VBA Function to exclude parts of a string - string

Question

My sub compares two lists of strings and returns the closest matches. I've found that the sub gets tripped up over some common words such as "the" and "facility". I would like to write a function that would be supplied an array of words to exclude and check each string for these words and exclude them if found.
Here is a sample input:
|aNames | bNames | words to exclude
|thehillcrest |oceanview health| the
|oceanview, the|hillCrest | health
Intended Output:
|aResults |bResuts
|hillcrest |hillcrest
|oceanview |oceanview
So far I have:
Dim ub as Integer
Dim excludeWords() As String
'First grab the words to be excluded
If sheet.Cells(2, 7).Value <> "" Then
For y = 2 To sheet.Range("G:G").End(xlDown).Row
ub = UBound(excludeWords) + 1 'I'm getting a subscript out of range error here..?
ReDim Preserve excludeWords(0 To ub)
excludeWords(ub) = sheet.Cells(y, 7).Value
Next y
End If
Then my comparison function, using a double loop, will compare each string in column A with column B. Before the comparison, the value in column a and b will go through our function which will check for these words to exclude. It's possible that there will be no words to exclude, so the parameter should be optional:
Public Function normalizeString(s As String, ParamArray a() As Variant)
if a(0) then 'How can I check?
for i = 0 to UBound(a)
s = Replace(s, a(i))
next i
end if
normalizeString = Trim(LCase(s))
End Function
There's probably a few parts in this code that won't work. Might you be able to point me in the right direction?
Thank you!

Answer 1

To store the list in the array, you can do this
Sub Sample()
Dim excludeWords As Variant
Dim lRow As Long
With Sheet1 '<~~ Change this to the relevant sheet
'~~> Get last row in Col G
lRow = .Range("G" & .Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
excludeWords = .Range("G2:G" & lRow).Value
'Debug.Print UBound(excludeWords)
'For i = LBound(excludeWords) To UBound(excludeWords)
'Debug.Print excludeWords(i, 1)
'Next i
End With
End Sub
And then pass the array to your function. The above array is a 2D array and hence needs to be handled accordingly (see commented section in the code above)
Also like I mentioned in the comments above
How does oceanview, the become Oceanview? You can replace the but that would give you oceanview, (notice the comma) and not Oceanview.
You may have to pass those special characters to Col G in the sheet or you can handle them in your function using a loop. For that you will have to use the ASCII characters. Please see this
Followup from comments
Here is something that I wrote quickly so it is not extensively tested. Is this what you are looking for?
Sub Sample()
Dim excludeWords As Variant
Dim lRow As Long
With Sheet1
lRow = .Range("G" & .Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
excludeWords = .Range("G2:G" & lRow).Value
'~~> My column G has the word "habilitation" and "this"
Debug.Print normalizeString("This is rehabilitation", excludeWords)
'~~> Output is "is rehabilitation"
End With
End Sub
Public Function normalizeString(s As String, a As Variant) As String
Dim i As Long, j As Long
Dim tmpAr As Variant
If InStr(1, s, " ") Then
tmpAr = Split(s, " ")
For i = LBound(a) To UBound(a)
For j = LBound(tmpAr) To UBound(tmpAr)
If LCase(Trim(tmpAr(j))) = LCase(Trim(a(i, 1))) Then tmpAr(j) = ""
Next j
Next i
s = Join(tmpAr, " ")
Else
For i = LBound(a) To UBound(a)
If LCase(Trim(s)) = LCase(Trim(a(i, 1))) Then
s = ""
Exit For
End If
Next i
End If
normalizeString = Trim(LCase(s))
End Function

Answer 2

First of all, you cannot call UBound function for the Array that doesn't have a size yet:
Dim excludeWords() As String
ub = UBound(excludeWords) + 1 'there is no size yet
To remove some of the unwanted words use Replace function
String1 = Replace(String1, "the", "")
To do the comparison you described I would use Like function. Here is documentation.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/pl-pl/library/swf8kaxw.aspx