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How to Easily Extract From Any String

Without Using VBA InStr
by Paul Kelly | Aug 18, 2015 | Strings and Text | 27 comments

The VBA InStr function is one of the most used functions in VBA. It is used to find a string
within a string and indeed it does a very fine job.

However, it is often used to help extract part of a string and for this task it performs badly.

If you have found string extraction in VBA to be a painful process, then read on. This post
will show you a simpler and better way using three real world examples!

Contents [hide]

1 A Quick Guide to this Post

2 Quick Reference Notes
3 Introduction
4 When VBA InStr, Left, Right and Mid are useful

4.1 Using InStr to check if string contains text

4.2 Extracting with Left, Right and Mid

5 Dealing with Strings of Varying Lengths

5.1 Using the VBA InStr Function with Left

5.2 Using the VBA InStr Function with Right
5.3 Using the VBA InStr Function with Mid

6 The Split Function

7 Example 1: Getting part of a file name
 8 Example 2: IP Address Range
9 Example 3: Check if a filename is valid
10 Conclusion
11 What’s Next?

A Quick Guide to this Post

The following table provides a quick reference guide to what is covered in this post.

String Type Task How to

1234ABC334 Fixed size get left 4 Left(s,4)

chars

1234ABC334 Fixed size get right 3 Right(s,3)

chars

1234ABC334 Fixed size get chars Mid(s,5,3)

5,6,7

"John Henry Variable get first Split(s," ")(0)

Smith" size name

"John Henry Variable get second Split(s," ")(1)

Smith" size name

"John Henry Variable get third Split(s," ")(2)

Smith" size name

"John Henry Variable Get last Dim v As Variant

Smith" size name v = Split(s, " ")
lastname=
v(UBound(v))

Quick Reference Notes

To find out more about the items referenced in the post check out the following links

If you would like to know more about the InStr or InStrRev functions then please read
Searching within a string.
If you would like to know more about Mid, Left or Right functions then check out
Extracting Part of a String.

For more about the Split function check out String to Array using Split.

The Like operator is covered in Pattern Matching

I use Debug.Print in my examples. It prints values to the Immediate Window which you
can view by pressing Ctrl and G (or select View->Immediate Window)

Introduction
In this post, I’m going to show you a better way to extract values from a string than using
then VBA InStr function with Left, Right or Mid.

This post is broken down as follows

Section 1: How to extract from fixed sized strings.

Section 2: How to extract from variable sized strings.
Section 3: How to extract from variable sized string using the Split function.
Sections 4 to 6: Some real world examples.

When VBA InStr, Left, Right and Mid are useful

If you want to check if a string contains a value then InStr is fine for the job. If you want to
do a simple extraction then Left, Right and Mid also fine to use.

Using InStr to check if string contains text

In the following example, we check if the name contains “Henry”. If the return value of InStr
is greater than zero then the string contains the value we are checking for.

' Check if string contains Henry

If InStr("John Henry Smith", "Henry") > 0 Then
Debug.Print "Found"
End If

Extracting with Left, Right and Mid

The Left function is used to get characters from the left of a string.
The Right function is used to get characters from the right of a string.
The Mid function is used for the middle of the string. It is the same as Left except that you
give it a starting position.

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub ExtractString()

Dim s As String: s = "ABCD-7789.WXYZ"

Debug.Print Left(s, 2) ' Prints AB

Debug.Print Left(s, 4) ' Prints ABCD

Debug.Print Right(s, 2) ' Prints YZ

Debug.Print Right(s, 4) ' Prints WXYZ

Debug.Print Mid(s, 1, 2) ' Prints AB

Debug.Print Mid(s, 6, 4) ' Prints 7789

End Sub

These three functions work fine if the text you require is always the same size and in the
same place. For other scenarios, they require the use of InStr to find a particular position
in the string. This makes using them complicated.

Use Left, Right or Mid when the characters will always be in the same
position.

Dealing with Strings of Varying Lengths

Many of the strings you will deal with will be of different lengths. A simple example is when
you are dealing with a list of names. The string length and part you require(e.g. the first
name) may be of different each time. For example

Brooke Hilt
Pamela Jurado
Zack Kinzel
Eddy Wormley
Kaitlyn Rainer
Jacque Trickett
Kandra Stanbery
Margo Hoppes
Berenice Meier
Garrett Hyre

Using the VBA InStr Function with Left

In the following example, we are going to get the first name from a string. In this string the
first name is the name before the first space.

We use the VBA InStr function to get the position of the first space. We want to get all the
characters before the space. We subtract one from the position as this gives us the
position of the last letter of the name.

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub GetFirstname()

Dim s As String, lPosition As Long

s = "John Henry Smith"

' Prints John
lPosition = InStr(s, " ") - 1
Debug.Print Left(s, lPosition)

s = "Lorraine Huggard"
' Prints Lorraine
lPosition = InStr(s, " ") - 1
Debug.Print Left(s, lPosition)

End Sub
Let’s look at the first example in the above code. The first space is at position 5. We
substract 1 so which gives us position 4. This is the position of the last letter of John i.e.n.

We then give 4 to the Left function and it returns the first four characters e.g. “John”

We can perform the same task in one line by passing the return value from InStr to the
Left function.

Dim s As String
s = "John Henry Smith"

' Prints John

Debug.Print Left(s, InStr(s, " ") - 1)

Using the VBA InStr Function with Right

In this example, we will get the last word in the string i.e. Smith. We can use the InStrRev
function to help us. This is the same as InStr except it searches from the end of the string.

It’s important to note that InStrRev gives us the position from the start of the string .
Therefore, we need to use it slightly differently than we used InStr and Left.

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub GetLastName()

Dim s As String: s = "John,Henry,Smith"

Dim Position As Long, Length As Long

Position = InStrRev(s, ",")

Length = Len(s)

' Prints Smith

 Debug.Print Right(s, Length - Position)

' Alternative method. Prints Smith - do in one line

Debug.Print Right(s, Len(s) - InStrRev(s, ","))

End Sub

How this the above example works

1. We get the position of the last space using InStrRev: 11

2. We get the length of the string: 16.
3. We subtract the position from the length: 16-11=5
4. We give 5 to the Right function and get back Smith

Using the VBA InStr Function with Mid

In the next example, we will get “Henry” from the string. The word we are looking for is
between the first and second space.

We will use the Mid function here.

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub GetSecondName()

Dim s As String: s = "John Henry Smith"

Dim firstChar As Long, secondChar As Long

Dim count As Long

' Find space position plus 1. Result is 6

firstChar = InStr(s, " ") + 1
 ' find 2nd space position. Result is 11
secondChar = InStr(firstChar, s, " ")
' Get numbers of characters. Result is 5
count = secondChar - firstChar

' Prints Henry

Debug.Print Mid(s, firstChar, count)

End Sub

You can see this is tricky to do and requires a bit of effort to figure out. We need to find the
first space. Then we need to find the second space. Then we have to substract one from
the other to give us the number of characters to take.

If have a string with a lot of words then this can get very tricky indeed. Luckily for us there
is a much easier was to extract characters from a string. It’s called the Split function.

The Split Function

We can use the Split function to perform the above examples. The Split function splits a
string into an array. Then we can easily access each individual item.

Let’s try the same three examples again and this time we will use Split.

Dim s As String: s = "John Henry Smith"

Debug.Print Split(s, " ")(0) ' John

Debug.Print Split(s, " ")(1) ' Henry
Debug.Print Split(s, " ")(2) ' Smith

Boom! What a difference using Split makes. The way it works is as follows

1. The Split function splits the string wherever there is a space.

2. Each item goes into an array location starting at location zero.
3. Using the number of a location we can access an array item.

The following table shows what the array might look like after Split has been used.

Note: the first position in the array is zero. Having zero based arrays is standard in
programming languages.

0 1 2

John Henry Smith

In the above code we split the string each time we used it. We could also split the string
once and store it in an array variable. Then we can access it when we want.
 ' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub SplitName()
Dim s As String: s = "John Henry Smith"
Dim arr() As String
arr = Split(s, " ")

Debug.Print arr(0) ' John

Debug.Print arr(1) ' Henry
Debug.Print arr(2) ' Smith
End Sub

If you would like to know more about arrays then I wrote an entire post about them called
The Complete Guide to Using Arrays in Excel VBA.

In the next sections, we will look at some real-world examples. You will see the benefit of
using Split instead of the InStr function.

Please feel free to try these yourself first. It is a great way to learn and you may have fun
trying to figure them out(or maybe that’s just me!)

Example 1: Getting part of a file name

Imagine we want to extract the numbers from the following filenames

“VB_23476_Val.xls”
“VV_987_Val.txt”
“VZZA_12223_Val.doc”

This is similar to the example of where we get the second item. To get the values here we
use the underscore(i.e. “_”) to split the string. See the code example below

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub GetNumber()

' Prints 23476

Debug.Print Split("VB_23476_Val.xls", "_")(1)
' Prints 987
Debug.Print Split("VV_987_Val.txt", "_")(1)
' Prints 12223
Debug.Print Split("ABBZA_12223_Val.doc", "_")(1)
 End Sub

In the real world you would normally read strings like these from a range of cells. So let’s
say these filenames are stored in cells A1 to A3. We will adjust the code above slightly to
give us:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub ReadNumber()

Dim c As Range
For Each c In Range("A1:A3")
' Split each item as you read it
Debug.Print Split(c, "_")(1)
Next c

End Sub

Example 2: IP Address Range

The example here is taken from a question on the StackOverflow website.

The user has a string with an IP address in the format “BE-ABCDDD-DDS 172.16.23.3”.

He wants an IP of the range 172.16 to 172.31 to be valid. So for example

“BE-ABCDDD-DDS 172.16.23.3″ is valid

“BE-ABCDDD-DDS 172.25.23.3″ is valid

“BE-ABCDDED-DDS 172.14.23.3″ is not valid

“BE-ABCDDDZZ-DDS 172.32.23.3″ is not valid

This is how I would do this. First I split the string by the periods. The number we are
looking for is between the first and second period. Therefore, it is the second item. When
we split the string it is placed at position one in the array (remember that the array starts
at position zero).

The resulting array will look like this

0 1 2 3

BE-ABCDDD-DDS 172 31 23 3
The code below shows how to do this

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub IPAdd()

' Check the number to test different ip addresses

Dim s1 As String: s1 = "BE-ABCDDD-DDS 172.31.23.3"

' Split the string using the period symbol

Dim num As Long
num = Split(s1, ".")(1)

' Check the number is valid

Debug.Print num >= 16 And num <= 31

End Sub

Example 3: Check if a filename is valid

In this final example, we want to check that a file name is valid. There are three rules

1. It must end with .pdf

2. It must contain AA
3. It must contain 1234 after AA

The following tables shows some valid and invalid items

Filename Status

AA1234.pdf valid

AA_ljgslf_1234.pdf valid

AA1234.pdf1 Not valid - doesn't end with .pdf

1234 AA.pdf Not valid - AA does not come before 1234

12_AA_1234_NM.pdf Valid

First we will do this using the InStr and Right functions.

 ' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub UseInstr()

Dim f As String: f = "AA_1234_(5).pdf"

' Find AA first as the 1234 must come after this

Dim lPos As Long: lPos = InStr(f, "AA")
' Search for 1234 and ensure last four chars are .pdf
Debug.Print InStr(lPos, f, "1234") > 0 And Right(f, 4) = ".pdf"

End Sub

This code is very messy. Luckily for us, VBA has Pattern Matching. We can check the pattern
of a string without having to search for items and positions etc. We use the Like operator
in VBA for pattern matching. The example below shows how to do it.

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub UsePattern()

Dim f As String: f = "AA_1234_(5).pdf"

' Define the pattern

Dim pattern As String: pattern = "*AA*1234*.pdf"
' Check each item against the pattern
Debug.Print f Like pattern ' True

End Sub

In the above example, the asterisk in the pattern refers to any number of characters.

Let’s break down this pattern *AA*1234*.pdf

* – any group of characters

AA – the exact characters AA
* – any group of characters
1234 – the exact characters 1234
* – any group of characters
.pdf – the exact characters .pdf

To show this works correctly, let’s try it on all the example names in the table
 ' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub UsePatternTest()

' Create a collection of file names

Dim coll As New Collection
coll.Add "AA1234.pdf"
coll.Add "AA_ljgslf_1234.pdf"
coll.Add "AA1234.pdf1"
coll.Add "1234 AA.pdf"
coll.Add "12_AA_1234_NM.pdf"

' Define the pattern

Dim pattern As String: pattern = "*AA*1234*.pdf"

' Check each item against the pattern

Dim f As Variant
For Each f In coll
Debug.Print f Like pattern
Next f

End Sub

The output is
True
True
False
False
True

To find out more about Pattern Matching and the Like keyword please check out this post.

Conclusion
InStr and InStrRev are really only useful for simple tasks like checking if text exists in a
string.

Left, Right and Mid are useful when the position of the text is always the same.

The Split function is the best way to extract from a variable string.

When trying to check the format of a string that is not fixed in size, the Like keyword(i.e.
Pattern Matching) will generally provide an easier solution.
What’s Next?
Free VBA Tutorial If you are new to VBA or you want to sharpen your existing VBA skills
then why not try out the The Ultimate VBA Tutorial.

Related Training: Get full access to the Excel VBA training webinars and all the tutorials.

(NOTE: Planning to build or manage a VBA Application? Learn how to build 10 Excel VBA
applications from scratch.)

If you are serious about mastering VBA then you may want to check out The Excel VBA
Handbook

27 Comments
Gerhard Pundt on September 23, 2015 at 11:36 am

Hallo Paul,
what a great post about this problem.
I learned a lot this.
Now I will use cost of subscription with RSS.
Greatings
Gerhard

Reply

Paul Kelly on September 23, 2015 at 11:42 am

Thanks Gerhard, Glad you found it useful.

Paul

Reply

shivaji upase on September 27, 2015 at 6:37 am

Hey, John here whatever you shared online its really great
Not only for vba programmers but also non vba
 programmers
I really thank you to for such great work you have done

Reply

Paul Kelly on September 27, 2015 at 8:58 am

Thanks John, glad you like it.

Regards
Paul

Reply
Bruce Collins on November 22, 2015 at 9:10 pm
Extraordinary resource – clearly written and on point.
I today incorporated your Split approach in a previous function that had
used InStr. Function is repeatedly called, however, and I am curious if there
is any need to clear the identical array created in Split after each use.
Cannot find a name associated with array created in Split. (Assume name
would be necessary for using Erase).

Reply

Paul Kelly on November 23, 2015 at 2:43 pm

Hi Bruce,

That’s a good question.

If you are using a large number of items then it is a good idea to do

this
The following code is from the split section

This code uses Split once and stores the result to an array.

[sourcecode language=”vb”]
Sub SplitName()
Dim s As String: s = "John Henry Smith"
Dim arr() As String
arr = Split(s, " ")
Debug.Print arr(0) ‘ John
Debug.Print arr(1) ‘ Henry
Debug.Print arr(2) ‘ Smith
End Sub
[/sourcecode]

Imagine we were reading a large number of items e.g. the range A1

to A5000. Then we should use erase each time we finish with the
array. The following code shows an example

[sourcecode language=”vb”]
Sub SplitNameWithErase()

Dim s As String
Dim arr() As String

Dim c As Range
For Each c In Range("A1:A5000")
arr = Split(c, " ")

Debug.Print arr(0) ‘ first name

Debug.Print arr(1) ‘ second name
Debug.Print arr(2) ‘ surname

Erase arr

Next c

End Sub
[/sourcecode]

Reply

Arthur on November 17, 2020 at 10:44 pm

This is awesome. In the <> work great, but how can the
result be written in the worksheet?

Reply

Doruk on January 24, 2022 at 2:00 pm

 Sub SplitNameWithErase()
Dim ws As Worksheet
Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(“sheet1”)
Const columIndex As Integer = 1

Dim arrRng As Range

Set arrRng = ws.Range(“A1”,
Range(“A1″).End(xlDown))

Dim c As Range
Dim arr() As String
Dim i As Integer

For Each c In arrRng

arr = Split(c, ” “)
For i = LBound(arr) To UBound(arr)
c.Offset(0, i + columIndex).Value = arr(i)
Next i
Erase arr
Next c
End Sub

Reply
Jim Fisher on December 29, 2015 at 4:20 pm
HI Paul,

Paul,

This site is a great resource. I appreciate your work and I’m glad I stumbled
across it.

Using the SPLIT technique (which is awesome) how do you extract just the
first name from a list of names that may or may not have last or middle
names? I’ve got a worksheet containing a list of contact names that is edited
by several people. Some names have only a first name. Some have first and
last and a few have first, middle and last.

Reply

Paul Kelly on December 30, 2015 at 12:02 pm

Hi Jim,
 Glad you like the site. If the first name is the first word then it will
always be at position 0. For example to read all the first names from
cell A1 to A5.
[sourcecode language=”vb”]
Dim c As Range, arr As Variant
For Each c In Sheet1.Range("A1:A5")
arr = Split(c, " ")
Debug.Print arr(0)
Next c
[/sourcecode]

Reply
David Moore on January 27, 2016 at 3:27 pm

Paul, really great post. I have used the InStr with Mid method for a long
time, and never thought of using split like this. Also you have a great site
here with a lot of great information. Thanks!

Reply

Paul Kelly on January 27, 2016 at 5:12 pm

You’re welcome David.

Reply

Miquel on July 22, 2016 at 6:52 pm

Very nicely done! You saved my life and lots of time. Kudos for a great
article!

Reply

Dany on April 27, 2017 at 3:26 am

Hi Paul,
Good post again!
The result of your Sub UsePattern should be True instead of False

Reply
 Paul Kelly on April 27, 2017 at 3:33 am
Thanks Dany, I updated the code.

Reply
jade on March 12, 2018 at 7:17 pm
I need to check a specific text in website and print the result if it matches
the whole word.
FOR EXAMPLE
i need to check “red” in aaaaaa.com and print only if red is present. i used
INSTR but it scrapes from the word occured
,undelivered,semiretired,unchartered,unconquered…..

Reply

Paul Kelly on March 13, 2018 at 7:55 am

You can using pattern matching with the Like operator.

Reply

Geoff on March 22, 2018 at 6:27 am

Hi Paul

I Have an Excel Database of nearly 4,500 songs of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and
90’s, chronologically and alphabetically sorted as are the mp3 files, eg…

c:\Music Collection\2 – SEVENTIES\1974\74 – Billy Preston – Nothing From

Nothing.mp3

I can currently parse the above through to the Windows Object library, but
only one mp3 at a time.

I’ve tried to use ‘Collections’ to parse multiple mp3’s to no avail. an multiple

mp3’s be parsed through to Media Player? Will Arrays work.

Below is my code. (Please forgive me, but I am only a beginner, but quickly
turning into a VBA addict).

If you coild help me overcome this hurdle, I’d be most appreciative.

Cheers

Geoff

Sub PlaySong()

Dim DriveName, FullPathSongTitle, Decade, Year, HalfYear, Artist, Song,

Answer, CurrentCell, MP3_Title As String

On Error Resume Next

Application.ScreenUpdating = False
CurrentCell = ActiveCell.Address
Range(“A” & ActiveCell.Row).Offset(0, 5).Select

DriveName = Range(“L3”).Text

Select Case (Mid(ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1), 3, 1))

Case Is = 5, 6: Decade = “1 – SIXTIES”
Case Is = 7: Decade = “2 – SEVENTIES”
Case Is = 8: Decade = “3 – EIGHTIES”
Case Is = 9: Decade = “4 – NINETIES”
End Select

Year = ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).Value: If Year < 1960 Then Year = 1950

HalfYear = Right(ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1), 2)
Artist = ActiveCell.Offset(0, -1).Value
Song = ActiveCell.Value
MP3_Title = HalfYear & " – " & Artist & " – " & Song & ".mp3"

FullPathSongTitle = DriveName & "\" & Decade & "\" & Year & "\" &
MP3_Title

ActiveSheet.OLEObjects.Add(Filename:=FullPathSongTitle,
Link:=True).Select
If Err.Number 0 Then
msgbox “Cannot Locate…” & vbNewLine & FullPathSongTitle,
vbExclamation, ” ERROR!”
Range(CurrentCell).Select
Exit Sub
End If

Selection.Verb: Selection.Delete
Range(CurrentCell).Select
End Sub
 Reply

Paul Kelly on March 22, 2018 at 7:19 am

This example does something very similar to what you are doing.

Reply
Richard on October 31, 2018 at 4:00 pm
Outstanding resource… this page has quickly become a “go to” for
understanding VBA principles. Rarely do you find explanations that are
clear enough that they make sense to someone that doesn’t specialize in
this field.

Thank you for all your efforts Paul! Keep up the fantastic work!

Reply

Paul Kelly on November 1, 2018 at 9:16 am

Thanks Richard.

Reply

jim harper on May 24, 2019 at 2:42 am

a space is the default split character. therefore split(s,” “) is the same as
split(s).

Reply

Dinesh Raghav on May 30, 2019 at 11:08 am

Hi Paul, very good learning from your post.

Reply

Paul Kelly on June 1, 2019 at 3:32 am

 Thanks Dinesh

Reply
Michael on October 11, 2020 at 10:10 pm
Hi Paul,

You have a lot of great information here. What if you are trying to find the
set up numbers in a text string that are in groups in 2-3 locations? i.e. “This
is 33D54=7500 to finish”. I need to split these up into 3 sets of numbers.

Thanks for any help.

Reply

ILYA on October 24, 2020 at 6:46 am

Hi Michael. I wounder what Paul would recommend. I’d do it the following
way:
Use ASCII codes to distinguish between numeric and non-numeric chars
https://www.ascii-code.com/

1) Go through the string and replace all the chars out of the ASCII range
[48:57] with particular symbol e.g. “|”
2) In case it can be more than 1 non-numeric char between your numbers –
replace all “||” with “|”
3) use Split function with “|” as the splitter

Reply

Pedro on July 20, 2021 at 1:18 am

Thank you very much, this is really great

Reply
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