Hi,

I need to extrapolate the numeric values from a list of text strings.
However, the numeric portion of each string is not consistent from
observation to observation. Does anyone have any idea about how to do this in
excel.

I.e.

one observation might be
NHY939591C
the numeric portion is
939591

PW086877B
numeric portion is
086877

AB087623
numeric portion is
087623

Your ideas are much appreciated.

Thanks,
Henrik

Hello Henrik,
Here is a UDF (user defined function) that does what you want
If you are not familiar with UDFs, email me at my private email not the
group

Function t2n(textin)
For j = 1 To Len(textin)
mychar = Mid(textin, j, 1)
If IsNumeric(mychar) Then temp = temp * 10 + mychar
'Debug.Print mychar, temp
Next j
t2n = temp
End Function
--
Bernard V Liengme
www.stfx.ca/people/bliengme
remove caps from email

"Henrik" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I need to extrapolate the numeric values from a list of text strings.
However, the numeric portion of each string is not consistent from
observation to observation. Does anyone have any idea about how to do this
in
excel.

I.e.

one observation might be
NHY939591C
the numeric portion is
939591

PW086877B
numeric portion is
086877

AB087623
numeric portion is
087623

Your ideas are much appreciated.

Thanks,
Henrik

Henrik wrote...
I need to extrapolate the numeric values from a list of text strings.
However, the numeric portion of each string is not consistent from
observation to observation. Does anyone have any idea about how to do this in
excel.
....
AB087623
numeric portion is
087623

You could do this with array formulas, specifically,

=LOOKUP(2,1/MID(x,MIN(FIND({0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9},x&"0123456789 ")),
ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(x)))),MID(x,MIN(FIND({0,1,2, 3,4,5,6,7,8,9},
x&"0123456789")),ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(x)))))

If you need to do this often, then I'd recommend that you download and
install Laurent Longre's MOREFUNC.XLL add-in from

http://xcell05.free.fr/english/

and use the REGEX.MID function it provides, e.g.,

=REGEX.MID(x,"\d+",1)

How can I test for a numeric value in the first position of a text string?

"Harlan Grove" wrote:

Henrik wrote...
I need to extrapolate the numeric values from a list of text strings.
However, the numeric portion of each string is not consistent from
observation to observation. Does anyone have any idea about how to do this in
excel.
....
AB087623
numeric portion is
087623

You could do this with array formulas, specifically,

=LOOKUP(2,1/MID(x,MIN(FIND({0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9},x&"0123456789 ")),
ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(x)))),MID(x,MIN(FIND({0,1,2, 3,4,5,6,7,8,9},
x&"0123456789")),ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(x)))))

If you need to do this often, then I'd recommend that you download and
install Laurent Longre's MOREFUNC.XLL add-in from

http://xcell05.free.fr/english/

and use the REGEX.MID function it provides, e.g.,

=REGEX.MID(x,"\d+",1)

MarcusA wrote...
How can I test for a numeric value in the first position of a text string?

If you mean a decimal numeral as first character, try

=COUNT(-LEFT(string,1))

The negative sign just before LEFT is intentional.