Microsoft KB Archive/213268

= XL2000: How to Programmatically Find the Nth Word in a Text String =

Article ID: 213268

Article Last Modified on 11/23/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q213268





SUMMARY
In Microsoft Excel, you can create a Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications function that can extract a specific word from a text string. This article describes how to create and use a custom function to find a specific word in a text string.



MORE INFORMATION
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To create and use a custom function to find a specific word in a text string, follow these steps:  Start Excel. Press ALT+F11 to start the Visual Basic Editor. On the Insert menu, click Module.  Type the following code in the module sheet: Function FindNthWord(WordStrg As Variant, occur) ' Declare variables where WordStrg is the string whose Nth word you ' want to extract and occur is the number of the word (or Nth word) ' you want to extract from the string. Dim y, z As Integer Dim WordSearch y = (Len(WordStrg) - (Len(Application.Substitute(WordStrg, " ", _ "")))) / 1   ReDim WordSearch(1 To (y + 1)) z = 1 For SearchLoop = 1 To y       z = (InStr(z, WordStrg, " ")) WordSearch(SearchLoop) = Left(WordStrg, z)       WordStrg = Application.Trim(Mid(WordStrg, z + 1)) z = 1 Next SearchLoop WordSearch(y + 1) = WordStrg ' Assigns the result to the function. FindNthWord = WordSearch(occur) End Function  Press ALT+F11 to return to Excel.  Type the following text in a worksheet: <pre class="fixed_text">  A1: For a comparison of Dow Jones A2: Industrial Averages and the price of this A3: stock over the same quarter, refer to the A4: next section of the worksheet. </li> Type the following formula in cell B1 to find the second word in cell A1:

=FindNthWord(A1,2)

</li>  With cell B1 selected, grab the fill handle and fill the formula down through cell B4.

The resulting worksheet looks like the following: <pre class="fixed_text">  A1: For a comparison of Dow Jones               B1: a   A2: Industrial Averages and the price of this   B2: Averages A3: stock over the same quarter, refer to the  B3: over A4: next section of the worksheet. B4: section </li></ol>

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