How to remove text between two strings, including identifiers? - excel

Question

I have a requirement to remove the text between two strings.
An example of the text is:
Abc%678x”cv ","#metadata":{abxkl "DataArray"}},{"columnName":"
The requirement is to start removing text from ,"#met till "}
The requirement is to use ,"#met and "} as start and end identifiers and remove text between them including the identifiers.
There could be multiple occurrence of this start and end identifiers within the file.
The output should look like this:
Abc%678x”cv "},{"columnName":"
How to write an Excel formula or simple VBA script to remove text between two strings, including identifiers?

Answer 1

Formula:
=LEFT(A1,FIND(",""#met",A1)-1)&RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND("}",A1,FIND("""#met",A1)))
VBA function:
Function RemoveBetweenSeparators( _
ByVal MyString As String, _
ByVal SepL As String, _
ByVal SepR As String) _
As String
Dim sL As String
Dim sR As String
sL = Split(MyString, SepL)(0)
sR = Replace(MyString, sL, "")
sR = Replace(sR, Split(sR, SepR)(0) & SepR, "")
RemoveBetweenSeparators = sL & sR
End Function
Which can be used like this:
=RemoveBetweenSeparators(A1,"""#meta","}")
EDIT: I also missed the 'multiple occurences' requirement, first time round! That makes it a little trickier, but try this:
Function RemoveBetweenSeparatorsMultiple( _
ByVal MyString As String, _
ByVal SepL As String, _
ByVal SepR As String) _
As String
Dim sOut As String
Dim sL As String
Do Until InStr(MyString, SepL) = 0
sL = Split(MyString, SepL)(0)
sOut = sOut & sL
MyString = Replace(MyString, sL & SepL, "", 1, 1)
sL = Split(MyString, SepR)(0)
MyString = Replace(MyString, sL & SepR, "", 1, 1)
Loop
RemoveBetweenSeparatorsMultiple = sOut & MyString
End Function

Answer 2

My apology, didn't notice that there could be multiple occurrence. I'll edit my answer later.
Assuming the original text is stored in A1.
A2=LEFT(A1,FIND(",""#met",A1)-1)&RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND("""}",A1)-1)
Note: If you need to force excel treat a double quote mark as a normal text, you have to type two " for representing a ".
If there may be multiple occurrence, try this
Private Function RemoveText(ByVal tgtString As String, ByVal StartText As String, ByVal EndText As String) As String
Do While InStr(1, tgtString, StartText) > 0
tgtString = Left(tgtString, InStr(1, tgtString, StartText) - 1) & Right(tgtString, Len(tgtString) - InStr(1, tgtString, EndText) - 1)
Loop
RemoveText = tgtString
End Function
Private Sub test()
'remove certain string in A1 and store the result in A2
Range("A2").Value = RemoveText(Range("A1").Value, ",""#met", """}")
End Sub

Answer 3

maybe somthing like this (not tested though!) :
Function cleanedStr (inpStr as String; beginDel as string; endDel as Str) as String
Dim idx as long
Dim take as boolean
Dim outStr as String
Dim myCh as String
take = true
outStr = ""
for idx = 1 to len(inpStr)
myCh = mid(inpStr, idx, 1)
if myCh = beginDel then take = false
if take then
outStr = outStr & myCh
else
if myCh = endDel then take = true
end if
next idx
cleanedStr = outStr
end Function
Mind, the begin-identifier is 1 character only.
beginDel would be # and endDel would be }

Answer 4

This can be done easily using VBA and regular expressions:
Option Explicit
Function RemoveBetweenDelimiters(S As String) As String
Dim RE As Object
Set RE = CreateObject("vbscript.regexp")
With RE
.Global = True
.ignorecase = True
.Pattern = ",""#met[^}]+}"
RemoveBetweenDelimiters = .Replace(S, "")
End With
End Function
The regex interpretation:
,"#met[^}]+}
,"#met[^}]+}
Options: Case insensitive; ^$ match at line breaks
Match the character string “,"#met” literally ,"#met
Match any character that is NOT a “}” [^}]+
Between one and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy) +
Match the character “}” literally }
Created with RegexBuddy