I'd like to find the location of each date within a very long string
(loaded to string from text file). The format of the dates is
yyyy-mm-dd. It would be great if I could use "InStr" and "Like"
together somehow, but I don't know how. Any ideas? Thanks.

Try some code like the following:

Dim S As String
Dim N As Long
S = "asdf2006-12-05asdf" ' whatever
For N = 1 To Len(S) - 10
If Mid(S, N, 10) Like "####-##-##" Then
Debug.Print Mid(S, N, 10)
Exit Sub
End If
Next N



--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com


wrote in message
oups.com...
I'd like to find the location of each date within a very long
string
(loaded to string from text file). The format of the dates is
yyyy-mm-dd. It would be great if I could use "InStr" and
"Like"
together somehow, but I don't know how. Any ideas? Thanks.

Change

For N = 1 To Len(S) - 10

to
For N = 1 To Len(S) - 9
and remove the Exit Sub if your string can contain more than one
date.


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com




"Chip Pearson" wrote in message
...
Try some code like the following:

Dim S As String
Dim N As Long
S = "asdf2006-12-05asdf" ' whatever
For N = 1 To Len(S) - 10
If Mid(S, N, 10) Like "####-##-##" Then
Debug.Print Mid(S, N, 10)
Exit Sub
End If
Next N



--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com


wrote in message
oups.com...
I'd like to find the location of each date within a very long
string
(loaded to string from text file). The format of the dates is
yyyy-mm-dd. It would be great if I could use "InStr" and
"Like"
together somehow, but I don't know how. Any ideas? Thanks.

Thanks Chip. I guess I had just blocked that from my mind from the
start because I thought it would take forever with the length of the
strings I'm working with. They're actually html files that I'm trying
to manipulate & clickthrough.

e.g.
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-ed...company&CIK=ge

The string comparison is quite fast, even with very long strings.
For example, even with a 32K string,

S = Application.WorksheetFunction.Rept("A", 32000) & _
"asdf2006-12-05asdf2005-07-04" ' whatever

the code I posted runs without visible pause.


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com



wrote in message
oups.com...
Thanks Chip. I guess I had just blocked that from my mind from
the
start because I thought it would take forever with the length
of the
strings I'm working with. They're actually html files that I'm
trying
to manipulate & clickthrough.

e.g.
http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-ed...company&CIK=ge