I have a huge data set that I need to separate into a hierarchy. Currently the only way to tell which level the data point is in the hierarchy is how many spaces are before the first letter (It is from an Essbase pull). I need to separate it out into various columns so that I can see the structure more effectively. There are 7 different numbers of spaces (the separation between hierarchy levels). I honestly have no idea how to get this done. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice?
You can use this formula:
=IF(COLUMN(A:A)=FIND(LEFT(TRIM($A1),1),$A1),TRIM($A1),"")
Drag across and down.
If you do not want 15 - 40 spaces and it appears that all are multiples of 5 you can do this:
=IF(COLUMN(A:A)=INT(FIND(LEFT(TRIM($A1),1),$A1)/5),TRIM($A1),"")
Using the examples in column B:
Insert column A before data. Then, get length (len) before triming (trim) spaces and after (trim) and subtract. (This assumes no spaces at end however)
=LEN(B1)-LEN(TRIM(B1))
Related
I have a list of item numbers (100K) like this:
Some of the items have format like SAG571A-244-4 (thousands) which need to be filtered so I can delete them and only keep the items that have ONE hyphen per SKU. How can I isolate the items that have two instances of "-" in it's SKU? I'm open to solutions within Excel or using VBA as well.
Native text filters don't seem to be capable of this. I'm stumped.
As per John Coleman's comment, "*-*-*" can be used to isolate strings that have at least two dashes in them.
I would add that if you're entering them as a custom text filter, you should lose the double quotes (so just *-*-*) as otherwise the field seems to interpret the quotes literally.
Seems to work for me.
If you want just an excel formula to verify this and give you a result of the number of hyphens (0, 1, or 2+), here is one:
=IF(ISERROR(SEARCH("-",A1)),"0",IF(ISERROR(SEARCH("-",A1,IFERROR(SEARCH("-",A1)+1,LEN(A1)))),"1","2+"))
Replace A1 with your relevant column, then fill down. This is kind of a terrible way to do this performance wise, but you avoid using VBA and possibly xlsm files.
The code first checks to see if there is one hyphen, then if there is it checks to see if there is another hyphen after the position the first one was found. Looking for multiple hyphens in this manner is cumbersome and I don't recommend it.
I would like to ask for your help with the formulation of a formula in Excel in order to compare the total number of search results upon using different sets of separator characters.
As I have multiple columns with content, as in the example below, I thought it would be possible to Count the search results in some way and do this for each column separately ( I would actually prefer to treat each column separately).
A
1 L-516-S-221-S-223
2 H-140.STR3
3 ST0 XP 23-9
4 etc.......
Preferably, I would like to use a varying a set of separator characters in order to determine the impact on the number of search results based on this set of separator characters. Logically, with an increasing number of separators more results will be returned (depending on separators included in the cell values of course).
The set of characters that I would like to experiment with is: “-_ .,;: “
Hopefully this makes sense and someone is able to help me out. Thank you.
Kind regards,
P
In your example - on its own will detect all three instances but for an overview you might construct a grid (say B1:H1 of your separators, including a space rather than an empty cell) and ColumnA each column in turn (maybe via links) then a formula in B2 such as:
=--ISNUMBER(FIND(B$1,$A2))
copied across to ColumnH and down to suit.
Alternative formula (for different question):
=IF(LEN($A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE($A2,B$1,""))>0,LEN($A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE($A2,B$1,""))+1,0)
Assumes, for example, no trailing spaces and separators are always separated. Results are not necessarily cumulative.
I am trying to implement various conditional formatting to a specific data base. Looked for answer around here but can not find anything similar. Might not be possible but it is worth a try.
I am preforming various data cleansing and validation.
Here is the case: (small sample, working with 100k data entries in this particular file)
Ultimately what I want is the formula that will compare the low-level Description characters after the last "UNDERSCORE" to the characters after last "UNDERSCORE" of the higher level(highlighted). If it does not match then highlight the cell?
Asking for too much, yes, no, maybe? I am open to any other suggestions on how can I perform various data cleaning and validation!
Thank you!
If you must use the last "UNDERSCORE" character, and can't depend on the suffixes being four characters, the formula becomes quite complex. For simplicity's sake, I assumed the higher level is always missing the last five characters of the lower level, if you must go by the last "DASH" character, then this will be a lot longer.
Use this formula to highlight the cells, defining the two names LEVELS and DESCRS to be the two columns:
=IFNA(MID(B2,FIND("[]",SUBSTITUTE(B2,"_","[]",LEN(B2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B2,"_",""))))+1,999)<>MID(INDEX(DESCRS,MATCH(LEFT(A2,LEN(A2)-5),LEVELS,0),1),FIND("[]",SUBSTITUTE(INDEX(DESCRS,MATCH(LEFT(A2,LEN(A2)-5),LEVELS,0),1),"_","[]",LEN(INDEX(DESCRS,MATCH(LEFT(A2,LEN(A2)-5),LEVELS,0),1))-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(INDEX(DESCRS,MATCH(LEFT(A2,LEN(A2)-5),LEVELS,0),1),"_",""))))+1,999),FALSE)
This uses a very nice trick with SUBSTITUTE to find the last occurrence of a character.
BTW, I would probably write a Perl program to parse the data and find errors.
On a daily basis I need to load data to one of our systems. However Excel deletes the previous zeros in front of the contractor IDs. So i have to add THREE zeros manually. I normally use the CONCATENATE function however now the IDs are coming differently so some IDs now only need to have TWO zeros added.
example:
ID
911111
I use concatenate to make it look like:
000911111
I came up with the IF formula that detects if the ID starts with a number NINE, to concatenate TWO zeros and if not, then to add THREE zeros.
example:
=IF(LEFT(A32,1)="9",CONCATENATE("00",A32),CONCATENATE("000",A32))
Now I want to create this formula as a custom defined so I do not have to write down the formula ever time I work on the data every day.
Any suggestions I will really appreciate.
In addition to the formatting responses provided in the comments, you could use the RIGHT function to cut off the leading zeroes to the appropriate amount.
For example, assuming A1 holds a string of numbers, between 0 & 9 digits long. We can create text representing a 9 digit string, with as many leading zeroes as necessary, as follows:
=RIGHT(REPT("0",9) & A1,9)
REPT("0",9) tells Excel to repeat the character "0" 9 times. It then tacks on whatever text is in A1. Then it takes only the rightmost 9 characters of the concatenation.
I generally would recommend the Formatting options noted in those comments, unless you need the text to be 9 characters for other formula purposes.
Captain Morgan ------ Insane Journeys -------- A-
I have easily gotten the left and right side parts using Left() and Right() functions.
I want to use a function in excel (not vba) that will allow me to get the middle phrase in this sentence (The dashes are really excessive spaces). can I accomplish this with a Mid() function?
This is just 1 item on a list of 80 different things in 1 column that needs to be turned into 3 columns. Every item has different character lengths. So the length counts cannot be manually entered.
I agree with Text to Columns but the image in the other answer only has one space per row while OP has some spaces that are redundant and some that are not. For this I’d suggest a modified approach:
Replace all pairs of spaces with a character unlikely to be encountered – I’d suggest a pipe.
Apply Text to Columns with pipe as delimiter.
Apply TRIM to the middle column to remove any remaining redundant spaces (eg =TRIM(B1) copied down and then that column pasted as values over the source).
But to answer can I accomplish this with a Mid() function? I think yes though not cost effective for a mere 80 entries when there is a viable alternative.
Try to use "Text to columns" from Data Tab. It has option to split data to different columns using various criteria.
All you need to do is select data you want to split to columns and select criteria you need.
In your case it can be either Space or Other:. When you select Other: you can add your own criteria like "space dot space" or anything you need.
For more detailed information you can enter this link.