Excel VBA: search a string to find the first non-text character - regex

Question

Cells contain a mixture of characters within a string, such as:
Abcdef_8765
QWERTY3_JJHH
Xyz9mnop
I need to find the first non A-Za-z character so that I can strip out the subsequent remainder of the string.
So the results would be:
Abcdef
QWERTY
Xyz
I know how to do this if I know exactly what character I'm looking for, but I'm not intuitively grasping how to find ANY character other than A-Za-z.
Btw, this is intended to be used within a vba solution.
====================
EDIT:
I've had success with the following...
a = "abc123"
b = Len(a)
For x = 1 To b
c = (Mid(a, x, 1) Like "[a-zA-Z]")
If c = False Then
d = Left(a, x - 1)
Exit Sub
End If
Next x
Have I stumbled upon a suitable solution, or is this destined to break?
I ask only because I look at Doug Glancy's solution and it seems much more substantial.
(btw, I have not yet tested Doug's solution)

Answer 1

Here is a simple way which doesn't use RegEx. I am deliberately not using RegEx as the other two answer are based on RegEx. RegEx is definitely faster but this is almost equally fast. The difference in speed is almost negligible.
Function GetWord(Rng As Range)
Dim i As Long, pos As Long
For i = 1 To Len(Rng.Value)
Select Case Asc(Mid(Rng.Value, i, 1))
Case 65 To 90, 97 To 122
Case Else: pos = i: Exit For
End Select
Next i
GetWord = Left(Rng.Value, pos - 1)
End Function
Usage:
=GetWord(A1)
EDIT:
Followup from comments. Fine tuned the code (Courtesy #brettdj) .
Function GetWord(Rng As Range)
Dim i As Long, pos As Long
Dim sString As String
sString = UCase$(Rng.Value)
For i = 1 To Len(sString)
Select Case Asc(Mid$(sString, i, 1))
Case 65 To 90
Case Else: pos = i: Exit For
End Select
Next i
GetWord = Left(Rng.Value, pos - 1)
End Function
More Followup.
Here is something which I had never tried before. I did an actual test of my code vs RegXp and I was surprised to see my code was faster than RegXp which I had not anticipated.
I tested it on 10k cells and each cell had a string of 2256 of length
The string that I put in Cell A1:A10000 is
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbcccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeSiddharth5RoutaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbcccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeSiddharth5RoutaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbcccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeSiddharth5RoutaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbcccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeSiddharth5RoutaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbcccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeSiddharth5RoutaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbcccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeSiddharth5RoutaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbcccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeSiddharth5RoutaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbcccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeSiddharth5Rout
Next I ran this test

Answer 2

The regexp below looks to remove from the first non A-Z character.
Function StrChange(strIn As String) As String
Dim objRegEx As Object
Set objRegEx = CreateObject("vbscript.regexp")
With objRegEx
.ignorecase = True
.Pattern = "^([a-z]+)([^a-z].*)"
.Global = True
StrChange = .Replace(strIn, "$1")
End With
End Function

Answer 3

You can use a simple regular expression to specify a numeral followed by anything and use this function to replace anything that matches that pattern:
Function Regex_Replace(strOriginal As String, strPattern As String, strReplacement, varIgnoreCase As Boolean) As String
Dim objRegExp As Object
Set objRegExp = CreateObject("vbscript.regexp")
With objRegExp
.Pattern = strPattern
.IgnoreCase = varIgnoreCase
.Global = True
End With
Regex_Replace = objRegExp.Replace(strOriginal, strReplacement)
Set objRegExp = Nothing
End Function
You'd call it like this:
Sub DeleteAfterNums()
Dim cell As Excel.Range
'Change "Selection" to your range
For Each cell In Selection
'"\d.+" is a numeral and whatever follows it
cell.Value = Regex_Replace(cell.Value, "\d.+", "", True)
Next cell
End Sub

Answer 4

Here is a lightweight and fast method that avoids regex/reference additions, thus helping with overhead and transportability should that be an advantage.
Public Function GetText(xValue As String) As Variant
For GetText = 1 To Len(xValue)
If UCase(Mid(xValue, GetText, 1)) Like "[!A-Z]" Then GetText = Left(xValue, GetText - 1): Exit Function
Next
GetText = xValue
End Function
This is then called by using GetText("Submission String") from vba or prepended with a "=" from within a cell formula.