Decoding a string

I've got a string I'd like to decode. Based on the contents of that string, I'd like to manipulate the 3 cells directly to the right of the string's cell.

The string will always be formatted like this:
(integer, integer, integer) with three singles next to it.

String Examples: (3, 0, 1)
(0, 0, 5)
(-2, 4, 0)
(-1, 1, -1)

What I would like to do is detect if the string contains a 0, if it does, find out if the 0 is in the first, second, or third position (it can be in up to 2 of them), then based on the zero positions, turn the corresponding number in the cell to the right into a "don't care" cell.

In other words:
(3, 0, 1) 75.6 833 43.9
becomes
(3, 0, 1) 75.6 xxx 43.9


I know it is possible to find if there is a zero present by using the following:
=IF(ISERROR(FIND("0",A3)),0,1)

Also it would be possible to use a bunch of =left and =right to try and trim things out to find out where the 0's are, but I was hoping there is a simpler method I'm not considering. Perhaps there is a function like "CharAt" available in VBA?

Well, I opted to do the don't care before the string was created. It adds another 3 if statements that I have to search through, but ultimately it probably won't slow the program that badly.

I'm still curious what programmatic methods there are for finding specific characters in a string. In C you can march through a for loop going from 1 to stringlength and use the CharAt command to know what everything is. Are there similar options in VBA?

Yeah, that is what I was looking for. Thanks.