Last week we discussed how to extract numbers from text in Excel using formulas. In comments, quite a few people suggested that using VBA (Macros) to extract numbers would be simpler.
So today, lets learn how to write a VBA Function to extract numbers from any text.
Using VBA Function to Extract Numbers from Text in Excel
When using VBA to scan a text for number, the basic approach is like this:
- Read each character in a given text
- See if it is number
- If so, extract it
- Continue with next character
- Convert the extracted characters to a number
- Return that number
While this works fine, it also has some limitations.
For example, with above approach, A text value like “US $313,00.00” will be extracted as 3,130,000 not as 31,300.00
Depending on your data, you may have many such peculiarities. For example, here are 4 situations I ran in to:
Handling decimal points & thousand separators during extraction
When it comes to decimal points & thousand separators there are 2 conventions:
- 61,000.30 (Regular)
- 61.000,30 (European)
We do not need special treatment for regular format (61,000.30) as Excel & VBA are capable of dealing with these numbers by default.
To check if a text has European format number, we have to see if . occurs before ,
(Note: this method is not fool-proof, but should work well for most situations)
This can be done by using LIKE statement,
if text like "*.*,*" then
european = true
else
european = false
end if
Writing our getNumber() VBA Function
Once we put all these ideas together, we will have our getNumber() function. Watch below video to understand how to extract numbers from text using Excel VBA.
[Watch this video on our Youtube channel]
Download Number Extraction VBA Function
Click here to download the Extract Numbers using VBA workbook.
View code module to understand how getNumber function works.
Do you use VBA to extract numbers?
I often use VBA to clean raw data. Earlier I mentioned about cleaning phone numbers & spelling mistakes. I think simple functions like getNumber() can save us tons of time & let us focus on the important task – analyzing data.
What about you? Do you use VBA to clean data? What techniques & ideas you rely on? Please share your thoughts using comments.
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13 Responses to “Using pivot tables to find out non performing customers”
To avoid the helper column and the macro, I would transpose the data into the format shown above (Name, Year, Sales). Now I can show more than one year, I can summarize - I can do many more things with it. ASAP Utilities (http://www.asap-utilities.com) has a new experimental feature that can easily transpose the table into the correct format. Much easier in my opinion.
David
Of course with alternative data structure, we can easily setup a slicer based solution so that everything works like clockwork with even less work.
David, I was just about to post the same!
In Contextures site, I remember there's a post on how to do that. Clearly, the way data is layed out on the very beginning is critical to get the best results, and even you may thinkg the original layout is the best way, it is clearly not. And that kind of mistakes are the ones I love ! because it teaches and trains you to avoid them, and how to think on the data structure the next time.
Eventually, you get to that place when you "see" the structure on the moment the client tells you the request, and then, you realized you had an ephiphany, that glorious moment when data is no longer a mistery to you!!!
Rgds,
Chandoo,
If the goal is to see the list of customers who have not business from yearX, I would change the helper column formula to :
=IF(selYear="all",sum(C4:M4),sum(offset(C4:M4,,selyear-2002,1,columns(C4:M4)-selyear+2002)))This formula will sum the sales from Selected Year to 2012.
JMarc
If you are already using a helper column and the combox box runs a macro after it changes, why not just adjust the macro and filter the source data?
Regards
I gotta say, it seems like you are giving 10 answers to 10 questions when your client REALLY wants to know is: "What is the last year "this" customer row had a non-zero Sales QTY?... You're missing the forest for the trees...
Change the helper column to:
=IFERROR(INDEX(tblSales[[#Headers],[Customer name]:[Sales 2012]],0,MATCH(9.99999999999999E+307,tblSales[[#This Row],[Customer name]:[Sales 2012]],1)),"NO SALES")
And yes, since I'm matching off of them for value, I would change the headers to straight "2002" instead of "Sales 2002" but you sort the table on the helper column and then and there you can answer all of your questions.
Hi thanks for this. Just can't figure out how you get the combo box to control the pivot table. Can you please advise?
Cheers
@Kevin.. You are welcome. To insert a combo box, go to Developer ribbon > Insert > form controls > combo box.
For more on various form controls and how to use them, please read this: http://chandoo.org/wp/2011/03/30/form-controls/
Thanks Chandoo. But I know how to insert a combobox, I was more referring to how does in control the year in the pivot table? Or is this obvious? I note that if I select the Selected Year from the PivotTable Field List it says "the field has no itens" whereas this would normally allow you to change the year??
Thanks again
worked it out thanks...
when =data!Q2 changes it changes the value in column N:N and then when you do a refreshall the pivottable vlaues get updated
Still not sure why PivotTable Field List says “the field has no itens"?? I created my own pivot table and could not repeat that.
Hi, I put the sales data in range(F5:P19) and added a column D with the title 'Last sales in year'. After that, in column D for each customer, the simple formula
=2000+MATCH(1000000,E5:P5)
will provide the last year in which that particular customer had any sales, which can than easily be managed by autofilter.
Somewhat longer but perhaps a bit more solid (with the column titles in row 4):
=RIGHT(INDEX($F$4:$P$19,1,MATCH(1000000,F5:P5)),4)
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