VBA Excel split the string apart based on the last comma - excel

Question

I would like to split my string in Excel between the address and postcode. I want to keep the postcode separately.
By selecting the option - Data -Text to column - delimited - comma-separated - the whole string is divided by 4 pieces, as 3 commas occur.
1 - 21 Willow Court, 1192 Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, BH7 6EG
I found, that it can be done in VBA Excel.
There are a few approaches below:
Excel VBA- remove part of the string
https://www.thespreadsheetguru.com/the-code-vault/2014/2/28/remove-last-character-from-string
How to delete last character in a string with VBA?
Removing last characters vba
How to i remove a text after '*' or '-' character using VBA in excel?
I prepared the VBA code like below:
Sub Textremove()
Dim c As Variant
For Each c In Range("D1:D100")
c.Value = Left(c.Value, InStr(c.Value, ",") - 1)
Next c
End Sub
I am receiving only:
1 - 21 Willow Court
and the error Invalid procedure call or argument, debugging the following line:
c.Value = Left(c.Value, InStr(c.Value, ",") - 1)
So the breakdown occurs after the first comma instead of the last one.
I found an answer regarding this error:
invalid procedure call or argument left
And when my code looks like this:
Sub Textremove()
Dim c As Variant
For Each c In Range("D1:D100")
If InStr(c.Value, ",") > 0 Then
c.Value = Left(c.Value, InStr(c.Value, ",") - 1)
End If
Next c
End Sub
Then error doesn't occur anymore, but I am still getting the stuff until the first comma instead of the last one.
When I change the code a bit:
Sub Textremove()
Dim c As Variant
For Each c In Range("D1:D100")
If InStr(c.Value, ",") > 0 Then
c.Value = Right(c.Value, InStr(c.Value, ","))
End If
Next c
End Sub
I am getting 2 sentences from the right
Bournemouth, BH7 6EG
which are not fixed and change depending on the total length of the string.
How can I receive the string till the last comma instead of the first one?
How can I split the whole string between the address and postcode separately?
A good example is here:
https://trumpexcel.com/vba-split-function/
Sub CommaSeparator()
Dim TextStrng As String
Dim Result() As String
Dim DisplayText As String
Dim i As Long
TextStrng = Sheets("Final").Range("D1")
Result = Split(TextStrng, ",", 1)
For i = LBound(Result()) To UBound(Result())
DisplayText = DisplayText & Result(i) & vbNewLine
Next i
MsgBox DisplayText
End Sub
It admittedly splits the whole address, but it is counted still from the first comma.

Answer 1

In my case that works. I just added the UBound(Result())-1.
Sub CommaSeparator()
Dim TextStrng As String
Dim Result() As String
Dim DisplayText As String
Dim i As Long
TextStrng = Sheets("Final").Range("D1")
Result = Split(TextStrng, ",")
For i = LBound(Result()) To UBound(Result()) - 1
DisplayText = DisplayText & Result(i) & vbNewLine
Next i
MsgBox DisplayText
End Sub

Answer 2

In case you need VBA, maybe use:
Sub Test()
Dim str As String
Dim arr As Variant
str = "1 - 21 Willow Court, 1192 Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, BH7 6EG"
arr = Split(StrReverse(Replace(StrReverse(str), ",", "|", , 1)), "|")
End Sub
I reversed the whole string through StrReverse(), then used Replace() to replace only the 1st comma with a pipe-symbol (note the use of the Count parameter), reversed the string back and used a Split(). This returns:
An alternative would be to make use of the worksheetfunction REPLACE() instead of the VBA function which inconveniently is called the same.
Sub Test()
Dim str As String: str = "1 - 21 Willow Court, 1192 Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, BH7 6EG"
Dim arr As Variant
arr = Split(Application.Replace(str, InStrRev(str, ","), 1, "|"), "|")
End Sub
The main difference is now that Application.Replace does take a parameter to start the replacement at without cutting of the preceding text. We can find our starting position using InstrRev().
Both options return:
Just for fun I'll chuck in an regex solution:
Sub Test()
Dim str As String: str = "1 - 21 Willow Court, 1192 Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, BH7 6EG"
Dim arr As Variant
With CreateObject("vbscript.regexp")
.Global = True
.Pattern = "^.*(?=,)|[^,]+$"
Set arr = .Execute(str)
End With
End Sub
This will return a "MatchCollectionObject" where you can call your results through: arr(0) and arr(1). A little bit of explaination of the pattern:
^ - Start string anchor.
.* - A greedy match of anything other than newline up to:
(?=,) - Positive lookahead for a comma.
| - Or match:
[^,]$ - Anything other than comma up to the end string anchor.
See the online demo

Answer 3

Use the array returned by Split to rebuild the string however you like it e.g.:
Sub DoSplit()
s = "1 - 21 Willow Court, 1192 Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, BH7 6EG"
a = Split(s, ",")
finalString = a(0) & a(1) & a(2) & ", " & a(3)
MsgBox finalString
End Sub

Answer 4

I have sorted this in a different, 2-steps way.
First of all, I split a whole address, by using the formula from here:
Split address field in Excel
Sub Split()
Dim MyArray() As String
Dim Ws As Worksheet
Dim lRow As Long, i As Long, j As Long, c As Long
'~~> Change this to the relevant sheet name
Set Ws = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Final")
With Ws
lRow = .Range("E" & .Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
For i = 1 To lRow
If InStr(1, .Range("E" & i).Value, ",", vbTextCompare) Then
MyArray = Split(.Range("E" & i).Value, ",")
c = 1
For j = 0 To UBound(MyArray)
.Cells(i, c).Value = MyArray(j)
c = c + 1
Next j
End If
Next i
End With
End Sub
and next, I merged what I needed by using this hint:
Excel macro to concatenate one row at a time to end of file
Sub Merge()
Dim LastRow As Long
Dim Ws As Worksheet
Set Ws = Sheets("Final")
LastRow = Ws.Range("A" & Ws.Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
'~~> If your range doesn't have a header
Ws.Range("H1:H" & LastRow).Formula = "=A1&B1&C1"
'~~> If it does then
Ws.Range("H2:H" & LastRow).Formula = "=A2&B2&C2"
End Sub
and finally, I received:
1 - 10 Haviland Court 104 Haviland Road Bournemouth