Change a column with multiple words to just one word?

S

sabot7726

Board Regular
Joined
Jun 2, 2006
Messages
62
Hi!

I have a sheet with 14,000 radio ids with 3 columns. The third column is full of words, some of which I don't need. I'm looking for a way to search for a specific word, and if it finds it in that third column, delete everything else but that word.

For example it might say "engine 45 portable on loan from battalion 41". I would want to get rid of everything except PORTABLE which is all I care about.

Is there a way to search and replace for specific words and ditch the rest?

-Mike
 

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You'd need a list of words of interest somewhere and probably VBA rather than a formula.
 
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Hrm I'm horrible with VBA but I do have the list of words.

I understand I'll have to specify the range, I just don't know the commands to do the search and replace. I see a few examples in the forums I could try to emulate but I don't know how to blow out the existing text and replace it with one of the keywords though.
 
Upvote 0
You're going to want to utilize wildcards.

If you have a long list of items you want to search for, VBA will be the way to go. Either way, the wildcard is *.

So to look for portable

Find *portable*

Replace with portable
 
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I was able to convince my boss to go another direction but I do appreciate all the tips. Someday I'll actually have the time to learn this stuff!
 
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