, you will need to adjust up or down the final digit to reflect that.)

  • mathetes's avatar
    mathetes
    Silver Contributor
    May 03, 2024

    BonnyJH 

     

    Yes it's possible. For general learning in the future, let me refer you to this page of text functions.

     

    If ALL of your situations are like this one, 00001/  /  /29100/, consisting of two string of five digits with slash marks in those same positions, a couple very basic functions to yield just the two strings of five digits, one each in a separate cell, would be (with the starting assumption that the original is in cell A1

    =LEFT(A1, 5)

    and

    =MID(A1,LEN(A1)-5,5)  or =LEFT(RIGHT(a1,6),5)

     

  • mathetes's avatar
    mathetes
    Silver Contributor
    May 03, 2024

    You could also employ =CHOOSECOLS(TEXTSPLIT(A1,"/"),1,4) if you have a new version of Excel or subscription to Microsoft 365. This formula has the advantage of working even if the strings of digits vary in length. (If the number of slash marks change, you will need to adjust up or down the final digit to reflect that.)

  • Detlef_Lewin's avatar
    Detlef_Lewin
    Silver Contributor
    May 03, 2024

    BonnyJH 

    More variants.

    =TEXTSPLIT(TRIM(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"/",""))," ")

=SUBSTITUTE(TEXTSPLIT(A1,"/  /  /"),"/","")
  • PeterBartholomew1's avatar
    PeterBartholomew1
    Silver Contributor
    May 04, 2024

    BonnyJH 

    The formula

    = TEXTSPLIT(string, {"/"," "}, , TRUE)

    will remove the empty fields by using the space character itself as a separator.  This would give several more blank cells except for the final parameter that causes them to be removed.

     

    If the single string were to become a list of strings you would hit the dreaded 'array of arrays' error in which Excel classes the correct solution to the problem as unsupported.  If you could guarantee that all the substrings were 5 characters long then

     

    = LET(
    concat, MAP(list, LAMBDA(term, CONCAT(TEXTSPLIT(term, {"/"," "}, , TRUE)))),
    MID(concat, {1,6,11}, 5)
  )

    should work.

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