Scott wonders how he can make Excel automatically add a dash between every letter in a given cell. As an example, if cell A1 contains "house", Scott would like to convert it to "h-o-u-s-e".
This can be done with a formula, but it quickly becomes unwieldy. For instance, the following formula can be used to put dashes between the letters of whatever you type into cell A1:
=CHOOSE(LEN(A1),A1,LEFT(A1,1) & "-" & RIGHT(A1,1), LEFT(A1,1) & "-" & MID(A1,2,1) & "-" & RIGHT(A1,1), LEFT(A1,1) & "-" & MID(A1,2,1) & "-" & MID(A1,3,1) & "-" & RIGHT(A1,1),LEFT(A1,1) & "-" & MID(A1,2,1) & "-" & MID(A1,3,1) & "-" & MID(A1,4,1) & "-" & RIGHT(A1,1), LEFT(A1,1) & "-" & MID(A1,2,1) & "-" & MID(A1,3,1) & "-" & MID(A1,4,1) & "-" & MID(A1,5,1) & "-" & RIGHT(A1,1))
This particular example of a formula will only work on text up to six characters in length. Thus, it would work properly for "house", but not for "household". The formula could be lengthened but, again, it would quickly become very long.
A better approach is to use a macro to do the conversion. If you want to insert the dashes right into the cell, you could use a macro such as this:
Sub AddDashes1() Dim Cell As Range Dim sTemp As String Dim C As Integer For Each Cell In Selection sTemp = "" For C = 1 To Len(Cell) sTemp = sTemp + Mid(Cell, C, 1) + "-" Next Cell.Value = Left(sTemp, Len(sTemp) - 1) Next End Sub
This macro is designed to be used on a selected range of cells. Just select the cells you want to convert, and then run the macro. The dashes are added between each letter in the cells.
If you prefer to not modify the original cell values, you could create a user-defined function that would do the job:
Function AddDashes2(Src As String) As String Dim sTemp As String Dim C As Integer Application.Volatile sTemp = "" For C = 1 To Len(Src) sTemp = sTemp + Mid(Src, C, 1) + "-" Next AddDashes2 = Left(sTemp, Len(sTemp) - 1) End Function
To use this function you would use the following in your worksheet:
=AddDashes2(A1)
If you want to make sure that the function is a bit more robust, you could modify it so that it handles multiple words. In such an instance you would not want it to treat a space as a "dashable letter." For example, you would want the routine to add dashes to "one two" so it came out as "o-n-e t-w-o" instead of "o-n-e- -t-w-o". The following variation on the function will do the trick:
Function AddDashes3(Src As String) As String Dim sTemp As String Dim C As Integer Application.Volatile sTemp = "" For C = 1 To Len(Src) sTemp = sTemp + Mid(Src, C, 1) If Mid(Src, C, 1) <> " " And Mid(Src, C + 1, 1) <> " " And C < Len(Src) Then sTemp = sTemp + "-" End If Next AddDashes3 = sTemp End Function
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9633) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Adding Dashes between Letters.
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2017-01-06 16:29:37
Amanda
So I like simple...This is what I would do... Select the cell or column that you want to change (make sure there are enough blank columns to the right for each letter in the longest word), under Data tab select TEXT TO COLUMNS, FIXED WIDTH, NEXT, and then add a break between each letter until there are enough for all letters in the longest word. Click NEXT. I did the word Coach. Now in the column next to the last letter (the H) I type this formula: =A3&"-"&B3&"-"&C3&"-"&D3&"-"&E3
And my result is C-o-a-c-h. Then you can drag down to copy formula to the entire column.
2015-11-07 05:38:54
Rick Rothstein
Your AddDashes3 and AddDashes4 UDF's can be written as one-liners (I omitted the Application.Volatile that you used because I am not sure it is needed, if I am wrong, then adding it to my UDF's will make them two-liners)...
Function AddDashes3(Strg As String, Spacer As String) As String
AddDashes3 = Join(Evaluate("TRANSPOSE(MID(""" & Strg & """,ROW(1:" & Len(Strg) & "),1))"), Spacer)
End Function
Function AddDashes4(ByVal Strg As String, Spacer As String) As String
AddDashes4 = Replace(Join(Evaluate("TRANSPOSE(MID(""" & Strg & """,ROW(1:" & Len(Strg) & "),1))"), Spacer), "- -", " ")
End Function
Note: AddDashes4 is the same function I posted to your previous posting of this tip (mentioned in your "Please Note" comment at the beginning of this tip... the second function is different (simpler) than the one I posted there originally.
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