Removing single characters

[iksotof]

Hi if I have a random name string with isolated characters like

"adam123 a factory", how can i recomve the solitary a in the middle, without moving the one at that start of adam or indeed in factory?

best and thanks Darren

[HansV]

In the Replace dialog (Ctrl+H), enter " a " (without the quotes) in the 'Find what' box, and "a " " " (again, without the quotes) in the 'Replace with' box. Then click Replace or Replace All.

[bknight]

Wouldn't find space a replaced by space work better?

[HansV]

That would also remove the a at the beginning of a word:

"It was an accident"

would become

"It was n ccident"

[HansV]

Also, it would leave 2 spaces in the middle when removing the a in iksotof's example.

[StuartR]

In the Replace dialog (Ctrl+H), enter " a " (without the quotes) in the 'Find what' box, and "a " (again, without the quotes) in the 'Replace with' box. Then click Replace or Replace All.

I suspect you meant
In the Replace dialog (Ctrl+H), enter " a " (without the quotes) in the 'Find what' box, and " " (again, without the quotes) in the 'Replace with' box.
Otherwise the a won't be removed, just the space before it!

[SpeakEasy]

For a slightly more generic solution I think I'd favour switching on Wild Card matching ("Use Wildcards"), and then searching for

"<?> " (without the quotes)

And leaving Replace empty

[DocAElstein]

..I suspect you meant

I thought that as well, but I was afraid I had missed something again. I do that sort of find replace often to get rid of words but not when they appear as part of another word.

[HansV]

Of course!

[rory]

Excel doesn't have wildcard matching though (other than in the VBE), unlike Word.

[SpeakEasy]

Fair point! Missed the fact that I'd dropped into an excel specific topic.

I'd still use ? instead of a for a more generic solution

[rory]

Depends on the need, though. If you want to remove " a " but not " I " for example, specific is better than generic. ;)

[SpeakEasy]

Which is why I labelled it as a generic solution,

[iksotof]

Thank you for the solutions. Sorry for the late acknowledgment, I don't get the opp to drop by much.