Conditional Data Parsing...

[GGK]

I need to set up a formula to grab partial data from a cell at a fixed startpoint and end point.

EXAMPLE:

<IGNORE="DONOTUSE_DONOTUSE_DONOTUSE;DK=[DONOTUSE];>
<BYPASS>language='ignoreall'Because="ThisisBADdataThisisBADdata;stuff=10x20;DR=[BadStuff];PEP=[Cherry]">
<PASS="PASSPASSPASS;ONE=2;TWO=3;OK=20x10;BS=[HUH};UCONN=[NOW]?">
NEED="NEEDTHIS_NEEDTHISNOW_THISISIT;butignorealltherestofthis;worthless=[dontneed]"
<PLEASE>
<HELPME>

If i paste the above text into a cell... how can I get the BOLD DATA ONLY, into another cell. (so its all data between NEED=" and the ; is put into the new cell?

Thanks!

Thanks,
GGK

 

[Rick Rothstein]

Give this formula a try...

=MID(LEFT(A1,FIND(";",A1)-1),SEARCH("NEED=""",A1)+6,LEN(A1))

Thanks... i'm curious.. if is it possible to put an "OR" function part of the formula... for example... can it extract all data from NEED= all the way to a ";" OR ":" .... whichever comes first..

I would just replace any colons with semi-colons in the FIND function and leave the rest of the formula the way it is...

=MID(LEFT(A1,FIND(";",SUBSTITUTE(A1,":",";"))-1),SEARCH("NEED=""",A1)+6,LEN(A1))

You can do a similar thing with Kelbo's SEARCH function that looks for the semi-colon (change his A3 inside that function call to SUBSTITUTE(A3,":",";").

 

[GGK]

I would just replace any colons with semi-colons in the FIND function and leave the rest of the formula the way it is...

=MID(LEFT(A1,FIND(";",SUBSTITUTE(A1,":",";"))-1),SEARCH("NEED=""",A1)+6,LEN(A1))

You can do a similar thing with Kelbo's SEARCH function that looks for the semi-colon (change his A3 inside that function call to SUBSTITUTE(A3,":",";").

I'm still running into difficulties due to the fact that the start/stop points, that should have been constants... have turned into at least 2 different variables.. possibly more soon. I'm wondering if maybe i should be working off a vlookup?

Here is what i'm working with so far.. AND IT WORKS.. thanks guys... but now i have 2 different, possible start points... with 3 different possible end points (while having to extract the data in between. How would I add another start point? "flag" (and now "banner"..... end points are now 3... ;red, ;white, or ;blue.


so far:

=MID(B2,SEARCH("flag=",B2)+9,MIN(SEARCH(";red",MID(B2,SEARCH("flag=",B2)+9,255)),SEARCH(";white",MID(B2,SEARCH("flag=",B2)+9,255)))-1)