Sample expressions to extract portion of text string in Access 2000 (209045)



The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Access 2000

This article was previously published under Q209045
For a Microsoft Access 97 version of this article, see 115915.
Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

For a Microsoft Access 2002 version of this article, see 286238.

SUMMARY

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 so that you can use them with other common formats. For example, you can use the expression that is used to extract "Doe" from "Doe, John" 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]," "))


Middle Initial

Original Entry in [Names]: "John Doe" or "John P. Doe"
Returned by Expression: P. or blank
Expression: Expr: Trim(Mid([names], InStr(1, [names], " ") + 1, IIf(InStr(InStr(1, [names], " ") + 1, [names], " ") = 0, 0, InStr(InStr(1, [names], " ") + 1, [names], " ") - InStr(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)


Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:8/6/2004
Keywords:kbProgramming kbhowto kbusage KB209045