Question

I have the list with like 100,000 site link strings

• Each link is unique, but it has consistent ?Item=
• Then, it’s either nothing or it continues after & symbol.

My question is: How do I pull out the item numbers?

I know replace function can offer similar functionality, but it works with Fixed sizes, in my case string can be different in size.

Link example:
www.site.com?sadfsf?sdfsdf&adfasfd?Item=JGFGGG55555
or
www.site.com?sadfsf?sdfsdf&adfasfd?Item=JGFGGG55555&sdafsdfsdfsdf

In both cases I need to get JGFGGG55555 only

Answer 1

If this always is the last portion of the string, you can use the following:

=MID(A1, FIND("?Item=", A1) + 6, 99)

This assumes:

• no item numbers will be over 99 digits.
• no additional fields follow the item number.

Edit:

With the update to your question, it is apparent you have some strings with additional data after the ?Item= field. Without using VBA there is not a simple means of using MID and FIND to extract this.

However you could create a column which acts as a placeholder.

For example, create a column using:

=MID(A1,FIND("?Item=",A1)+6,99)

This gets you the following value: JGFGGG55555&sdafsdfsdfsdf

Next, create a column using:

=IF(ISERROR(FIND("&",B2)),B2,LEFT(B2,FIND("&",B2)-1))

This produces: JGFGGG55555 by searching the first value for a & and using the portion before it. If it is not found, the first value is simply repeated.