Parse out answers from a column

[thebside]

Ok, I have a database that I am working on and in it there happens to be fields that have data in them that belong to two separate survey questions. I need to parse it so that the data in goes into the two separate columns.

The data in the single column looks like this;
Column 1 (What is your Job Title) Column 2 (What is your language Preference)
Answer sets that start with "M" belong to Column 1, and answer sets that start with "L" belong to Column 2.
In the single column that I Have now, the answers look like this "M1;M3;L02;L03;L08"

Is it even possible to separate out the data into two columns?

[Tom Ogilvy]

Untested, but use something like this

Dim v as Variant, sStr1 as String
Dim sStr2 as String, i as Long
v = Split(ActiveCell.Value,";")
for i = lbound(v) to ubound(v)
if Left(v(i),1) = "M" then
sStr1 = sStr1 & v(i) & ";"
else
sStr2 = sStr2 & v(i) & ";"
end if
Next
if sStr1 <> "" then
sStr1 = Left(sStr1,len(sStr1)-1)
end if
if sStr2 <> "" then
sStr2 = Left(sStr2,len(sStr2)-1)
end if

' now put sStr1 in Column 1 and sStr2 in Column 2

works for xl2000 or later
--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy


"thebside" <[email protected]> wrote in
message news:[email protected]...
>
> Ok, I have a database that I am working on and in it there happens to be
> fields that have data in them that belong to two separate survey
> questions. I need to parse it so that the data in goes into the two
> separate columns.
>
> The data in the single column looks like this;
> Column 1 (What is your Job Title) Column 2 (What is your language
> Preference)
> Answer sets that start with "M" belong to Column 1, and answer sets
> that start with "L" belong to Column 2.
> In the single column that I Have now, the answers look like this
> "M1;M3;L02;L03;L08"
>
> Is it even possible to separate out the data into two columns?
>
>
> --
> thebside
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[Bryan Hessey]

Hopefully you mean that your data is all within column A such that A1 is a heading, and A2=M1, A3=M3, A4=L02, A5=L03, A6=L08 etc

Assuming that columns B and C are free, in B2 put
=if(left(A2,1)="M",A2,"")
and in C2 put either
=if(B2="",A2,"")
or
=if(left(A2,1)="L",A2,"")

formula-copy B2 and C2 to the end of your data in column A, this should show the required split, then

highlilght columns B & C and COPY, then Paste Special, Values (back over themselves)

You can then delete column A and adjust the headings.

Ok, I have a database that I am working on and in it there happens to be fields that have data in them that belong to two separate survey questions. I need to parse it so that the data in goes into the two separate columns.

The data in the single column looks like this;
Column 1 (What is your Job Title) Column 2 (What is your language Preference)
Answer sets that start with "M" belong to Column 1, and answer sets that start with "L" belong to Column 2.
In the single column that I Have now, the answers look like this "M1;M3;L02;L03;L08"

Is it even possible to separate out the data into two columns?

[Gary Keramidas]

nope, i think he means that "M1;M3;L02;L03;L08" is all in a2 or whatever
row. tom's procedure seems to work nicely

--


Gary


"Bryan Hessey" <[email protected]>
wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Hopefully you mean that your data is all within column A such that A1 is
> a heading, and A2=M1, A3=M3, A4=L02, A5=L03, A6=L08 etc
>
> Assuming that columns B and C are free, in B2 put
> =if(left(A2,1)="M",A2,"")
> and in C2 put either
> =if(B2="",A2,"")
> or
> =if(left(A2,1)="L",A2,"")
>
> formula-copy B2 and C2 to the end of your data in column A, this
> should show the required split, then
>
> highlilght columns B & C and COPY, then Paste Special, Values (back
> over themselves)
>
> You can then delete column A and adjust the headings.
>
>
> thebside Wrote:
>> Ok, I have a database that I am working on and in it there happens to be
>> fields that have data in them that belong to two separate survey
>> questions. I need to parse it so that the data in goes into the two
>> separate columns.
>>
>> The data in the single column looks like this;
>> Column 1 (What is your Job Title) Column 2 (What is your language
>> Preference)
>> Answer sets that start with "M" belong to Column 1, and answer sets
>> that start with "L" belong to Column 2.
>> In the single column that I Have now, the answers look like this
>> "M1;M3;L02;L03;L08"
>>
>> Is it even possible to separate out the data into two columns?
>
>
> --
> Bryan Hessey
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Bryan Hessey's Profile:
> http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=21059
> View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=476561
>