Extract Special Characters - 2 Methods: LAMBDA Function with Recursion or VBA User Defined Function

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The main aim of this video is to introduce the idea of recursion within the new LAMBDA function in Excel 365. Recursion is the ability to loop - for a function to refer to itself.

Alan Turing hypothesized that there would one day be a machine that could solve any problem. Excel is now "Turing complete" as it can solve any computational problem (according to Microsoft) with LAMBDA's recursive capabilities.

I compare the LAMBDA function with a VBA user-defined function which is capable of exactly the same thing. I get both functions to remove special and numeric characters from my data.

Here’s a copy of the UDF code featured in the video.

Function CLEANDATAVBA(ddata As String, uchars As String)

Do Until uchars = ""

ddata = Replace(ddata, Left(uchars, 1), "")
uchars = Right(uchars, Len(uchars) - 1)

Loop

CLEANDATAVBA = ddata

End Function

[angelamorrow]

I have been trying and trying this, but the Outlook app is not working with this method. I know that there is a new outlook, could that be the problem? do you know a fix for it? I keep getting error code 429.

[nonsequitor]

It would be helpful to people stuck on older versions of Excel if Microsoft released the VBA source code for User Defined Function versions of LAMBDA, LET, XMATCH, etc., so that they can just copy and paste them to allow compatibility with worksheets developed by users of newer versions of Excel. At least until they or their company can upgrade their Excel to versions that support the "native" versions of those newer functions.

[tomasz]

People think that Turing broke the Enigma machine and gave the Allies its most crucial weapon against the Nazis. This is totally and unequivocally false, it was actually broken by Marian Rejewski at the Polish Biuro Szyfrów all the way back in 1932.