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cfraser's avatar
cfraser
Frequent Visitor
7 years ago
Solved

Find a string, add a space in the middle

Hey everyone,

 

My first time on the forum so please excuse me if I've missed a solution to this somewhere.

 

I am busy cleaning address data collected from e-commerce transactions. The address data is collected as free text and so is prone to typos. 

 

In particular, people often fail to add a space between the number of their house and the name of their road (e.g. 23Wiltshire Place).

 

I'm trying to find any string where a number is subsequently followed by any letter and add a space, but for all the functions I have worked with so far, I don't have the knowledge on how I could reasonably accomplish this. 

 

Can anyone point me in the right direction? 

 

 

Thanks,

 

Callum

  • cfraser 

     

    Try this Custom Column

    Please see attached file as well

     

    It works with your sample data :)

    =let mylist=Text.ToList([Data]),
    mycount=List.Count(mylist),
    num={"0".."9"},
    alpha={"A".."Z","a".."z"}
    in
    Text.Combine(List.Generate(()=>[a=0,b=mylist{a}],
    each [a]< mycount,each [a=[a]+1,b= if
    List.Contains(num,mylist{a})
    and
    List.Contains(alpha,mylist{a+1}) then mylist{a} & " " else mylist{a}],each [b] ))

  • Nolock's avatar
    Nolock
    7 years ago

    Hi cfraser,

    another solution (2 lines of code) which also works with your sample. It splits the column by the last transition from digit to char and then combine these 2 new columns again together.

     

    let
        Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("LYpLDgIhDECv0rB2kkFjjMsKVapMUSjqhHD/a0jU5fu0Zuy0n3azVZRLqFcWj5HhxBKQ34O4aGanoIwyqmNdTd80c7AeKa4CPvOTYDxhSeL/LWDW8krJQ074k+eICkcIVG6kAVyqWWFr50clkgL3nBYS9PSdwfT+AQ==", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [Data = _t]),
        #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Data", type text}}),
        SplitColumn = Table.SplitColumn(#"Changed Type", "Data", Splitter.SplitTextByCharacterTransition({"0".."9"}, {"A".."Z"}), 2),
        CombineColumn = Table.CombineColumns(SplitColumn, {"Data.1", "Data.2"}, Combiner.CombineTextByDelimiter(" ", QuoteStyle.None), "Data")in
        CombineColumn

     

5 Replies

  • v-piga-msft's avatar
    v-piga-msft
    Resident Rockstar

    Hi cfraser ,

    Do you want to achieve your desired output with dax or power query?

    With Dax, you could have a try with format function.

    With Power query, you could create a custom column in query editor.

    If you still need help, please share your data sample so that we could help further on it.

    Best  Regards,

    Cherry

    • cfraser's avatar
      cfraser
      Frequent Visitor

      v-piga-msft I was hoping to achieve it using Power Query, but I simply don't know what functions to use to achieve it. 

       

      I have some additional examples below of actual data.

       

      DataDesired output
      1-5-301TANGHUJINDALI BINHAIXINDISTRICT TIANJINCITY1-5-301 TANGHUJINDALI BINHAIXINDISTRICT TIANJINCITY
      71DAELYN DRIVE RICHMOND71 DAELYN DRIVE RICHMOND
      71HARTSWOOD ROAD71 HARTSWOOD ROAD
      FLAT 9 HESKETH COURT 210QUEENS PROMENADEFLAT 9 HESKETH COURT 210 QUEENS PROMENADE

       

      Thanks,

       

      Callum

      • Zubair_Muhammad's avatar
        Zubair_Muhammad
        Community Champion

        cfraser 

         

        Try this Custom Column

        Please see attached file as well

         

        It works with your sample data :)

        =let mylist=Text.ToList([Data]),
        mycount=List.Count(mylist),
        num={"0".."9"},
        alpha={"A".."Z","a".."z"}
        in
        Text.Combine(List.Generate(()=>[a=0,b=mylist{a}],
        each [a]< mycount,each [a=[a]+1,b= if
        List.Contains(num,mylist{a})
        and
        List.Contains(alpha,mylist{a+1}) then mylist{a} & " " else mylist{a}],each [b] ))

  • cfraser's avatar
    cfraser
    Frequent Visitor

    These are both amazing solutions. I'll have to spend a bit of time digesting exactly how they work, but thank you VERY much indeed! Zubair_Muhammad  and Nolock  you are the best!