Get rid of ALL trailing commas in a text string

[diannao man]

Hi all

I'm using Excel 2003, Windows XP

I'm trying to get rid of all trailing commas in a text string, for example:

"Steve Smith,,,,,,,,,,,"
"Sarah Golding,,,,,,"

The number of trailing commas varies in a list of 500 names - I've tried a few formulas including these two:

=LEFT(A1,LEN(A1)-1)&SUBSTITUTE(RIGHT(A1), ",", "")
=IF(RIGHT(TRIM(A1),1)=",",LEFT(TRIM(A1),LEN(TRIM(A1))-1),A1)

But these only delete the last comma, where as I'm trying to delete all trailing commas. I've searched these boards somewhat, but can only find formulas similar to the ones above. Can anyone help?

Thanks very much

Diannao man

 

[Rick Rothstein]

Assuming the text will not be longer than 999 characters, this array-entered** formula appears to work correctly...

=LEFT(A1,MAX((MID(A1&REPT(",",999),ROW($1:$999),1)<>",")*ROW($1:$999)))

**Commit formula using CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER and not just Enter by itself.

 

[pgc01]

... and another one. Try:

=IF(SUBSTITUTE(A1,",","")="","",IF(RIGHT(A1,1)<>",",A1,LEFT(A1,MATCH(2,1/(MID(A1,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1))),1)<>",")))))

... confirmed with CSE.


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[Marcelo Branco]

Assuming the text will not be longer than 999 characters, this array-entered** formula appears to work correctly...

=LEFT(A1,MAX((MID(A1&REPT(",",999),ROW($1:$999),1)<>",")*ROW($1:$999)))

**Commit formula using CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER and not just Enter by itself.

It didn't work for me
A1
Karen Jones,, Jim Bob, Sarah Golding,,,,,,,,,,

Result
Karen Jones,, Jim Bob, Sarah Golding

Am i missing something?

M.

 

[vaskov17]

It didn't work for me
A1
Karen Jones,, Jim Bob, Sarah Golding,,,,,,,,,,

Result
Karen Jones,, Jim Bob, Sarah Golding

Am i missing something?

M.

I think he means to leave the commas and spaces in the middle and remove just the trailing ones.

 

[Marcelo Branco]

I think he means to leave the commas and spaces in the middle and remove just the trailing ones.

This is Ok.

Rick,

I was thinking that your formula would eliminate also the ,, in the middle of the text

Sorry

M.

 

[mikerickson]

I see no comments about the second formula in post #7, does it do what the OP wants?

 

[Rick Rothstein]

Rick,

I was thinking that your formula would eliminate also the ,, in the middle of the text

Sorry

No problem. Just so you know, I developed that formula (and posted the previous comments I made for other's formulas) based on the OP's subject line... "Get rid of ALL trailing commas in a text string" (emphasis added by me).

 

[Rick Rothstein]

I see no comments about the second formula in post #7, does it do what the OP wants?

While highly unlikely to occur, your formula as written (patchable, of course) will fail if there are more than 26 consecutive internal commas within the text.

 

[Marcelo Branco]

No problem. Just so you know, I developed that formula (and posted the previous comments I made for other's formulas) based on the OP's subject line... "Get rid of ALL trailing commas in a text string" (emphasis added by me).

Yes, yes, i understood and agree.

M.

 

[vaskov17]

TC is processing a list of names and for that I like shg's formula in post #16, it cleans everything up very nicely.