CODEWITHSUNDEEP
stringvbachar
intrigued_66
intrigued_66

Reputation: 17248

Split string into array of characters?

How is it possible to split a VBA string into an array of characters?

I tried Split(my_string, "") but this didn't work.

Upvotes: 37

Views: 145550

Answers (7)

Rara
Rara

Reputation: 1

Try this minicode From Rara:

Function charSplitMulti(TheString As Variant, SplitLen As Long) As Variant
    'Defining a temporary array.
    Dim TmpArray() As String
    'Checking if the SplitLen is not less than one. if so the function returns the whole string without any changing.
    SplitLen = IIf(SplitLen >= 1, SplitLen, Len(TheString))
    'Redefining the temporary array as needed.
    ReDim TmpArray(Len(TheString) \ SplitLen + IIf(Len(TheString) Mod SplitLen <> 0, 1, 0))
    'Splitting the input string.
    For i = 1 To UBound(TmpArray)
        TmpArray(i) = Mid(TheString, (i - 1) * SplitLen + 1, SplitLen)
    Next
    'Outputing the result. 
    charSplitMulti = TmpArray
End Function

Upvotes: 0

Daz
Daz

Reputation: 1

To split a string into an array of sub-strings of any desired length:

Function charSplitMulti(s As Variant, splitLen As Long) As Variant
    
        Dim padding As Long: padding = 0
        Dim l As Long: l = 0
        Dim v As Variant
        
        'Pad the string so it divides evenly by
        ' the length of the desired sub-strings
        Do While Len(s) Mod splitLen > 0
            s = s & "x"
            padding = padding + 1
        Loop
        
        'Create an array with sufficient
        ' elements to hold all the sub-strings
        Do Until Len(v) = (Len(s) / splitLen) - 1
            v = v & ","
        Loop
        v = Split(v, ",")
        
        'Populate the array by repeatedly
        ' adding in the first [splitLen]
        ' characters of the string, then
        ' removing them from the string
        Do While Not s Like ""
            v(l) = Mid(s, 1, splitLen)
            s = Right(s, Len(s) - splitLen)
            l = l + 1
        Loop
        
        'Remove any padding characters added at step one
        v(UBound(v)) = Left(v(UBound(v)), Len(v(UBound(v))) - padding)
        
        'Output the array
        charSplitMulti = v
    
    End Function

You can pass the string into it either as a string:

Sub test_charSplitMulti_stringInput()

    Dim s As String: s = "123456789abc"
    Dim subStrLen As Long: subStrLen = 4
    Dim myArray As Variant
    
    myArray = charSplitMulti(s, subStrLen)
    
    For i = 0 To UBound(myArray)
        MsgBox myArray(i)
    Next

End Sub

…or already declard as a variant:

Sub test_charSplitMulti_variantInput()

    Dim s As Variant: s = "123456789abc"
    Dim subStrLen As Long: subStrLen = 5
    
    s = charSplitMulti(s, subStrLen)
    
    For i = 0 To UBound(s)
        MsgBox s(i)
    Next

End Sub

If the length of the desired sub-string doesn't divide equally into the length of the string, the uppermost element of the array will be shorter. (It'll be equal to strLength Mod subStrLength. Which is probably obvious.)

I found that most-often I use it to split a string into single characters, so I added another function, so I can be lazy and not have to pass two variables in that case:

Function charSplit(s As Variant) As Variant

    charSplit = charSplitMulti(s, 1)

End Function

Sub test_charSplit()

    Dim s As String: s = "123456789abc"
    Dim myArray As Variant
    
    myArray = charSplit(s)
    
    For i = 0 To UBound(myArray)
        MsgBox myArray(i)
    Next

End Sub

Upvotes: 0

q335r49
q335r49

Reputation: 648

According to this code golfing solution by Gaffi, the following works:

a = Split(StrConv(s, 64), Chr(0))

Upvotes: 11

Daniel
Daniel

Reputation: 13122

Here's another way to do it in VBA.

Function ConvertToArray(ByVal value As String)
    value = StrConv(value, vbUnicode)
    ConvertToArray = Split(Left(value, Len(value) - 1), vbNullChar)
End Function
Sub example()
    Dim originalString As String
    originalString = "hi there"
    Dim myArray() As String
    myArray = ConvertToArray(originalString)
End Sub

Upvotes: 11

user3738926
user3738926

Reputation: 1258

the problem is that there is no built in method (or at least none of us could find one) to do this in vb. However, there is one to split a string on the spaces, so I just rebuild the string and added in spaces.... 

Private Function characterArray(ByVal my_string As String) As String()
  'create a temporary string to store a new string of the same characters with spaces
  Dim tempString As String = ""
  'cycle through the characters and rebuild my_string as a string with spaces 
  'and assign the result to tempString.  
  For Each c In my_string
     tempString &= c & " "
  Next
  'return return tempString as a character array.  
  Return tempString.Split()
End Function

Upvotes: 0

Charles Williams
Charles Williams

Reputation: 23520

You can just assign the string to a byte array (the reverse is also possible). The result is 2 numbers for each character, so Xmas converts to a byte array containing {88,0,109,0,97,0,115,0}
or you can use StrConv

Dim bytes() as Byte
bytes = StrConv("Xmas", vbFromUnicode)

which will give you {88,109,97,115} but in that case you cannot assign the byte array back to a string.
You can convert the numbers in the byte array back to characters using the Chr() function

Upvotes: 17

Alex K.
Alex K.

Reputation: 175826

Safest & simplest is to just loop;

Dim buff() As String
ReDim buff(Len(my_string) - 1)
For i = 1 To Len(my_string)
    buff(i - 1) = Mid$(my_string, i, 1)
Next

If your guaranteed to use ansi characters only you can;

Dim buff() As String
buff = Split(StrConv(my_string, vbUnicode), Chr$(0))
ReDim Preserve buff(UBound(buff) - 1)

Upvotes: 57

Related Questions