Word RegEx - Find String - Move 3 Words to the Left Between Quotes

[saphire99]

Hello,

to all again. I hope every one is having a great relaxing weekend.

I have come back to seek some advice on a regex problem - I assume.

My document has these website code lines hidden somewhere. I need to copy and paste 3 words to the left between some quote marks, and remove the spaces.


Here is an example:

<a href="# "> 1.2 Science Exam - 2015 Progress </a>
<a href="# "> 5.5 Algebra Equations - 2015 Progress </a>


End Result

<a href="#1.2ScienceExam"> 1.2 Science Exam - 2015 Progress </a>
<a href="#5.5AlgebraEquations"> 5.5 Algebra Equations - 2015 Progress </a>


My document has a lot of these hidden somewhere - as you can imagine I have to search and find these little lines.

Then for each one copy and paste to the left - before you know it - I am getting tired fast, as I have lots more in my folder that need the same yikes.

I recorded a macro - all it spewed up was copy paste and move back wards - it was as good as a lemon in winter.

My Attempt

Dim StrOld As String, StrNew As String
Dim RngFind As Range, RngTxt As Range, i As Long

StrOldRegEx = "<ahref \b[^>]*>(.*?)</a> "


StrOldRegEx = "     <a href="# ">  *   </a>    "      ' Another try


Set RngTxt = Selection.Range

For i = 0 To UBound(split(StrOld, ","))
Set RngFind = RngTxt.Duplicate
With RngFind.Find

  While .Find.Execute
   Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=4
    Selection.TypeBackspace
    Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=7
    Selection.TypeBackspace
    Selection.Copy
    Selection.PasteAndFormat (wdFormatOriginalFormatting)

I wish the word macro recorder was more helpful - so i could work out how to search for things and then perform an action.

Any help really appreciated

thank you in advance to the great experts

Saphire

[gmayor]

You cannot achieve this with the macro recorder. Assuming that the quoted strings are an accurate representation, then provided their are no similar, but unrelated strings the document the following should work:

Option Explicit

Sub FormatReferences()
Dim orng As Range, oBold As Range
Dim strText As String
    Set orng = ActiveDocument.Range
    With orng.Find
        Do While .Execute(FindText:="<a href=" & Chr(34) & "# " & Chr(34) & "> ")
            orng.MoveEndUntil "-"
            strText = Mid(orng.Text, 14, Len(orng.Text))
            strText = Replace(strText, Chr(32), "")
            orng.Text = Replace(orng.Text, Chr(32) & Chr(34) & "> ", strText & Chr(34) & "> ")
            Set oBold = orng
            oBold.MoveStartUntil "#"
            oBold.Start = oBold.Start + 1
            oBold.MoveEndUntil Chr(34), wdBackward
            oBold.Font.Bold = True
            orng.Collapse 0
        Loop
    End With
lbl_Exit:
    Exit Sub
End Sub

[saphire99]

Dear Graham,

I am so excited, thank you!!

You are a talented genius programming guru.

It worked like sweet candy.

As you can imagine I found it really hard making friends with the regex - it was driving me mad.

thank you so much for your generosity - this is my favorite macro





Really Grateful

Have a wonderful holiday!

Saphire
xo



Please mark as solved