Hi Rob,
You get an electronic form of this file? When I look at what you have below,
this all comes on one line? A record per line? What "type" of file, what is
the file extension? Have you attempted to open this file with Excel? I am not
talking about how is appears on a computer screen, but form the file is is
in, prior to it's viewing.

Really, try abd open it with Excel and see what happens. If it is what
appears below, I think you will be able to open it. Again you may have to
play with it and attempt this more than once to get what you want. The
process of opening it will "parse" it for you. This does not require and VB
code. YOu will taken through several "Screens" called the Text Import
Wizard", which allows you to describe the format of the text file you are
trying to open in Excel. You will not need to parse it at this time, but
simply put it in a form that is readable and useful.

When you have it in this form, you can delete whole columns, which will
represent fields of data. Try this and see if it will open for you. In Excel
- File/Open, make sure that you tell Excel to look for "All Types" in the
Open dialog or it will not recogize anything but Excel files.

"Rob" wrote:

> David,
>
> When I say "justified," I mean it's a database report that is justified to
> the screen (fields are arranged to fit the screen -- like a justified form
> in ACCESS):
>
> Name: Joe Blow SSN: 987-65-4321 Home Phone: (850) 555-1234
> Start-Date: 12/25/2004 Occupation: Dead beat DOB: 01/01/1986
> Education: Graduated from 6th Grade
> address, etc...
>
> With Regular Expressions, I can grab a line, parse the data I want ("Joe
> Blow", "(850) 555-1234") and insert into a new csv file/database/etc. I
> used to do it all the time in PERL, but I haven't used the language in 2 - 3
> years. I can learn to do it in C#, but then I have the same problem -- I
> will have to ensure every machine can run PERL or C#, and I will have to
> train every user (sometimes it's easier to teach a monkey to fly).
>
> Can I do anything similar to regular Expressions with VBA?
>
>
> "David" <David@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:E57DAD84-4518-4B41-98F4-9B97C9EAB7DC@microsoft.com...
> > Hi Rob,
> > If the file is a text file and it is regularly separated, you should be
> > able
> > to simply open it in Excel. YOu will be taken to various screens and
> > alternatives to decsribe the data layout. I am not sure what you mean by
> > "justified", but Excel and open many formats. Comma, tab, space, etc. You
> > may
> > have to play around with the opening of it to find the right method that
> > fits
> > your data, but I expect it will open and be useful.
> >
> > "Rob" wrote:
> >
> >> All,
> >>
> >> I have a very useful report I get weekly (text document) that is in a
> >> very
> >> un-useful format... It gives me information on all my personnel (hundreds
> >> of
> >> folks) in a "justified" format. I want to import the information I need
> >> from each individual into excel (CSV file) so I can manipulate the data
> >> or
> >> search, etc... In the end, I'll probably use Access - but I still have
> >> the
> >> same problem.
> >>
> >> The easiest way I know to grab the information I need is using Regular
> >> Expressions to parse through each line of the report.
> >>
> >> I "use-ta-could" in PERL, or I could teach myself using C#.
> >>
> >> I really would like to write the code using VBA because I'm starting to
> >> feel
> >> comfortable with the language and I've created about a dozen routines
> >> that I
> >> use in Word/Excel/PowerPoint. I'd like to continue becoming more
> >> proficient.
> >>
> >> Any help putting me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.
> >>
> >> Rob F
> >>
> >>
> >>
>
>
>