Setting Charater Limits on Existing Data

[John Rimstad]

Does anyone know how to set charater limits (i.e. only
allow 18 charaters or less in a cell) for cells that are
already populated with text?

Or could I format the cells and then import the data and
it would automatically form it?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

John

 

[Biff]

Hi John,

To do exactly what you want would require programming with
VBA. Have you tried the .Programming NG ?

I don't think there is a way to create a custom format to
meet that criteria, <=18

I can suggest an alternative that requires helper cells.
In a helper cell you could use a formula like this:

=IF(LEN(A1)>18,LEFT(A1,18),A1)

This will return a maximum of 18 chars starting from the
left. If you want to start from the other end just replace
LEFT with RIGHT.

Biff