Extract different numbers from multiple strings - excel

Question

In a .csv spreadsheet, I have multiple strings with incrementing numerical values contained in each, and I need to extract the numbers from each string. For example, here are two strings:
DEVICE1.CM1 - 4.1.1.C1.CA_VALUE (A)
DEVICE1.CM2 - 6.7.1.C2.CA_VALUE (A)
DEVICE1.CM1 - 4.1.2.C1.CA_VALUE (A)
DEVICE1.CM1 - 4.1.2.C2.CA_VALUE (A)
DEVICE1.CM1 - 4.1.2.C3.CA_VALUE (A)
DEVICE1.CM1 - 5.1.1.C1.CA_VALUE (A)
DEVICE1.CM1 - 5.1.1.C2.CA_VALUE (A)
DEVICE1.CM1 - 5.10.1.C3.CA_VALUE (A)
DEVICE1.CM1 - 6.13.1.C10.CA_VALUE (A)
And I am looking to extract "4.1.1.C1" from the first string, and "6.7.1.C2" from the second string.
I have over 1000 strings, each with a different incremental value in the form of "#.#.#.C.#" and all of the options I have tried so far involve searching for a specific value to extract, rather than extracting all values of that general form. Is there any reasonable way to accomplish this?

Answer 1

I am not a big fan of regular expressions because they are often hard to read, but this is a typical example where you should use them. Read carefully the Q&A BigBen linked to in the comments.
Function extractCode(s As String) As String
Static rx As RegExp
If rx Is Nothing Then Set rx = New RegExp
rx.Pattern = "\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.C\d"
If rx.Test(s) Then
extractCode = rx.Execute(s)(0)
End If
End Function
(You will need to add the reference to the Microsoft VBScript Regular Expression library)
--> Updated my answer, you need to escape the dot, else it is a placeholder for any character and the pattern would also match something like "4x1y2zC3",

Answer 2

So here goes:
MID(A1,FIND("-",A1,1)+2,(FIND("_",A1,1)-FIND("-",A1,1))-5)

Answer 3

The fixed structure
(items) are always preceeded by " - " and followed by ".CA_VALUE (A)"
allows to isolate the code string via Split as follows:
consider ".CA_VALUE (A)" as closing delimiter, but change occurrence(s) to "- "
execute Split now on the resulting string using only the first delimiter (StartDelim "- ")
isolate the second token (index: 1 as split results are zero-based)
Function ExtractCode(ByVal s As String) As String
Const StartDelim As String = "- "
Const ClosingDelim As String = ".CA_VALUE (A)"
ExtractCode = Split(Replace(s, ClosingDelim, StartDelim), StartDelim)(1)
End Function
Another approach with focus on splitting via point delimiters //Edit 2021-11-20
If you want to experiment with a fixed start position of your 4-items code in a split array (based on point delimiters "."),
you might also consider the following approach:
split via point delimiters "."
filter only the 3rd,4th,5th and 6th item via WorksheetFunction.Index (by its columns argument)
join the resulting items again via connecting points "."
a) Using (Excel) version MS 365
Function ExtractCode(ByVal s As String, Optional startPos As Long = 3) As Variant
Const delim As String = "."
Dim tmp
tmp = Split(Replace(s, "- ", delim), delim) ' normalize hyphen to point delimiter
With Application.WorksheetFunction
ExtractCode = Join(.Index(tmp, 0, .Sequence(1, 4, startPos)), ".")
End With
End Function
b) Make it backwards compatible
Just change the function result assignment to
ExtractCode = Join(.Index(tmp, 0, Evaluate("{1,2,3,4}-1+" & startPos)), ".")
which in both cases changes the Index column argument to a 1-based column number Array(3,4,5,6)