Question

I’m completely new to Macro programming in Excel, and can’t find any references to resolve my question.

I have a column of several words in Excel. If the word is a verb it has an asterisk immediately succeeding the word (without a space).

For example, part of the column looks like this:

accuse*
accustomed be*
acid
acidic
acquire*
acre

So I need to:

1. Find all instances in which a cell ends with an asterisk, delete that asterisk, and put the word “to” in front of the cell entry.
2. If the word has “be*” then I need to delete the asterisk, the word “be”, and put “to be” in the front.

The finished column should look like this:

to accuse
to be accustomed
acid
acidic
to acquire
acre

Is this possible?

Answer 1

try this (select the list then run this)

Sub Demo()
    Dim cl As Range

    For Each cl In Selection.Cells
        If Trim(cl) Like "*[*]" Then
            Cl = trim(cl)
            cl = "to " & Left(cl, Len(cl) - 1)
        End If
    Next
End Sub

Actual data includes training Linefeed character, sometimes a space before the *, and sometimes terms after the *

This version deals with these issues

Sub Demo()
    Dim cl As Range
    Dim r As Range
    Dim str As String, i As Long
    Set r = Selection
    For Each cl In r.Cells
        str = Trim(cl)
        str = Replace(str, " *", "*")
        If Asc(Right$(str, 1)) <= 31 Then
            str = Trim(Left$(str, Len(str) - 1))
        End If
        If str Like "* be[*]*" Then
            i = InStr(str, "*")
            cl = "to be " & Left$(str, i - 4 & Mid$(str, i + 1))
        ElseIf str Like "*[*]*" Then
            i = InStr(str, "*")
            cl = "to " & Left$(str, i - 1) & Mid$(str, i + 1)
        End If
    Next
End Sub