Limiting cell input characters

[Wizz]

I need a specific cell to accept only combination of :
Text
Numbers
the symbol "-"
The symbol "_".
If the text contains any other symbol or character, excel should reject the text.

how could I do this?
Thanks a million.

[oldchippy]

Can you give a number of examples?

[Wizz]

The following are correct:
Tom_03
Bio-Technology
12_12_2007

The following should be rejected:
Tom#03 (# not allowd)
Tom.03 (. not allowd)
Bio Technology (spaces are not allowd)
12/12/2007 (/ is not allowd)

In conclusion, any combination of character as long as there are only numbres, text or the symbols "_" and "-"

Thanks

[oldchippy]

Does this link help?

http://exceltips.vitalnews.com/Pages..._a_Format.html

[Paul]

Hi Wizz and OldChippy,

I don't think that link will help since there is no length restriction, nor do any characters have to be specific to a certain position. Data Validation doesn't seem to be strong enough to handle the myriad of random combinations of letters/numbers/-/_ either.

I would suggest using a macro such as the one below, attached the the Sheet in question. It is a worksheet_Change event that will only be triggered when cell A1 is changed. Adjust Range("A1") to your specific cell as mentioned in the original post.

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[oldchippy]

Hi Paul,

That seems to do the job - must get into this VBA stuff!