Extract Text/Numbers before a specific character - excel

Question

So I've been playing around with Excel VBA to see what I can do with it. Currently, I'm stuck on one problem. My code is this:
Sub Validate_Input_Click()
Dim temp As String
For Row = 7 To 250
If Application.WorksheetFunction.CountBlank(Range(Cells(Row, 2), Cells(Row, 12))) = 0 Then
temp = ""
For col = 2 To 12
If Cells(Row, col) <> "" Then
If temp <> "" Then temp = temp & "_"
temp = temp & Cells(Row, col)
End If
Next col
Cells(Row, 1) = temp
End If
Next Row
End Sub
This works exactly as I want it to. What I'm trying to do now is, lets say in a few cells of columns B through E have Text with a dash then more text, for example:
Test - Testing
What I want to do along with concatenating is, Grab everything to the left of that dash in each individual cell. So it would look something like,
Running_This_Test_In_Some_Kind_Of_Format
instead of:
Running_This_Test - Testing_In_Some_Kind_Of_Format
I've tried creating an integer and creating a Left statement but keeps giving me not enough memory errors or using wrong argument, not sure what I'm doing incorrectly. So any help would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

You can replace
temp = temp & Cells(Row, col)
with
pos = InStr(1, Cells(Row, col), "-", vbTextCompare) 'find the position of dash
If pos Then 'if dash position exists
temp = temp & Trim(Left(Cells(Row, col), pos - 1)) 'take left part of that string and trim to get rid of spaces
Else
temp = temp & Cells(Row, col) 'else do it as you did it before
End If

Answer 2

There is no need to check for empty cell again as you are already checking them with CountBlank.
What about this?
Sub Validate_Input_Click()
Dim temp As String, str As String
Dim iRow As Long, Col As Long
For iRow = 7 To 250
If Application.WorksheetFunction.CountBlank(Range(Cells(iRow, 2), Cells(iRow, 12))) = 0 Then
temp = ""
For Col = 2 To 12
str = Trim(Split(Cells(iRow, Col), "-")(0))
If temp = "" Then
temp = str
Else
temp = temp & "_" & str
End If
Next Col
Cells(iRow, 1) = temp
End If
Next iRow
End Sub

Answer 3

Some slight alterations made... probably not the cleanest solution, but a solution nonetheless:
Sub Validate_Input_Click()
Dim temp As String, nextstring As String
Dim i As Long
For Row = 7 To 250
If Application.WorksheetFunction.CountBlank(Range(Cells(Row, 2), Cells(Row, 12))) = 0 Then
temp = ""
For col = 2 To 12
If Cells(Row, col) <> "" Then
If InStr(Cells(Row, col), "-") > 0 Then
For i = 1 To Len(Cells(Row, col))
If Mid(Cells(Row, col), i, 1) = "-" Then
nextstring = Left(Cells(Row, col), i - 2)
Exit For
End If
Next i
Else
nextstring = Cells(Row, col)
End If
If temp <> "" Then temp = temp & "_"
temp = temp & nextstring
End If
Next col
Cells(Row, 1) = temp
End If
Next Row
End Sub

Answer 4

In messing around with the code I think I found another solution to my own problem. The code looks like:
Sub Validate_Input_Click()
Dim temp As String
Dim s As String
For Row = 7 To 250
If Application.WorksheetFunction.CountBlank(Range(Cells(Row, 2), Cells(Row, 12))) = 0 Then
temp = ""
For col = 2 To 12
If Cells(Row, col) <> "" Then
s = temp
If temp <> "" Then temp = Split(s, " - ")(0) & "_"
temp = temp & Cells(Row, col)
End If
Next col
Cells(Row, 1) = temp
End If
Next Row
End Sub
Would this be a viable solution as well? Or would something else work better like the answer above from #dwirony?

Answer 5

Or the following. It will be fast as uses array, typed functions, used range and compared with vbNullString.
Option Explicit
Public Sub Concat()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim arr(), wb As Workbook, ws As Worksheet, i As Long, j As Long, concatString As String
Set wb = ThisWorkbook
Set ws = wb.Worksheets("Sheet9") 'Change as required
With ws
arr = Intersect(.Range("B:E"), .UsedRange)
For i = LBound(arr, 1) To UBound(arr, 1)
concatString = vbNullString
For j = LBound(arr, 2) To UBound(arr, 2)
If InStr(1, arr(i, j), "-") > 0 Then concatString = concatString & Left$(arr(i, j), InStr(1, arr(i, j), "-") - 1)
Next j
.Cells(i, 1) = Join$(Split(Trim$(concatString), Chr$(32)), "_")
Next i
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
Data: