Finding any sequence of 3 identical characters

[Nomey]

Dear all,

Is it possible (in Word XP 2002) to search for any sequence of three identical characters in a row, so 'aaa', 'bbb', 'ccc', etcetera?

Preferably without vba, but with wildcards, in the default Search and Replace window?

Best regards,
Shirley

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I think that you would have to do something like

Dim i as Long, j as Long
Dim myrange as Range
For i = 65 to 128
Set myrange = ActiveDocument.Range
j = InStr(myrange, Chr(i) & Chr(i) & Chr(i))
If j > 0 then
With myrange
.Start = .Start + j - 1
.End = .Start + 3
.Select
Exit For
End With
End If
Next i


--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Graham Mayor]

You can do it with wildcards eg search for

([a-zA-Z0-9]{1})\1\1

see http://www.gmayor.com/replace_using_wildcards.htm

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Klaus Linke]

You can do it with wildcards eg search for

([a-zA-Z0-9]{1})\1\1

see http://www.gmayor.com/replace_using_wildcards.htm

Find what: (?){3}
would work, too, if you're looking for arbitrary characters repeated 3
times.

Regards,
Klaus

 

[Nomey]

Ah! Great. I'm glad it can be done without a macro, because the work needs to be carried out by people who have never used a macro.

Many thanks, Doug, Graham and Klaus.

Shirley