Redistribute a Delimited Column Of Data into Separate Rows (Keeping Other Data As Is)

[Aisha13]

*** NOTE - Revised code posted August 12, 2013 in response ***
*** to a problem Marcelo Branco pointed out in Message #19 ***

The following scenario seems to come up somewhat often at the various forums I participate in... take a table of data where one column contains delimited data and split that delimited data so that each item is on a row of its own, copying the associated data into the blank cells created by the split. Visually, we want to go from this table...

	A	B	C	D
1	Name	Client Number	Parts Ordered
2	Rick	1111111	P1, P2, P3
3	Sam	2222222	P2, P5
4	Joe	3333333	P3
5	Bill	4444444	P4, P6, P7, P8
6

to this one

	A	B	C	D
1	Name	Client Number	Parts Ordered
2	Rick	1111111	P1
3	Rick	1111111	P2
4	Rick	1111111	P3
5	Sam	2222222	P2
6	Sam	2222222	P5
7	Joe	3333333	P3
8	Bill	4444444	P4
9	Bill	4444444	P6
10	Bill	4444444	P7
11	Bill	4444444	P8
12

Below is a macro that will accomplish this task. Note though that I have generalize it somewhat. Usually in the requests the delimited data is in the last column as shown above, however, there is no need for this to be the case... this macro will allow any column to be the delimited column.

Sub RedistributeData()
  Dim X As Long, LastRow As Long, A As Range, Table As Range, Data() As String
  Const Delimiter As String = ", "
  Const DelimitedColumn As String = "C"
  Const TableColumns As String = "A:C"
  Const StartRow As Long = 2
  Application.ScreenUpdating = False
  LastRow = Columns(TableColumns).Find(What:="*", SearchOrder:=xlRows, _
            SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, LookIn:=xlFormulas).Row
  For X = LastRow To StartRow Step -1
    Data = Split(Cells(X, DelimitedColumn), Delimiter)
    If UBound(Data) > 0 Then
      Intersect(Rows(X + 1), Columns(TableColumns)).Resize(UBound(Data)).Insert xlShiftDown
    End If
    If Len(Cells(X, DelimitedColumn)) Then
      Cells(X, DelimitedColumn).Resize(UBound(Data) + 1) = WorksheetFunction.Transpose(Data)
    End If
  Next
  LastRow = Cells(Rows.Count, DelimitedColumn).End(xlUp).Row
  On Error Resume Next
  Set Table = Intersect(Columns(TableColumns), Rows(StartRow).Resize(LastRow - StartRow + 1))
  If Err.Number = 0 Then
    Table.SpecialCells(xlBlanks).FormulaR1C1 = "=R[-1]C"
    Columns(DelimitedColumn).SpecialCells(xlFormulas).Clear
    Table.Value = Table.Value
  End If
  On Error GoTo 0
  Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

There are four constants (the Const statements) that you need to match to your actual worksheet conditions in order to work. The first is named Delimiter and it can be one or more characters long. The second is named DelimitedColumn and specifies the column letter containing the delimited cells. The third is named TableColumns and it specifies the columns occupied by your data (which must always include the column with the delimited cells. The last one is named StartRow and it specifies the row containing the first piece of data (that is, it is the row number below the headers, if any).

Hi Rick,

I'm trying to do something similar. I have an excel with 45 columns. there are 5 or 6 columns with Commas that I want to split into a new row. Below you can find the code that I have so far:

Sub SplitData()
    Dim arrColC As Variant
    Dim arrColm As Variant
    Dim arrColw As Variant
    Dim arrColz As Variant
    Dim arrCole As Variant
    Dim arrColh As Variant
    Dim shDATA As Worksheet
    Dim r As Long, c As Long, i As Long, m As Long, x As Long, w As Long, j As Long, a As Long, z As Long, b As Long, e As Long, d As Long, n As Long, k As Long, y As Long, h As Long
    
    
    Set shDATA = Sheets("owssvr")
    Dim MyRange As Range
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
    For Each MyRange In ActiveSheet.UsedRange
    If 0 < InStr(MyRange, Chr(10)) Then
    MyRange = Replace(MyRange, Chr(10), ",")
    End If
    Next
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
    Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
    
    Application.DisplayAlerts = False
    On Error Resume Next
    Sheets("SPLIT SHEET").Delete
    On Error GoTo 0
    Application.DisplayAlerts = True
    Sheets.Add After:=shDATA
    ActiveSheet.Name = "SPLIT SHEET"
    
    i = 1
    j = 1
a = 1
b = 1
 e = 1
 n = 1
 y = 1
     For r = 1 To shDATA.Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row
  
         arrColC = Split(shDATA.Cells(r, 5), ",")
       arrColm = Split(shDATA.Cells(r, 13), ",")
        arrColw = Split(shDATA.Cells(r, 14), ",")
        arrColz = Split(shDATA.Cells(r, 15), ",")
     arrCole = Split(shDATA.Cells(r, 16), ",")
     arrColh = Split(shDATA.Cells(r, 17), ",")
     arrColn = Split(shDATA.Cells(r, 45), ",")
        For c = 0 To UBound(arrColC)
            Cells(i, 1) = shDATA.Cells(r, 1)
            Cells(i, 2) = shDATA.Cells(r, 2)
            Cells(i, 3) = shDATA.Cells(r, 3)
            Cells(i, 4) = Format(shDATA.Cells(r, 4), "d-mmm-yy")
            Cells(i, 5) = arrColC(c)
     
         i = i + 1
                   
             For m = 0 To UBound(arrColm)
            Cells(j, 6) = shDATA.Cells(r, 6)
            Cells(j, 7) = shDATA.Cells(r, 7)
                Cells(j, 8) = Format(shDATA.Cells(r, 8), "d-mmm-yy")
                Cells(j, 9) = Format(shDATA.Cells(r, 9), "d-mmm-yy")
                Cells(j, 10) = shDATA.Cells(r, 10)
                Cells(j, 11) = shDATA.Cells(r, 11)
              Cells(j, 12) = shDATA.Cells(r, 12)
                 Cells(j, 13) = arrColm(m)
                  
                
                j = j + 1
                     Next m
    
            For w = 0 To UBound(arrColw)
             Cells(a, 14) = arrColw(w)
   
               a = a + 1

            Next w
       
        For z = 0 To UBound(arrColz)
             Cells(b, 15) = arrColz(z)
   
    
                b = b + 1
     Next z
     For d = 0 To UBound(arrCole)
             Cells(e, 16) = arrCole(d)
            
                
                e = e + 1
        
                       Next d
                            
        For h = 0 To UBound(arrColh)
             Cells(y, 17) = arrColh(h)
          
                
                y = y + 1
   
                        
                       Next h
                   
        For k = 0 To UBound(arrColn)
         
                     Cells(n, 18) = shDATA.Cells(r, 18)
   Cells(n, 19) = shDATA.Cells(r, 19)
   Cells(n, 20) = shDATA.Cells(r, 20)
   Cells(n, 21) = shDATA.Cells(r, 21)
   Cells(n, 22) = shDATA.Cells(r, 22)
    Cells(n, 23) = shDATA.Cells(r, 23)
     Cells(n, 24) = shDATA.Cells(r, 24)
      Cells(n, 25) = shDATA.Cells(r, 25)
       Cells(n, 26) = shDATA.Cells(r, 26)
        Cells(n, 27) = shDATA.Cells(r, 27)
         Cells(n, 28) = shDATA.Cells(r, 28)
          Cells(n, 29) = shDATA.Cells(r, 29)
           Cells(n, 30) = shDATA.Cells(r, 30)
            Cells(n, 31) = shDATA.Cells(r, 31)
             Cells(n, 32) = shDATA.Cells(r, 32)
              Cells(n, 33) = shDATA.Cells(r, 33)
               Cells(n, 34) = shDATA.Cells(r, 34)
                Cells(n, 35) = shDATA.Cells(r, 35)
                 Cells(n, 36) = shDATA.Cells(r, 36)
                  Cells(n, 37) = shDATA.Cells(r, 37)
                   Cells(n, 38) = shDATA.Cells(r, 38)
                    Cells(n, 39) = shDATA.Cells(r, 39)
                     Cells(n, 40) = shDATA.Cells(r, 40)
                      Cells(n, 41) = shDATA.Cells(r, 41)
                       Cells(n, 42) = shDATA.Cells(r, 42)
                          Cells(n, 44) = Format(shDATA.Cells(r, 44), "d-mmm-yy")
   
                         Cells(n, 45) = shDATA.Cells(r, 45)
  
            n = n + 1
            
                Next k
              
                 Next c
                              Next r
      
    
End Sub

the problem is that there are some columns missing when I try to run the macro:
1. Last row have missing cells. It get split correctly because of column 13, however it got empty cells from column 1 until 5
2. column 18 is not copied correctly
3. the remaining columns after column 17 is not correct

I think its with the loop somehow, can you please help me out? also there is one column which got comma that I want to exclude and not to include in the split because in this case this column need to be splited after the second column for example:

1. A, B , C, D

need to be

A, B
C, D

thanks a lot for your help

[Wajiha]

Hi Rick,

Great piece of code

i have a macro data file that contains empty cells too. when i run this code it fills all the empty cells to the values to the upper cell whether needed or not.i want to copy only those rows which have delimited values in the (delimited) column.
Can you help me fix the code so that i only creates new rows for the splited column.

A B C
a b,c,d l
k u
v,k i

The results should be:
A B C
a b l
a c l
a d l
k u
v i
k k
Thanks
Wajiha

[Wajiha]

A B C
a b,c,d l
k u
v,k i
desired Output

A B C
a b l
a c l
a d l
k u
v i
k i
Here's the clearer view of my problem

Thanks

[tunderwat]

Thanks Rick! I was running into trouble with something similar and found your macro. All I did was change Const Delimiter As String = ", " to Const Delimiter As String = "|" and the macro helped split up my data! Thank you!

[rpg1966]

I felt that I had to tell you that this is incredibly useful, and I thank you very much.

But to avoid falling foul of the rule "4. DO NOT post one liners thanking members or post remarks like "Wow, this is helpful", or "This is great" etc.", my situation has one additional requirement that you might be willing to look at.

In the table in post #1, the delimited "Parts Ordered" column has different data in each cell. Would it be possible to get the macro to skip a row entirely, if the "Parts Ordered" delimited data in row x is the same as in row (x-1)?