Extract 4 digit year from inconsistent string of text

[kirksmim]

First posting here so apologies for anything I miss out.

I work in an academic library and I'm trying to profile the collection by year published. The only problem is that the dates for academic journals (which span several years) are inputted manually and therefore are written in an infinite amount of different formats.

Below I have posted an example of the types of dates.

While this is obviously a mess, the reason I retain some hope is that the only 4-digit numbers are years, so if I could somehow extract these it would give me a fighting chance.


Start date Summary Description
N1-VOL.5, 1949-1953. N1-VOL.5, 1949-1953.
1996 VOL.1 NO.1 (1996)-Vol. 8 No. 1 (2003) VOL.1 NO.1 (1996)-
1955-1977. 1955-1977.
2010 VOL.398 (2010)- Vol. 412, No. 8896 (2014 Jul. 19)
2010 VOL.398 (2010)- Vol. 412, No. 8897 (2014 Jul. 26)

In summary: does anyone know a query for 'extract 4-digit numbers from string of text and numbers'? If not has anyone got any idea how else I can solve this?

Many thanks,
Michael

 

[kirksmim]

Start date Summary Description
N1-VOL.5, 1949-1953. N1-VOL.5, 1949-1953.
1996 VOL.1 NO.1 (1996)-Vol. 8 No. 1 (2003) VOL.1 NO.1 (1996)-
1955-1977. 1955-1977.
2010 VOL.398 (2010)- Vol. 412, No. 8896 (2014 Jul. 19)
2010 VOL.398 (2010)- Vol. 412, No. 8897 (2014 Jul. 26)

 

[kirksmim]

Excel 2012
	O	P	Q	R
2		9999	N1-VOL.5, 1949-1953.	N1-VOL.5, 1949-1953.
3	1996	9999	VOL.1 NO.1 (1996)-Vol. 8 No. 1 (2003)	VOL.1 NO.1 (1996)-
4		9999	1955-1977.	1955-1977.
5	2010	9999	VOL.398 (2010)-	Vol. 412, No. 8896 (2014 Jul. 19)
6	2010	9999	VOL.398 (2010)-	Vol. 412, No. 8897 (2014 Jul. 26)
MKS tables

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
P2	9999
P3	9999
P4	9999
P5	9999
P6	9999
Q2	N1-VOL.5, 1949-1953.
Q3	VOL.1 NO.1 (1996)-Vol. 8 No. 1 (2003)
Q4	1955-1977.
Q5	VOL.398 (2010)-
Q6	VOL.398 (2010)-
R2	N1-VOL.5, 1949-1953.
R3	VOL.1 NO.1 (1996)-
R4	1955-1977.
R5	Vol. 412, No. 8896 (2014 Jul. 19)
R6	Vol. 412, No. 8897 (2014 Jul. 26)
O3	1996
O5	2010
O6	2010

 

[Rhodie72]

This is a classic "select case" opportunity for vba code. This means getting under the hood of Excel and writing a very clever bit of code that does this for you. The brilliant thing about using "select case" is that you can always add more varieties without expanding a formula to complex and frankly, unmanageable scales.

My recommendation for your request is that you learn about macros and Excel VBA coding first. It makes the whole process if collecting and storing data easier and you can manipulate the data far better with code than formulae.

The best bit is that once you've done the hard work, updates to it are simple and usually improve the code.

 

[Special-K99]

I'm quite pleased with this

Assumes the following:
Data in column A
Output in column B

Runs down column A, searches each cell, extracts all values where four digits are next to each other

Sub extractyears()
lastrow = Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row
For m = 1 To lastrow
n = Cells(m, 1)
l = ""
For i = 1 To Len(n) - 3
k = 0
For j = 1 To 4
If Mid(n, (i - 1) + j, 1) >= "0" And Mid(n, (i - 1) + j, 1) <= "9" Then
k = k + 1
End If
Next j
If k = 4 Then
l = l & Mid(n, i, 4) & " "
End If
Next i
Cells(m, 2) = l
Next m
End Sub

 

[kirksmim]

And so you should be!

That worked perfectly thanks very much.

I feel this is only this in only the first of many hurdles I'll come across with this data but I am very grateful for your help with getting me over this one!