Transposing Data in 1 column by custom delimiters - excel

Question

I've converted a PDF to Excel; All the data is in one column like so:
Item1
Header1
String1
String2
Header2
String1
String2
Item 2
Header1
String1
String2
Header2
String1
String2
The headers are consistent throughout the items. Is there an easy way to transpose this data by custom delimiters (Header1, Header2)?
My goal is to transpose this data as such:
| Header1 | Header2 |
Item1 | String1&String2 | String1&String2 |
Item2 | String1&String2 | String1&String2 |
I'm assuming the most straight-forward way would be writing a custom sorting macro that can sort by the Headers as delimiters
Can anyone give me a jump start?

Answer 1

Manually place the headers in Sheet2, cells B1 and C1 then go back to Sheet1 and run this:
Sub cropier()
Dim N As Long, i As Long, j As Long, K As Long
Dim s1 As Worksheet, s2 As Worksheet
Set s1 = Sheets("Sheet1")
Set s2 = Sheets("Sheet2")
N = Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row
K = 2
s = ""
For i = 1 To N
v = s1.Cells(i, "A").Value
j = i Mod 7
Cells(i, "B") = j
Select Case j
Case 1
s2.Cells(K, 1) = v
Case 3
t = v
Case 4
t = t & v
s2.Cells(K, 2) = t
s2.Cells(K, 3) = t
t = ""
K = K + 1
End Select
Next i
End Sub

Answer 2

An alternative approach not using VBA, which is more general than the 2 rows, 2 columns and 2 concatenated strings output shown in your example and which selects the column headings as well as the row headings from the input data...
I shall assume that your data has a structure as follows:
the "body" of the required output table has I rows and J columns
each "cell" of the output table is formed from a concatention of K "data strings"
Your input data list will comprise I item labels, IJ header labels (since there are J header labels per item) and IJK data strings, so I + IJ + IJK =
I(1+J(1+K)) values in total. For convenience number the rows of the input data list sequentially, starting at 1.
The approach is based on picking out the positions within the input data list of the i'th item label, j'th header label and the data strings which comprise the (i,j)th cell. Please note i and j are distinct from I and J.
I will deal with the header labels first as that is possibly the easiest to understand.
Suppose the first header label within an item is at position p in
the input data list. The next header label will occur at 1+K
positions further down the list ie at position p+1+K. If J>2 (ie
more than two header labels in the input data) then the third header
label will occur at p+2(1+K). In general, the header labels will
occur at
p+n(1+K) for n=0,1,...,J-1
I will return to the value of p shortly.
Consider now the item labels. Just as the header labels within an
item occurred every 1+K positions, the item labels occur every
1+J+JK = 1+J(1+K)) positions. Since the first position in the data
list is an item label, the positions of the item labels can be
written generally as
1 + n(1+J(1+K)) n=0,1,...,I-1
Returning to the value of p in 1., the first header label within an
item occurs at the position following an item label. Item labels are
listed in 2. which it is convenient to rewrite as 1 +
(i-1)(1+J(1+K)) i=1,2,...,I. Adding 1 to this expression and
substituting it for p in 1. yields an expression for the positions of
the IJ header labels in the input list as 2+(i-1)(1+J(1+K))+n(1+K) i=1,2,...,I n=0,...,J-1. This expression can be slightly rewritten as 2+(i-1)(1+J(1+K)) + (j-1)(1+K) i=1,2,...,I; j=1,2...,J.
The final expression in 3. provides much that is needed for the
positions of the data strings. These occur in the K positions after
the header labels. So the first data string is obtained by adding 1
to this expression, the second by adding 2,...,and the last by
adding K.
This now gives all the positional information to construct the output table.
The row labels (items) are given by the rewritten version of the expression in 2. ie 1 + (i-1)(1+J(1+K)) i=1,2,...,I. These label positions are a function of i.
The column labels (headers) are given by the final expression in 3. and since these labels are repeated for each item, any value of i can be chosen. Taking i as 1 simplifies the formula to 2+(j-1)(1+K) j=1,2...,J. These label positions are a function of j.
The (i,j)th cell of the output table is a concatentation of the strings starting at position 3+(i-1)(1+J(1+K)) + (j-1)(1+K) and ending at position (2+K)+(i-1)(1+J(1+K)) + (j-1)(1+K) (where i is between 1 and I and j is between 1 and J). The positions of the data strings are a function of i and j.
This positional information now allows construction of an output table with I rows and J columns in its body and including row and column header labels. The table can be constructed in the usual way from an I*1 column containing 1,...,I and a 1*J row containing 1,...,J. (Typically this column and this row are positioned to the left of and above the output, respectively, but could be placed anywhere in the workbook.)
UPDATE Worked example based on 3 items, 4 headers and 5 strings per output cell is here