VBA Extracting Date from String

[tabletopjoe]

Hello, I am creating a macro that regularizes file names and I'm having difficulty assigning the dates within filenames to a variable. The file names look something like this:

"Grants Report S-17, First Response, dated 3-14-2015"

Alternatively they might look like this:

"3-14-2015 1st Response from Mike to Grants Report S-17"

And so forth. The only piece I'm missing is how to dynamically extract dates from the filenames. Their format varies a bit, but I can work around those variations and I am just looking for ways to identify MMDDYYYY out of any particular string and assign that date to a variable. The resulting DateVariable is concatenated along with the rest of the filename's pieces like this:

ResultName = ReportNum & ResponseNum & " " & ResponseSource & " " & DateVariable

Any tips & tricks are most appreciated!

 

[Joe4]

Welcome to the Board!

So, will the date always appear at the very beginning or the very end?

 

[Norie]

Is the date always in the same format?

 

[Leith Ross]

Hello tabletopjoe,

This VBA macro will return the first occurrence of date string in the format you have shown from a string of text.

Function ParseDate(ByVal Text As String) As Variant


    Dim Match  As Object
    Dim RegExp As Object
    
        Set RegExp = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
        
        RegExp.Pattern = "(\d{1,2}\-\d{1,2}\-\d{4})"
        Set Match = RegExp.Execute(Text)
        
        If Match.Count > 0 Then ParseDate = Match(0).SubMatches(0)
        
End Function

 

[tabletopjoe]

Welcome to the Board!

So, will the date always appear at the very beginning or the very end?

Thanks Joe4! Sadly not, basically any element of the filename may occur in any position.

 

[tabletopjoe]

Is the date always in the same format?

Hi Norie, there is some variation with the date formats but I am assuming I can work around those variations once I have a method in place for the standard MMDDYYYY format.

 

[tabletopjoe]

Hello tabletopjoe,

This VBA macro will return the first occurrence of date string in the format you have shown from a string of text.

Function ParseDate(ByVal Text As String) As Variant


    Dim Match  As Object
    Dim RegExp As Object
    
        Set RegExp = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
        
        RegExp.Pattern = "(\d{1,2}\-\d{1,2}\-\d{4})"
        Set Match = RegExp.Execute(Text)
        
        If Match.Count > 0 Then ParseDate = Match(0).SubMatches(0)
        
End Function

Hi Leith, thank you very much for your macro example. I will be able to dig into this tomorrow and I'll be sure to let you know if that was the solution I needed.

Best regards

 

[Leith Ross]

Hello tabletopjoe,

You're welcome.

 

[tabletopjoe]

Hi Leith, thank you very much for your macro example. I will be able to dig into this tomorrow and I'll be sure to let you know if that was the solution I needed.

Best regards

It looks like this Regular Expression pattern matching is a very powerful toolset, and precisely what I was looking for - in this context as well as another problem I was tinkering with. Thanks again!

 

[Leith Ross]

Hello tabletopjoe,

Glad I could help.