ACC: Sample Expressions to Extract Portion of Text String

• Microsoft Access versions 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 7.0, 97

SUMMARY

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

This article lists sample expressions that you can use to extract a portion of a text string. These expressions are commonly used in the Update To line of an update query to place a portion of a larger field into a new field. You can adapt these expressions for use with other common formats. For example, the expression you would use to extract "Doe" from "Doe, John" you can also use to extract "Seattle" from "Seattle, WA."

MORE INFORMATION

The following expressions are sample expressions that you can use to extract a portion of a text string.

NOTE: In the following sample expressions, an underscore (_) at the end of a line is used as a line-continuation character. Remove the underscore from the end of the line when re-creating the expression.

First Name

Original Entry in [Names]: "John Doe"
Returned by Expression: John
Expression: Expr: Left([Names],InStr(1,[Names]," ")-1)

First Name

Orignial Entry in [Names]: "Doe, John"
Returned by Expression: John
Expression: Expr: Right(Trim([Names]),Len(Trim([Names]))-InStr(1, _
[Names]," "))

First Name

Original Entry in [Names]: "John P. Doe"
Returned by Expression: John
Expression: Expr: Left([Names],InStr(1,[Names]," ")-1)

Last Name

Original Entry in [Names]: = "John Doe"
Returned by Expression: Doe
Expression:Expr: Right(Trim([Names]),Len(Trim([Names]))-InStr(1, _
[Names]," "))

Last Name

Original Entry in [Names]: "Doe, John"
Returned by Expression: Doe
Expression: Expr: Left([Names],InStr(1,[Names],",")-1)

Last Name

Original Entry in [Names]: "John P. Doe"
Returned by Expression: Doe
Expression: Expr: Right(Trim([Names]),Len(Trim([Names]))-InStr(InStr _
(1, [Names]," ")+1,[Names]," "))

Last Name

Original Entry in [Names]: "John Doe" or "John P. Doe"
Returned by Expression: Doe
Expression: Expr: IIf(InStr(InStr([Names]," ")+1,[Names]," ") _
<>0, Right([names],Len([names])-InStr(InStr([Names]," ")+1, _
[Names]," ")),Right([Names],Len([Names])-InStr([Names]," ")))

Middle Initial

Original Entry in [Names]: "John P. Doe"
Returned by Expression: P.
Expression Expr: Trim(Mid([Names],InStr(1,[Names]," ")+1,InStr(InStr _
(1, [Names], " ")+1,[Names]," ")-InStr(1,[Names]," ")))

Middle Initial

Original Entry in [Names]: "Doe, John P."
Returned by Expression: P.
Expression: Expr: Right(Trim([Names]),Len(Trim([Names]))-InStr _
(InStr(1, [Names]," ")+1,[Names]," "))

Zip Code

Original Entry in [ZipCode]: "98052-6399"
Returned by Expression: 98052
Expression: Expr: Left([ZipCode],5)

Area Code

Original Entry in [Phone]: (425) 635-7050
Returned by Expression: 425
Expression: Expr: Mid([Phone], 2, 3)

Phone Number

Original Entry in [Phone]: (425) 635-7050
Returned by Expression: 635-7050
Expression: Expr: Right(Trim([Phone]),8)

Additional query words: parse parsing text strings fullname city state zip code part partial piece section fragment segment take use functions

Keywords : kbusage ExrOthr
Version : WINDOWS:1.0,1.1,2.0,7.0,97
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto