Microsoft KB Archive/209045

= Sample expressions to extract portion of text string in Access 2000 =

Article ID: 209045

Article Last Modified on 8/6/2004

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Access 2000 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q209045





For a Microsoft Access 97 version of this article, see 115915.

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

For a Microsoft Access 2002 version of this article, see 286238.



SUMMARY
This article lists sample expressions that you can use to extract a portion of a text string. These expressions are commonly used in the Update To line of an update query to place a portion of a larger field into a new field. You can adapt these expressions so that you can use them with other common formats. For example, you can use the expression that is used to extract "Doe" from "Doe, John" to extract "Seattle" from "Seattle, WA."



MORE INFORMATION
The following expressions are sample expressions that you can use to extract a portion of a text string.

NOTE: In the following sample expressions, an underscore (_) at the end of a line is used as a line-continuation character. Remove the underscore from the end of the line when re-creating the expression.

First Name
Original Entry in [Names]: "John Doe"

Returned by Expression: John

Expression: Expr: Left([Names],InStr(1,[Names]," ")-1)

First Name
Orignial Entry in [Names]: "Doe, John"

Returned by Expression: John

Expression: Expr: Right(Trim([Names]),Len(Trim([Names]))-InStr(1, _

[Names]," "))

First Name
Original Entry in [Names]: "John P. Doe"

Returned by Expression: John

Expression: Expr: Left([Names],InStr(1,[Names]," ")-1)

Last Name
Original Entry in [Names]: = "John Doe"

Returned by Expression: Doe

Expression:Expr: Right(Trim([Names]),Len(Trim([Names]))-InStr(1, _

[Names]," "))

Last Name
Original Entry in [Names]: "Doe, John"

Returned by Expression: Doe

Expression: Expr: Left([Names],InStr(1,[Names],",")-1)

Last Name
Original Entry in [Names]: "John P. Doe"

Returned by Expression: Doe

Expression: Expr: Right(Trim([Names]),Len(Trim([Names]))-InStr(InStr _

(1, [Names]," ")+1,[Names]," "))

Last Name
Original Entry in [Names]: "John Doe" or "John P. Doe"

Returned by Expression: Doe

Expression: Expr: IIf(InStr(InStr([names]," ")+1,[names]," ") _

<>0, Right([names],Len([names])-InStr(InStr([names]," ")+1, _

[names]," ")),Right([names],Len([names])-InStr([names]," ")))

Middle Initial
Original Entry in [Names]: "John P. Doe"

Returned by Expression: P.

Expression: Expr: Trim(Mid([Names],InStr(1,[Names]," ")+1,InStr(InStr _

(1, [Names], " ")+1,[Names]," ")-InStr(1,[Names]," ")))

Middle Initial
Original Entry in [Names]: "Doe, John P."

Returned by Expression: P.

Expression: Expr: Right(Trim([Names]),Len(Trim([Names]))-InStr _

(InStr(1, [Names]," ")+1,[Names]," "))

Middle Initial
Original Entry in [Names]: "John Doe" or "John P. Doe"

Returned by Expression: P. or blank

Expression: Expr: Trim(Mid([names], InStr(1, [names], " ") + 1, IIf(InStr(InStr(1, [names], " ") + 1, [names], " ") = 0, 0, InStr(InStr(1, [names], " ") + 1, [names], " ") - InStr(1, [names], " "))))

Zip Code
Original Entry in [ZipCode]: "98052-6399"

Returned by Expression: 98052

Expression: Expr: Left([ZipCode],5)

Area Code
Original Entry in [Phone]: (425) 635-7050

Returned by Expression: 425

Expression: Expr: Mid([Phone], 2, 3)

Phone Number
Original Entry in [Phone]: (425) 635-7050

Returned by Expression: 635-7050

Expression: Expr: Right(Trim([Phone]),8)

Additional query words: parse parsing text strings fullname city state zip code part partial piece section fragment segment take use

Keywords: kbhowto kbprogramming kbusage KB209045

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