Need help with sorting info in spreadsheet.

[alvin1]

Hi,
I've not posted here before.
I previously use to not particularly like Excel, but now having to use it regularly, I am surprisingly starting to like it, but... I'm totally a clutz at the moment with using/understanding formulas and manipulating data, hence my need of some help here.

OK...I've got a mass of information in a large spreadsheet with many columns, but all I need to do is target one particular column and search/find/sort all data in that column (and expand it to all the other columns and cells so it stays connected) and find which cells in that particular column are missing certain 'words' in the description of that cell, as this column is meant to have 'repeated information' tacked on to the end of the unique cell information.

Once I find and sort these cells in this column that are missing this 'standard'/'repeated' information text, I then have to cut and past this missing 'repeated' information into these cells.

Does that make sense and can anyone out there help me with a simple search/find and replace formula to do this??

Many thanks... alvin1

[alansidman]

Please read the yellow banner at the top of this page on how to attach a file.

[alvin1]

Thanks for the very quick reply Alan.
My only concern/problem is that this is 'commercial-in-confidence', so I can't really post the worksheet, but I could if necessary mock-up an example, but I was hoping an explanation of the problem would be enough to explain.

Your thoughts?

Thanks, alvin1

[JeteMc]

Hello alvin1 and Welcome to Excel Forum.
It will easier to help and therefore help may be forthcoming more quickly, if we can see the mock-up.
Let us know if you have any questions.

[alvin1]

Hi again and apologies for the slow reply.
I've not responded up until now due to work commitments, and after doing another search on the net, finally found a simple formula in Excel that pretty much sorted the column data so I could now see and separate these particular cells (in their row) from the main spreadsheet.

Ok, so next question and hopefully I don't need to create a mock-up to explain...

In a large spreadsheet, I have a particular column titled 'Description', whose individual cells contain varying lengths of text data, describing a particular part/product assigned to that cell and its row. The text description may be anything from a single sentence and ending in a period to multiple sentences with periods, and/or some minor html with tags to designate colour of words, etc.

Each and every cell in this column is meant to end with 'standard legal disclaimer' text data, at the end of the product information. This text data also contains some html code to colour the heading.

In this particular column I have now found, sorted and grouped 130 cells that are missing this 'standard legal disclaimer' text data that was not entered (by accident) during their original entry.

To save the hassle and time of having to now manually add/insert this missing text disclaimer into each and every one of these 130 cells by hand, might there be some way of running a script that will find the last bit of data in any of these cells, whether it's a full stop, missing a full stop and a letter, or even possibly a "</p>", and the script then inserting the missing text disclaimer after each cells unique text information?

I've tried the simple 'Find & Replace', but it of course doesn't understand to go to the end of the text in that cell, and if using say ".*" to find the end, it will wipe everything after the first period it finds, when the particular text of that cell might in fact have more than one sentence with a period in it.

So... how can I insert this 'standard text data' after the very last data in a cell, no matter what type and how long each existing cells data may be?

Your thoughts here?

Thanks again, alvin1

[alvin1]

Ok, quick update...

I've finally found a simple formula that inserts new text after existing text in a cell, eg...

=J2&"Additional text"

I wasn't searching correctly and this popped up only a few minutes ago and is elegantly simple, and I've also finally solved how to then drop in my additional new text data that kept choking Excel because it contained to much 'similar' looking formula data in the html information that came with this new text.

The answer was to create not one but two temporary columns. One to run the above formula in and the third to have the new text data pasted (temporarily) into each row and get the above formula to call that row/cell and it would combine the old text data and then tack on the new text data, without Excel complaining.

So... sorry to waste your time and many thanks for your advice, but this time I think I've nailed it.

Cheers, alvin1

[AliGW]

If that takes care of your original question, please select Thread Tools from the menu link above and mark this thread as SOLVED.

[alvin1]

Thanks Ali, I was in fact trying to quickly find the 'resolved' button and didn't/couldn't see it, so thanks for pointing that out... appreciated (;->