Regular expression substring replacement in Microsoft Excel [closed]

Answer 1

Use Excel VBA. Make a reference to "Microsoft VBScript Regular Expressions 5.5".

Then do, in a new regular VBA module:

Sub ReplaceMobileNumbers
  Dim re as New RegExp

  re.Pattern = "^0(?=7[0-9]{9}$)"   ''# look-ahead

  Dim cell As Range
  For Each cell In ActiveSheet.Range("Your Range Address in A1:B1 notation")
   cell.Value = re.Replace(cell.value, "44")
  Next cell
End Sub

and call this sub in the Immediate Window. The above is throw-away code, not designed with re-usability in mind. I know that, so don't tell me. ;-)

Though you can probably get away with a cell function:

=IF(AND(LEN(A1) = 11;LEFT(A1; 2) = "07"); "44" & RIGHT(A1; 10); A1)

Answer 2

I was about to go off looking for elegant VBA solutions or whatever, then I thought: 'Hang on. We just want to manipulate some data in a spreadsheet we own. Why complicate things?'

How does this idea sound to you:

• insert a new column just after the column with the existing data (let's assume that is column C)

• fill the new column with this formula: ="447" & RIGHT(C1, 9)

• select column D (which now contains the new values) and Paste Values (which is in the Paste Special dialog) onto column C, replacing existing values

• delete the 'working' column D

It's not programming but if you only have to do it once you don't need a program, right?

Answer 3

You'll have to include Microsoft Regular Expressions in your sheet (add it as a Reference)

Then make a quick macro, like the following, to use it:

Dim reg As New RegExp
Public Function RegMatch(Source As Range, Pattern As String, Optional IgnoreCase As Boolean = True, Optional MultiLine As Boolean = True) As Long
    Dim rng As Range, i As Long, j As Long

    reg.IgnoreCase = IgnoreCase
    reg.MultiLine = MultiLine
    reg.Pattern = Pattern

    i = 0: j = 0
    For Each rng In Source
        i = i + 1
        If reg.test(rng.Value) Then
            j = i
            Exit For
        End If
    Next
    RegMatch = j
End Function

Then, simply call it as a macro in your sheet (for example):

=INDEX(B6:B15, RegMatch($A$6:$A$15, $A$3))

Where the first argument is your range, and the second argument is your pattern (as above)