Delete certain text in a cell based on a condition - excel

Question

I need your support to get the result in column B, it is basically see if there is 5 digits between a comma and a dash sign ( , & - ) in A cells and delete the text from , to -, the rest of the text need to be same without any changes as shown in the picture. I am looking for a normal excel equation not a vba code. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Based on your screenshot and not what you wrote, you seem to want to retain substrings that are in the format of aaaa-nnnn where nnnnn represents four or more digits. If you have the FILTERXML and TEXTJOIN functions, you can use this formula:
=SUBSTITUTE(TEXTJOIN(",",TRUE,FILTERXML("<t><s>" & SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"-",",-"),",","</s><s>") & "</s></t>","//s[number(.)<-999] /preceding::*[1] | //s[number(.)<-999]")),",-","-")
Create an XML splitting on the commas and also the hyphen (but retain the hyphen)
Construct an xPath which selects both the node preceding a numeric node with a value of less than -999 and that numeric node itself.
The negative number comes from retaining the hyphen
Put the values back together using TEXTJOIN with a comma separator
Remove the comma that is now preceding the hyphen.
If your version of Excel does not have those functions, VBA or possibly Power Query would be a better solution.
If wind up preferring a VBA solution, I suggest looking for substrings that meet your apparent criteria of a hyphenated substring where the right half is a number > 999. If necessary, checking the left side for being all capital letters could be easily added.
Option Explicit
Function getStr(S As String) As String
Dim V, W
Dim sTemp As String
V = Split(S, ",")
For Each W In V
If Val(Split(W, "-")(1)) > 999 Then _
sTemp = sTemp & "," & W
Next W
getStr = Mid(sTemp, 2)
End Function

Answer 2

Regrettably Substitute Doesn't Allow Wild Characters
Using SEARCH and REPLACE the only thing I could come up with was the following formula:
=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("????-, ",A1)),REPLACE(A1,SEARCH("????-, ",A1),7,""),IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(", ????-",RIGHT(A1,7))),REPLACE(A1,LEN(A1)-6,7,""),A1))
which is removing only the first occurrence of the strings you want removed.
As a consolation I'm offering a simple VBA solution, which by default removes all 5-character sub strings in a ", "-delimited string.
In VBA (CTRL-F11) insert a new module into the workbook where you need it. In the code sheet of the module (probably Module1) copy/paste the following code:
Option Explicit
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' Purpose: From a delimited string, removes all sub strings containing
' a specified number of characters and returns the remainder
' of the string.
' Returns: A string, if there are any substrings with a different number
' of characters than the specified number of characters,
' or "", if not.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Function FilterC(SourceValue As Variant, _
Optional NumberOfCharacters As Long = 5, _
Optional Delimiter As String = ", ") As String
Dim vntS As Variant ' Source Array
Dim vntT As Variant ' Target Array
Dim i As Long ' Source Array Elements Counter
Dim iTA As Long ' Target Array Elements Counter
Dim strC As String ' Current String
' Check if SourceValue is text.
If VarType(SourceValue) <> vbString Then Exit Function
' Check if SourceValue is "". For a cell in Excel this refers to an empty
' cell or a cell with a formula evaluating to "".
If SourceValue = "" Then Exit Function
' Initialize Target Array Elements Counter.
iTA = -1
' Write SourceValue to elements of Source Array (using 'Split').
vntS = Split(SourceValue, Delimiter)
' Loop through elements of Source Array.
For i = 0 To UBound(vntS)
' Write current element in Source Array to Current String.
strC = vntS(i)
' Check if the length of Current String is NOT equal
' to NumberOfCharacters.
If Len(strC) <> 5 Then GoSub TargetArray
Next
' If only 'NumberOfCharacters' character strings are found.
If iTA = -1 Then Exit Function
' Write elements of Target Array to FilterC (using "Join").
FilterC = Join(vntT, Delimiter)
Exit Function
' Write String to Target Array.
TargetArray:
' Increase Target Array Elements Counter.
iTA = iTA + 1
' Check if Target Array Elements Counter is greater than 0 i.e. if
' there already are any elements in Target Array.
If iTA > 0 Then
' All, except the first element.
ReDim Preserve vntT(iTA)
Else
' Only the first element.
ReDim vntT(0)
End If
' Write Current String to Target Array.
vntT(iTA) = strC
' Note: Target Array Elements Counter (iTA) was initalized with -1, so when
' the first time the code redirects to TargetArray (Subroutine),
' iTA will be 0 and only this time run through the Else clause
' and finally write Current String to Target Array.
Return
End Function
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
In Excel for a result from A1 use the following formula:
=FilterC(A1)
which is the short, default behavior of the fully qualified formula:
=FilterC(A1,5,", ")