I was doing a seminar recently and an auditor had a need to split an ACH file into 205 columns, with each column being one character wide.
Her current process: Use Data, Text to Columns, Fixed Width, and then click 204 times in the Data Preview Window of Step 2 of the Wizard.
One idea from Wayne Edmonson: In cell B2 enter: =MID($A2,COLUMNS($B2:B2),1) and copy right 205 columns and down to the bottom of the data.
Another solution is to use Power Query. Select the column. Home, Split Column, By Number of Characters. Type 1 as the number of characters. Power Query defaults to Repeatedly.
This ended up being dramatically faster than using the Text to Columns wizard.
Video here:
Her current process: Use Data, Text to Columns, Fixed Width, and then click 204 times in the Data Preview Window of Step 2 of the Wizard.
One idea from Wayne Edmonson: In cell B2 enter: =MID($A2,COLUMNS($B2:B2),1) and copy right 205 columns and down to the bottom of the data.
Another solution is to use Power Query. Select the column. Home, Split Column, By Number of Characters. Type 1 as the number of characters. Power Query defaults to Repeatedly.
This ended up being dramatically faster than using the Text to Columns wizard.
Video here:
