Remove everything but numbers from a cell - regex

I have an excel sheet where i use the follwoing command to get numbers from a cell that contains a form text:
=MID(D2;SEARCH("number";D2)+6;13)
It searches for the string "number" and gets the next 13 characters that comes after it. But some times the results get more than the number due to the fact these texts within the cells do not have a pattern, like the example below:
62999999990
21999999990
11999999990
6299999993) (
17999999999)
21914714753)
58741236714 P
18888888820
How do i avoid taking anything but numbers OR how do i remove everything but numbers from what i get?

You can user this User Defined Function (UDF) that will get only the numbers inside a specific cell.
Code:
Function only_numbers(strSearch As String) As String
Dim i As Integer, tempVal As String
For i = 1 To Len(strSearch)
If IsNumeric(Mid(strSearch, i, 1)) Then
tempVal = tempVal + Mid(strSearch, i, 1)
End If
Next
only_numbers = tempVal
End Function
To use it, you must:
Press ALT + F11
Insert new Module
Paste code inside Module window
Now you can use the formula =only_numbers(A1) at your spreadsheet, by changing A1 to your data location.
Example Images:
Inserting code at module window:
Executing the function
Ps.: if you want to delimit the number of digits to 13, you can change the last line of code from:
only_numbers = tempVal
to
only_numbers = Left(tempVal, 13)
Alternatively you can take a look a this topic to understand how to achieve this using formulas.

If you are going to go to a User Defined Function (aka UDF) then perform all of the actions; don't rely on the preliminary worksheet formula to pass a stripped number and possible suffix text to the UDF.
In a standard code module as,
Function udfJustNumber(str As String, _
Optional delim As String = "number", _
Optional startat As Long = 1, _
Optional digits As Long = 13, _
Optional bCaseSensitive As Boolean = False, _
Optional bNumericReturn As Boolean = True)
Dim c As Long
udfJustNumber = vbNullString
str = Trim(Mid(str, InStr(startat, str, delim, IIf(bCaseSensitive, vbBinaryCompare, vbTextCompare)) + Len(delim), digits))
For c = 1 To Len(str)
Select Case Asc(Mid(str, c, 1))
Case 32
'do nothing- skip over
Case 48 To 57
If bNumericReturn Then
udfJustNumber = Val(udfJustNumber & Mid(str, c, 1))
Else
udfJustNumber = udfJustNumber & Mid(str, c, 1)
End If
Case Else
Exit For
End Select
Next c
End Function
I've used your narrative to add several optional parameters. You can change these if your circumstances change. Most notable is whether to return a true number or text-that-looks-like-a-number with the bNumericReturn option. Note that the returned values are right-aligned as true numbers should be in the following supplied image.
By supplying FALSE to the sixth parameter, the returned content is text-that-looks-like-a-number and is now left-aligned in the worksheet cell.

If you don't want VBA and would like to use Excel Formulas only, try this one:
=SUMPRODUCT(MID(0&MID(D2,SEARCH("number",D2)+6,13),LARGE(INDEX(ISNUMBER(--MID(MID(D2,SEARCH("number",D2)+6,13),ROW($1:$13),1))* ROW($1:$13),0),ROW($1:$13))+1,1)*10^ROW($1:$13)/10)

Related

Getting numbers out of cells with text and producing a list with all these numbers [closed]

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I have a column given to me in a spreadsheet which looks like that:
What I need is to get all the references out, the ones in square brackets, to provide with the full list to a user:
... and then get a full list of all references, as follows:
Does anyone have an idea of how I can do this using any Excel formulas/filtering or maybe VBA?
assuming:
worksheet to process named after "pressure"
column "A" with cells to get references out of
column "B" to write corresponding extracted references in
column "C"to write full list of all references in
you could try this
Option Explicit
Sub main()
Dim cell As Range
Dim references As String
Dim referencesArr As Variant
With Worksheets("pressure") '<-- change "pressure" to your actual worksheet name
For Each cell In .Range("A1", .Cells(.Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp))
references = references & GetReferences(cell) & "; "
Next cell
If references <> "" Then
referencesArr = Split(Left(references, Len(references) - 2), ";")
.Range("C1").Resize(UBound(referencesArr)).Value = Application.Transpose(referencesArr)
End If
End With
End Sub
Function GetReferences(rng As Range) As String
Dim arr As Variant, iElem As Long
Dim strng As String
With rng
arr = Split(Replace(Replace(.Value, "[", "|["), "]", "]|"), "|")
For iElem = 1 To UBound(arr) - 1 Step 2
strng = strng & Mid(CStr(arr(iElem)), 2, Len(CStr(arr(iElem))) - 2) & "; "
Next iElem
End With
If strng <> "" Then
GetReferences = Left(strng, Len(strng) - 2)
rng.Offset(, 1) = GetReferences
End If
End Function
There are many examples of regex number parsing¹ from text on this site. Pulling numbers from narrative text is one of the easier regular expression 'patterns'² to construct; especially so with a fixed number of digits regardless of delimiter or grouping character(s).
Put the following into a standard module code sheet.
Option Explicit
Option Base 0 '<~~this is the default but I've included it because it has to be 0
Function numberParse(str As String, _
Optional ndx As Integer = 0, _
Optional delim As String = "; ") As Variant
Dim n As Long, nums() As Variant
Static rgx As Object, cmat As Object
'with rgx as static, it only has to be created once; beneficial when filling a long column with this UDF
If rgx Is Nothing Then
Set rgx = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
Else
Set cmat = Nothing
End If
numberParse = vbNullString
With rgx
.Global = True
.MultiLine = True
.Pattern = "[0-9]{4}"
If .Test(str) Then
Set cmat = .Execute(str)
If CBool(ndx) Then
'pull the index of the array of matches
numberParse = cmat.Item(ndx - 1)
Else
'resize the nums array to accept the matches
ReDim nums(cmat.Count - 1)
'populate the nums array with the matches
For n = LBound(nums) To UBound(nums)
nums(n) = cmat.Item(n)
Next n
'convert the nums array to a delimited string
numberParse = Join(nums, delim)
End If
End If
End With
End Function
With your blurb in A2, put the following into B2,
=numberParse(A2)
With your blurb in A2, put the following into A4 and fill down,
=numberParse(A$2, ROW(1:1))
Your results should resemble the following,
¹ The above was modified from my response in Excel UDF for capturing numbers within characters which wasn't that hard to find.
² See How to use Regular Expressions (Regex) in Microsoft Excel both in-cell and loops for more information.
For a quick start, you can use =MID(A1,SEARCH("[",A1)+1,SEARCH("]",A1)-SEARCH("[",A1)-1) to extract the text between the brackets. Then you're left with a string, separated by semicolons.
Then, you can run this sub (with tweaking most likely, to narrow down the ranges):
Sub splitSemiColons()
Dim myArray() As String
Dim colToUse As Long
colToUse = 3
myArray = Split(Range("B1"), ";")
Dim i As Long
For i = LBound(myArray) To UBound(myArray)
Cells(i + 1, colToUse).Value = myArray(i)
Next i
End Sub
Or, you can avoid this macro, and just use Data --> Text to Columns --> Use ; delimiter, then copy and paste transposed.

If contains and if does not Contain a colon, select the number

I have an IF statement that return the number, if there is a colon symbol in the string. Sometimes the string does not contain a colon symbol. I'm looking for an else statement that would select the only number "45061 if there is no colon in the string. A = Works when the string has a colon sign but I need some assistance with B, if the string does not have a colon.
A.
String/Text = OM_Account_Master_Slave~Account CP~3712011:Shared-001
B.
String/Text = OM_Account_Master_Slave~Account CP~45061Shared-001
A.
if(contains,":",Substring(Abbrev(),1,Subtract(Length(Abbrev()),11)))
Result = 3712011:Shared-001
B.
if(contains,":",Substring(Abbrev(),1,Subtract(Length(Abbrev()),11)))
else
Consider the following User Defined Function:
Public Function GetNumber(r As Range) As Variant
Dim v As String, capture As Boolean
Dim i As Long, t As String
v = r.Value
GetNumber = ""
If v = "" Then Exit Function
t = ""
capture = False
For i = 1 To Len(v)
m = Mid(v, i, 1)
If IsNumeric(m) Then
t = t & m
capture = True
Else
If capture Then Exit For
End If
Next i
If Len(t) > 0 Then
GetNumber = CLng(t)
End If
End Function
User Defined Functions (UDFs) are very easy to install and use:
ALT-F11 brings up the VBE window
ALT-I
ALT-M opens a fresh module
paste the stuff in and close the VBE window
If you save the workbook, the UDF will be saved with it.
If you are using a version of Excel later then 2003, you must save
the file as .xlsm rather than .xlsx
To remove the UDF:
bring up the VBE window as above
clear the code out
close the VBE window
To use the UDF from Excel:
=GetNumber(A1)
To learn more about macros in general, see:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm
and
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee814735(v=office.14).aspx
and for specifics on UDFs, see:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/WritingFunctionsInVBA.aspx
Macros must be enabled for this to work!

Regex pattern in Word 2013

I have a word document which contains 6 series of numbers (plain text, not numbered style) as following:
1) blah blah blah
2) again blah blah blah
.
.
.
20) something
And this pattern has been repeated six times. How can I used Regex and serialise all numbers before parentheses so that they start with 1 and end up with 120?
You can use VBA - add this to the ThisDocument module:
Public Sub FixNumbers()
Dim p As Paragraph
Dim i As Long
Dim realCount As Long
realCount = 1
Set p = Application.ActiveDocument.Paragraphs.First
'Iterate through paragraphs with Paragraph.Next - using For Each doesn't work and I wouldn't trust indexing since we're making changes
Do While Not p Is Nothing
digitCount = 0
For i = 1 To Len(p.Range.Text)
'Keep track of how many characters are in the number
If IsNumeric(Mid(p.Range.Text, i, 1)) Then
digitCount = digitCount + 1
Else
'We check the first non-number character we find to see if it is the list delimiter ")" and we make sure that there were some digits before it
If Mid(p.Range.Text, i, 1) = ")" And digitCount > 0 Then
'If so, we get rid of the original number and put the correct one
p.Range.Text = realCount & Right(p.Range.Text, Len(p.Range.Text) - digitCount) 'It's important to note that a side effect of assigning the text is that p is set to p.Next
'realCount holds the current "real" line number - everytime we assign a line, we increment it
realCount = realCount + 1
Exit For
Else
'If not, we skip the line assuming it's not part of the list numbering
Set p = p.Next
Exit For
End If
End If
Next
Loop
End Sub
You can run it by clicking anywhere inside of the code and clicking the "play" button in the VBA IDE.

Slight adaptation of a User Defined Function

I would like to extract a combination of text and numbers from a larger string located within a column within excel.
The constants I have to work with is that each Text string will
•either start with a A, C or S, and
•will always be 7 Characters long
•the position of he string I would like to extract varies
The code I have been using which has been working efficiently is;
Public Function Xtractor(r As Range) As String
Dim a, ary
ary = Split(r.Text, " ")
For Each a In ary
If Len(a) = 7 And a Like "[SAC]*" Then
Xtractor = a
Exit Function
End If
Next a
Xtractor = ""
End Function
However today I have learnt that sometimes my data may include scenarios like this;
What I would like is to adapt my code so If the 8th character is "Underscore" and the 1st character of the 7 characters is either S, A or C please extract up until the "Underscore"
Secondly I would like to exclude commons words like "Support" & "Collect" from being extracted.
Finally the 7th letter should be a number
Any ideas around this would be much appreciated.
Thanks
try this
ary = Split(Replace(r.Text, "_", " "))
or
ary = Split(Replace(r.Text, "_", " ")," ")
result will be same for both variants
test
update
Do you know how I could leave the result blank if the 7th character returned a letter?
Public Function Xtractor(r As Range) As String
Dim a, ary
ary = Split(Replace(r.Text, "_", " "))
For Each a In ary
If Len(a) = 7 And a Like "[SAC]*" And IsNumeric(Mid(a, 7, 1)) Then
Xtractor = a
Exit Function
End If
Next a
Xtractor = ""
End Function
test
Add Microsoft VBScript Regular Expressions 5.5 to project references. Use the following code to test matching and extracting with Xtractor:
Public Function Xtractor(ByVal p_val As String) As String
Xtractor = ""
Dim ary As String, v_re As New VBScript_RegExp_55.RegExp, Matches
v_re.Pattern = "^([SAC][^_]{1,6})_?"
Set Matches = v_re.Execute(p_val)
If Matches.Count > 0 Then Xtractor = Matches(0).SubMatches(0) Else Xtractor = ""
End Function
Sub test_Xtractor(p_cur As Range, p_val As String, p_expected As String)
Dim v_cur As Range, v_res As Range
p_cur.Value = p_val
Set v_cur = p_cur.Offset(columnOffset:=1)
v_cur.FormulaR1C1 = "='" & ThisWorkbook.Name & "'!Xtractor(RC[-1])"
Set v_res = v_cur.Offset(columnOffset:=1)
v_res.FormulaR1C1 = "=RC[-1]=""" & p_expected & """"
Debug.Print p_val; "->"; v_cur.Value; ":"; v_res.Value
End Sub
Sub test()
test_Xtractor ActiveCell, "A612002_MDC_308", "A612002"
test_Xtractor ActiveCell.Offset(1), "B612002_MDC_308", ""
test_Xtractor ActiveCell.Offset(2), "SUTP038_MDC_3", "SUTP038"
test_Xtractor ActiveCell.Offset(3), "KUTP038_MDC_3", ""
End Sub
Choose the workbook and cell for writing test fixture, then run test from the VBA Editor.
Output in the Immediate window (Ctrl+G):
A612002_MDC_308->A612002:True
B612002_MDC_308->:True
SUTP038_MDC_3->SUTP038:True
KUTP038_MDC_3->:True
UPD
Isit possible to ammend this code so if the 7th character is a letter to return blank?
Replace line with assign to v_re by the following:
v_re.Pattern = "^([SAC](?![^_]{5}[A-Z]_?)[^_]{1,6})_?"
v_re.IgnoreCase = True
And add to the test suite:
test_Xtractor ActiveCell.Offset(4), "SUTP03A_MDC_3", ""
Output:
A612002_MDC_308->A612002:True
B612002_MDC_308->:True
SUTP038_MDC_3->SUTP038:True
KUTP038_MDC_3->:True
SUTP03A_MDC_3->:True
I inserted negative lookahead subrule (?![^_]{5}[A-Z]_?) to reject SUTP03A_MDC_3. But pay attention: the rejecting rule is applied exactly to the 7th character. Now v_re.IgnoreCase set to True, but if only capitalized characters are allowed, set it to False. See also Regular Expression Syntax on MSDN.

Is this the RegEx for matching any cell reference in an Excel formula?

I have been trying to create a regular expressions pattern that matches any reference in any Excel formula, including absolute, relative, and external references. I need to return the entire reference, including the worksheet and workbook name.
I haven't been able to find exhaustive documentation about Excel A1-notation, but with a lot of testing I have determined the following:
Formulas are preceded with an equal sign "="
Strings within formulas are enclosed in double quotes and need to be removed before looking for real references, otherwise =A1&"A1" would break regex
Worksheet names can be up to 31 characters long, excluding \ / ? * [ ] :
Worksheet names in external references must be succeeded with bang =Sheet1!A1
Workbook names in external references must be enclosed in square brackets =[Book1.xlsx]Sheet1!A1
Workbook paths, which Excel adds if a reference is to a range in a closed workbook, are always enclosed in single quotes and to the left of the brackets for the workbook name 'C:\[Book1.xlsx]Sheet1'!A1
Some characters (non-breaking space, for example) cause Excel to enclose the workbook and worksheet name in an external reference in single quotes, but I don't know specifically which characters ='[Book 1.xlsx]Sheet 1'!A1
Even if R1C1-notation is enabled, Range.Formula still returns references in A1-notation. Range.FormulaR1C1 returns references in R1C1 notation.
3D reference style allows a range of sheet names on one workbook =SUM([Book5]Sheet1:Sheet3!A1)
Named ranges can be specified in formulas:
The first character of a name must be a letter, an underscore character (_), or a backslash (\). Remaining characters in the name can be letters, numbers, periods, and underscore characters.
You cannot use the uppercase and lowercase characters "C", "c", "R", or "r" as a defined name, because they are all used as a shorthand for selecting a row or column for the currently selected cell when you enter them in a Name or Go To text box.
Names cannot be the same as a cell reference, such as Z$100 or R1C1.
Spaces are not allowed as part of a name.
A name can be up to 255 characters in length.
Names can contain uppercase and lowercase letters. Excel does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase characters in names.
Here is what I came up with wrapped in a VBA procedure for testing. I updated the code to handle names as well:
Sub ReturnFormulaReferences()
Dim objRegExp As New VBScript_RegExp_55.RegExp
Dim objCell As Range
Dim objStringMatches As Object
Dim objReferenceMatches As Object
Dim objMatch As Object
Dim intReferenceCount As Integer
Dim intIndex As Integer
Dim booIsReference As Boolean
Dim objName As Name
Dim booNameFound As Boolean
With objRegExp
.MultiLine = True
.Global = True
.IgnoreCase = True
End With
For Each objCell In Selection.Cells
If Left(objCell.Formula, 1) = "=" Then
objRegExp.Pattern = "\"".*\"""
Set objStringMatches = objRegExp.Execute(objCell.Formula)
objRegExp.Pattern = "(\'.*(\[.*\])?([^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\:)?[^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\'\!" _
& "|(\[.*\])?([^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\:)?[^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\!)?" _
& "(\$?[a-z]{1,3}\$?[0-9]{1,7}(\:\$?[a-z]{1,3}\$?[0-9]{1,7})?" _
& "|\$[a-z]{1,3}\:\$[a-z]{1,3}" _
& "|[a-z]{1,3}\:[a-z]{1,3}" _
& "|\$[0-9]{1,7}\:\$[0-9]{1,7}" _
& "|[0-9]{1,7}\:[0-9]{1,7}" _
& "|[a-z_\\][a-z0-9_\.]{0,254})"
Set objReferenceMatches = objRegExp.Execute(objCell.Formula)
intReferenceCount = 0
For Each objMatch In objReferenceMatches
intReferenceCount = intReferenceCount + 1
Next
Debug.Print objCell.Formula
For intIndex = intReferenceCount - 1 To 0 Step -1
booIsReference = True
For Each objMatch In objStringMatches
If objReferenceMatches(intIndex).FirstIndex > objMatch.FirstIndex _
And objReferenceMatches(intIndex).FirstIndex < objMatch.FirstIndex + objMatch.Length Then
booIsReference = False
Exit For
End If
Next
If booIsReference Then
objRegExp.Pattern = "(\'.*(\[.*\])?([^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\:)?[^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\'\!" _
& "|(\[.*\])?([^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\:)?[^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\!)?" _
& "(\$?[a-z]{1,3}\$?[0-9]{1,7}(\:\$?[a-z]{1,3}\$?[0-9]{1,7})?" _
& "|\$[a-z]{1,3}\:\$[a-z]{1,3}" _
& "|[a-z]{1,3}\:[a-z]{1,3}" _
& "|\$[0-9]{1,7}\:\$[0-9]{1,7}" _
& "|[0-9]{1,7}\:[0-9]{1,7})"
If Not objRegExp.Test(objReferenceMatches(intIndex).Value) Then 'reference is not A1
objRegExp.Pattern = "^(\'.*(\[.*\])?([^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\:)?[^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\'\!" _
& "|(\[.*\])?([^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\:)?[^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\!)" _
& "[a-z_\\][a-z0-9_\.]{0,254}$"
If Not objRegExp.Test(objReferenceMatches(intIndex).Value) Then 'name is not external
booNameFound = False
For Each objName In objCell.Worksheet.Parent.Names
If objReferenceMatches(intIndex).Value = objName.Name Then
booNameFound = True
Exit For
End If
Next
If Not booNameFound Then
objRegExp.Pattern = "^(\'.*(\[.*\])?([^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\:)?[^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\'\!" _
& "|(\[.*\])?([^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\:)?[^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\!)"
For Each objName In objCell.Worksheet.Names
If objReferenceMatches(intIndex).Value = objRegExp.Replace(objName.Name, "") Then
booNameFound = True
Exit For
End If
Next
End If
booIsReference = booNameFound
End If
End If
End If
If booIsReference Then
Debug.Print " " & objReferenceMatches(intIndex).Value _
& " (" & objReferenceMatches(intIndex).FirstIndex & ", " _
& objReferenceMatches(intIndex).Length & ")"
End If
Next intIndex
Debug.Print
End If
Next
Set objRegExp = Nothing
Set objStringMatches = Nothing
Set objReferenceMatches = Nothing
Set objMatch = Nothing
Set objCell = Nothing
Set objName = Nothing
End Sub
Can anyone break or improve this? Without exhaustive documentation on Excel's formula syntax it is difficult to know if this is correct.
Thanks!
jtolle steered me in the right direction. As far as I can tell, this is what I was trying to do. I've been testing and it seems to work.
stringOriginFormula = rangeOrigin.Formula
rangeOrigin.Cut rangeDestination
rangeOrigin.Formula = stringOriginFormula
Thanks jtolle!
I'm a few years late here, but I was looking for something similar and so dug into this. The main pattern you use is this:
objRegExp.Pattern = "(\'.*(\[.*\])?([^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\:)?[^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\'\!" _
& "|(\[.*\])?([^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\:)?[^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\!)?" _
& "(\$?[a-z]{1,3}\$?[0-9]{1,7}(\:\$?[a-z]{1,3}\$?[0-9]{1,7})?" _
& "|\$[a-z]{1,3}\:\$[a-z]{1,3}" _
& "|[a-z]{1,3}\:[a-z]{1,3}" _
& "|\$[0-9]{1,7}\:\$[0-9]{1,7}" _
& "|[0-9]{1,7}\:[0-9]{1,7}" _
& "|[a-z_\\][a-z0-9_\.]{0,254})"
Basically you have six alternatives for a range reference (lines 3-8), any of which will produce a match by itself, with two alternatives for an optional filename/sheet name prefix (lines 1-2).
For the two prefix alternatives, the only difference is that the first is wrapped in single quotes, with an extra dot star after the initial quote. These single quotes occur mainly when there is a space in a sheet name. The purpose of the dot star, matching unconstrained text after an initial single quote, is unclear and it appears to create problems. I'll discuss those problems below. Besides that the two alternative prefixes are the same, and I'll refer to them collectively as the Optional External Prefix (OEP).
The OEP has its own two optional prefixes (the same in either alternative). The first is for the workbook name, an open-ended dot star in brackets.
(\[.*\])?
The second is for a "3D" cell reference, with two sheet names separated by a colon; it is the initial sheet name including the colon. The pattern here is a negated character class allowing up to 31 characters of anything except forward slash, back slash, question mark, asterisk, brackets, or colon, followed by a colon:
([^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\:)?
Finally for the OEP is its only required part: a sheet name, same as the optional sheet name but with no colon. The effect is (if these all worked correctly) that the required sheet name will match if it can, and then only if there is a 3d reference or additional prior bracketed text will its optional prefixes also match.
Issues with the Workbook/Sheet name prefix: First, the dot star at the beginning of the first line is over-inclusive. Similarly, the negated character class for the sheet name appears to need additional characters including parens, comma, plus, minus, equals, and bang. Otherwise, extra material is interpreted as part of the sheet name. On my testing, this overinclusion happened with any of these:
=SUM(Sheet1!A1,Sheet2!A2)
=Sheet1!A1+Sheet2!A2
=Sheet1!A1-Sheet2!A2
Sheet names can include some of these characters, so accounting for that would require some additional measure. For instance, a sheet could be named "(Sheet1)", giving an odd formula like:
=SUM('(Sheet1)'!A1:A2)
You'd like to get the inner parens with the sheet name there, but not the outer paren. Excel puts the single quotes on that one, as it would with a space in the sheet name. You could then exclude parens in the non-single quote version since within the single quote it's ok. But then beware Excel seems to even allow single quotes in sheet names. Taking these naming quirks to the extreme, I just successfully named a sheet "Hi'Sheet1'SUM('Sheet2'!A1,A2)!". That's absurd but it points to what could happen. I learned in doing this that if I include a single quote in a sheet name, formulas escape the single quote with a second single quote. So a SUM(A1:A2) referring to the sheet I just created ends up looking like this:
=SUM('Hi''Sheet1''SUM(''Sheet2''!A1,A2)!'!A1:A2)
That actually does give some insight into the Excel parser itself. I suspect to adequately deal with this you may want separately (outside the regex) to compare the potential sheet names or workbook names to the actual sheet names, as you have done with the named ranges.
This leads to the six forms of cell references allowed in the regex (any one of which, if met, will produce a match):
1.) A one-cell or multi-cell range with rows and columns
"(\$?[a-z]{1,3}\$?[0-9]{1,7}(\:\$?[a-z]{1,3}\$?[0-9]{1,7})?"
The open paren here is closed at the end of the 6 options. Otherwise, this line allows a basic cell reference of the type "$A$1", "A1", "$A1", "A$1", or any combination of these in a multi-cell range ("$A1:A$2", etc.).
2.) A full-column or multi-column range with absolute references only
"|\$[a-z]{1,3}\:\$[a-z]{1,3}"
This one allows a cell reference of the type "$A:$B" with a dollar sign on both. Note a dollar sign on only one side will not match.
3.) A full-column or multi-column range with relative references only
"|[a-z]{1,3}\:[a-z]{1,3}"
This line is like the last, but matches only with no dollar signs. Note a dollar sign on only one side will not match here either.
4.) A full-row or multi-row range with absolute references only
"|\$[0-9]{1,7}\:\$[0-9]{1,7}"
This line allows a cell reference of the type "$1:$2" with a dollar sign on both.
5.) A full-row or multi-row range with relative references only
"|[0-9]{1,7}\:[0-9]{1,7}"
This version is like the last, but matches only with no dollar signs.
6.) Other text that could be a named range
"|[a-z_\\][a-z0-9_\.]{0,254})"
Finally, the sixth option allows text. This text is compared to actual named ranges later in sub.
The main omission that I see here is ranges that have both absolute and relative references, of the type "A:$A" or "1:$1". While $A:A is captured because it includes "A:A", "A:$A" is not captured. You could address this and simplify the regex by combining 2 and 3 and combining 4 and 5 with optional dollar signs:
objRegExp.Pattern = "(\'.*(\[.*\])?([^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\:)?[^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\'\!" _
& "|(\[.*\])?([^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\:)?[^\:\\\/\?\*\[\]]{1,31}\!)?" _
& "(\$?[a-z]{1,3}\$?[0-9]{1,7}(\:\$?[a-z]{1,3}\$?[0-9]{1,7})?" _
& "|\$?[a-z]{1,3}\:\$?[a-z]{1,3}" _
& "|\$?[0-9]{1,7}\:\$?[0-9]{1,7}" _
& "|[a-z_\\][a-z0-9_\.]{0,254})"
Combining these further would seem to come up against the everything-is-optional problem.
One other issue is in the initial regex pattern for matching strings, which you use to expunge potential ranges that fall inside a quoted string:
objRegExp.Pattern = "\"".*\"""
When I test this on a formula with a string at the beginning and end of a formula, the greediness of the dot star captures everything from the initial quote to the final quote (in other words it interprets the entire formula as one big quoted string, even though there is non-string material in the middle). It appears you can fix this by making the dot star lazy (adding a question mark after it). That raises questions about quotes within quotes, but they may not be a problem. For instance, I tested this formula:
="John loves his A1 steak sauce, but said the ""good A1 steak sauce price"" is $" & A2+A3 & " less than the ""bad price"" of $" & A4 & "."
With cell values plugged in, this formula evaluates to:
John loves his A1 steak sauce, but said the "good A1 steak sauce
price" is $5 less than the "bad price" of $8.
With the lazy modifier added to your string pattern, both versions of "A1" above were recognized as occurring within a string and so were expunged, while A2, A3 and A4 were recognized as cell references.
I'm sure there are some technical issues with some of my language above, but hopefully the analysis is still useful.
Thanks Ben (I'm new to post here, even though Stackoverflow has caught my attention for years for high quality technical stuff, so I'm not sure if I read this page correctly for the author J)
I tried the posted solutions (testing, testing updated, as well as the one using range.precendents (which as correctly pointed, does not cover references to other sheets or other workbooks) and found a minor flaw: the external sheet name is enclosed in 'single quotation marks' only if it is a number; if it contains space (and possibly other characters as Ben (?) listed in the orginal post. with a simple addition to the regEx (opening [) this can be corrected (added "[", see code below). In addition, for my own purpose I converted the sub to a function that will return a comma-separated list with duplicates removed (note, this removes just identical reference notation, not cells that are included in multiple ranges):
Public Function CellReflist(Optional r As Range) ' single cell
Dim result As Object: Dim testExpression As String: Dim objRegEx As Object
If r Is Nothing Then Set r = ActiveCell ' Cells(1, 2) ' INPUT THE CELL HERE , e.g. RANGE("A1")
Set objRegEx = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
objRegEx.IgnoreCase = True: objRegEx.Global = True: objRegEx.Pattern = """.*?""" ' remove expressions
testExpression = CStr(r.Formula)
testExpression = objRegEx.Replace(testExpression, "")
'objRegEx.Pattern = "(([A-Z])+(\d)+)" 'grab the address
objRegEx.Pattern = "(['\[].*?['!])?([[A-Z0-9_]+[!])?(\$?[A-Z]+\$?(\d)+(:\$?[A-Z]+\$?(\d)+)?|\$?[A-Z]+:\$?[A-Z]+|(\$?[A-Z]+\$?(\d)+))"
If objRegEx.Test(testExpression) Then
Set result = objRegEx.Execute(testExpression)
If result.Count > 0 Then CellReflist = result(0).Value
If result.Count > 1 Then
For i = 1 To result.Count - 1 'Each Match In result
dbl = False ' poistetaan tuplaesiintymiset
For j = 0 To i - 1
If result(i).Value = result(j).Value Then dbl = True
Next j
If Not dbl Then CellReflist = CellReflist & "," & result(i).Value 'Match.Value
Next i 'Match
End If
End If
End Function
I resolved a similar problem in Google Sheets.
The following adds/subtract row references from a formula. Because I just needed to update row references, rather than extracting the formula I just extracted and updated the row reference with this /((?<=[A-Za-z\$:\!])\d+(?![A-Za-z\(!]))|(\d+(?=[:]))/
String.prototype.replaceAt = function(index, replacement, diff = 0) {
let end = this.substr(index + replacement.length + diff)
if((this.length - 1) === index) end = ""
return this.substr(0, index) + replacement + end;
}
// Ref: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1431113/2319414
/**
* #param row - positive integer to add, negative to subtract rows.
*/
function updateRowReference(formula, row){
let masked = formula
const mask = "#"
// masking double quotes in string literals
let exp = /""/g
let result;
while((result = exp.exec(masked)) !== null){
masked = masked.replaceAt(result.index, new Array(result[0].length).fill(mask).join(""))
}
// masking string literals
exp = /\"([^\\\"]|\\.)*\"/g
// Ref: https://stackoverflow.com/a/9260547
while((result = exp.exec(masked)) !== null){
masked = masked.replaceAt(result.index, new Array(result[0].length).fill(mask).join(""))
}
// updating row references
const sRow = row.toString()
// The magic is happening here
// Just matching a number which is part of range address
exp = /((?<=[A-Za-z\$:\!])\d+(?![A-Za-z\(!]))|(\d+(?=[:]))/g
while((result = exp.exec(masked)) !== null){
const oldRow = Number(result[0])
// adding/subtracting rows
const newRow = (row + oldRow).toString()
// preserving formula string length integrity if number of digits of new row is different than old row
const diff = result[0].length - newRow.length
masked = masked.replaceAt(result.index, newRow, diff)
formula = formula.replaceAt(result.index, newRow, diff)
exp.lastIndex -= diff
}
let updated = masked;
// revert mask
const array = formula.split("")
while((result = updated.search(mask)) !== -1){
updated = updated.replaceAt(result, array[result])
}
return updated
}
function test(){
const cases = [
"=$A$1",
"=A1",
"=$A1",
"=A$1",
"=$A1:B$1",
"=1:1",
"=Sheet1!1:1",
"=Sheet1!$A1:B$1",
"=Sheet1!A$1",
'=IF(AND($C6 <> ""; NOT(ISBLANK(B$6))); IF(SUM(FILTER($F$6:$F$7;$C$6:$C$7 = $C6)) < $G6; 1; IF($E6 = 0; 1; 0)); 0)',
"=$A$111", "=A111", "=$A111", "=A$111", "=$A111:B$111",
"=111:111",
"=Sheet1!111:111",
"=Sheet1!$A111:B$111",
"=Sheet1!A$111",
'=IF(AND($C111 <> ""; NOT(ISBLANK(B$111))); IF(SUM(FILTER($F$111:$F$112;$C$111:$C$112 = $C111)) < $G111; 1; IF($E111 = 0; 1; 0)); 0)',
// if string literals have addresses they shouldn't be affected
'=IF(AND($C111 <> "A1 $A1 $A1:B$1";$C111 <> "Sheet1!1:1";$C111 <> "Sheet1!$A1:B$1"); 1 , 0)'
]
const expectedAdd = [
'=$A$16',
'=A16',
'=$A16',
'=A$16',
'=$A16:B$16',
'=16:16',
'=Sheet1!16:16',
'=Sheet1!$A16:B$16',
'=Sheet1!A$16',
'=IF(AND($C21 <> ""; NOT(ISBLANK(B$21))); IF(SUM(FILTER($F$21:$F$22;$C$21:$C$22 = $C21)) < $G21; 1; IF($E21 = 0; 1; 0)); 0)',
'=$A$126',
'=A126',
'=$A126',
'=A$126',
'=$A126:B$126',
'=126:126',
'=Sheet1!126:126',
'=Sheet1!$A126:B$126',
'=Sheet1!A$126',
'=IF(AND($C126 <> ""; NOT(ISBLANK(B$126))); IF(SUM(FILTER($F$126:$F$127;$C$126:$C$127 = $C126)) < $G126; 1; IF($E126 = 0; 1; 0)); 0)',
'=IF(AND($C126 <> "A1 $A1 $A1:B$1";$C126 <> "Sheet1!1:1";$C126 <> "Sheet1!$A1:B$1"); 1 , 0)'
]
let results = cases.map(_case => updateRowReference(_case, 15))
console.log('Test Add')
console.log(results.every((result, i) => result === expectedAdd[i]))
console.log('Test Subtract')
results = results.map(_case => updateRowReference(_case, -15))
console.log(results.every((result, i) => result === cases[i]))
}
test()
'INDIRECT' function with addresses as strings will not be updated