huge spreadsheet with lots of problems ... 2 types of information in one cell

Hello All. I'd appreciate some advice. I have taken on a very large spreadsheet at work with a view to improving it, so that we can analyse the cohort. It relates to patient data in a hospital setting. It is very unwieldy and I don't know where to start. There are approximately 1200 individual patients all with the same condition. Unfortunately the previous data entry person did not have experience with Excel/Access (it was initially managed on Microsoft Excel, and subsequently moved to Access; I plan to move it back to Excel to work on making it more functional, if I can).

Each row relates to a specific patient. They all have the same condition. Basic demographic data is recorded in the first columns. In the later columns there are patient blood results over time.

Unfortunately the previous person has used each cell in these latter columns to record 2 distinct types of information: the numerical result of the test and the date of the test. For example an individual cell may read: 2.5 6/6/15 meaning that the result was 2.5 on the 6th of June 2015. This cell is obviously unanalysable in its current state. Is there any way to automatically separate the data. Ideally I would like to continue to have the information relating to date. Also there are many thousands of cells like this, as most patients have 5-10 such data points. Doing it by hand, extracting the information, will take months.

On a related note, if designing from the beginning, how best to record changing data point values across time, with non-standardised time intervals in a spreadsheet.

Many thanks.

Hi this may help you

https://support.office.com/en-us/art...e-973a0b7c6a23

if it does not then follow AliGW advice and post a sample workbook

Toonies

Thank you Toonies - that looks really helpful. I will try this later today. Much appreciated.