XL2000: How to Programmatically Find the Nth Word in a Text String (213268)

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1. Start Excel.
2. Press ALT+F11 to start the Visual Basic Editor.
3. On the Insert menu, click Module.
4. Type the following code in the module sheet:

   Function FindNthWord(WordStrg As Variant, occur)
       ' Declare variables where WordStrg is the string whose Nth word you
       ' want to extract and occur is the number of the word (or Nth word)
       ' you want to extract from the string.
       Dim y, z As Integer
       Dim WordSearch()
        y = (Len(WordStrg) - (Len(Application.Substitute(WordStrg, " ", _
           "")))) / 1
       ReDim WordSearch(1 To (y + 1))
       z = 1
       For SearchLoop = 1 To y
           z = (InStr(z, WordStrg, " "))
           WordSearch(SearchLoop) = Left(WordStrg, z)
           WordStrg = Application.Trim(Mid(WordStrg, z + 1))
           z = 1
       Next SearchLoop
       WordSearch(y + 1) = WordStrg
       ' Assigns the result to the function.
       FindNthWord = WordSearch(occur)
   End Function
   					

5. Press ALT+F11 to return to Excel.
6. Type the following text in a worksheet:

      A1: For a comparison of Dow Jones
      A2: Industrial Averages and the price of this
      A3: stock over the same quarter, refer to the
      A4: next section of the worksheet.
   					

7. Type the following formula in cell B1 to find the second word in cell A1:

   =FindNthWord(A1,2)

8. With cell B1 selected, grab the fill handle and fill the formula down through cell B4.
   
   The resulting worksheet looks like the following:

      A1: For a comparison of Dow Jones               B1: a
      A2: Industrial Averages and the price of this   B2: Averages
      A3: stock over the same quarter, refer to the   B3: over
      A4: next section of the worksheet.              B4: section