KTHCHARINSTANCE

=KTHCHARINSTANCE(myStr, myChar, k)
myStr
any text string
myChar
character to search for
k
the ordinal occurrence of interest (i.e. KTHCHARINSTANCE("test","t",2) = 4 for the second "t")
KTHCHARINSTANCE finds the nth occurrence of a character.
T

tboulden

Board Regular
Joined
Jan 14, 2021
Messages
73
Office Version
  1. 365
Platform
  1. Windows
KTHCHARINSTANCE is just a LAMBDA-packaged version of the formula here: Finding the Nth Occurrence of a Character (Microsoft Excel)

This is a helper function for a more substantial LAMBDA I'd like to post, but I want to get used to how post creation editing works, so I'll do a couple small ones first.

Takes advantage of SUBSTITUTE's 4th parameter instance_num and a unique character CHAR(1) to find the position of instance_num in the string. The IFERROR wrap could probably be better, but was a quick stopgap for the logic of my later formula.

Excel Formula: 
=LAMBDA(
    myStr,
    myChar,
    k,
    IFERROR(
        FIND(
            CHAR(1),
            SUBSTITUTE(myStr,myChar,CHAR(1),k)
        ),
        LEN(myStr)+1
    )
)
LAMBDA_UnpackLet.xlsx
ABCD
1myStrmyCharkKTHCHARINSTANCE
2This is a test.s14
3This is a test.s27
4This is a test.t111
5This is a test.t316
Sheet1
Cell Formulas
RangeFormula
D2:D5D2=KTHCHARINSTANCE(A2,B2,C2)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Upvote 0
I have two questions about the function.
  1. Although it is not a big deal, perhaps NTHCHARINSTANCE could be used as the function name?
  2. Shouldn't the function return NA() if an error such as char not found, invalid parameter, etc? I do understand this function will be used in another function, however, I believe it should be handled in the other function instead. The function should better provide a useful result including its error handling.
Also, the myChar argument is defined as the character to search for. However, the function also allows searching for a word in the string, which is great.
 
All good points, I've re-worked the formula with these things in mind, and also to consolidate the AllCharPositions that utilized this LAMBDA. Please see below; I propose something like the following:
  • STARTPOS(txt,str,n) =>
    • STARTPOS("This is This","is",1) = 2
    • STARTPOS("This is This","is",4) = #N/A
    • If we treat param n as optional: STARTPOS("This is This","is",) = array(3,6,11)
    • If we treat param n as required: STARTPOS("This is This","is","ALL") = array(3,6,11)
Optional n param version:
Excel Formula: 
=LAMBDA(
    txt,
    str,
    n,
    LET(
        k,
        IF(
            ISBLANK(n),
            SEQUENCE(
                LEN(SUBSTITUTE(txt,str,CHAR(1)))
                -
                LEN(SUBSTITUTE(txt,str,""))
            ),
            n
        ),
        IFERROR(
            FIND(
                CHAR(1),
                SUBSTITUTE(txt,str,CHAR(1),k)
            ),
            NA()
        )
    )
)

Required n param version:
Excel Formula: 
=LAMBDA(
    txt,
    str,
    n,
    LET(
        k,
        IF(
            n = "ALL",
            SEQUENCE(
                LEN(SUBSTITUTE(txt,str,CHAR(1)))
                -
                LEN(SUBSTITUTE(txt,str,""))
            ),
            n
        ),
        IFERROR(
            FIND(
                CHAR(1),
                SUBSTITUTE(txt,str,CHAR(1),k)
            ),
            NA()
        )
    )
)
 
Last edited:
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