Quote Originally Posted by Rick Rothstein View Post
Clarification.... are those values all in one cell or is each line in a cell by itself? If individual cells, could the "indicator" be an empty cell instead of a series of dashes (that would make coding easier)? Do you have a preferred delimiter for the resulting concatenated text?
Rick,

Each line is a separate cell. There is actually a blank line above each string of dashes that could be used as the indicator (see below for a real data stream). Preferred delimiter can be semi-colon, but not comma or colon, as these occur in the raw data stream. As you can see, some of what we have to deal with is a broken-up sentence which we will ultimately filter out. The important data is the somewhat cryptic information in the data stream. Our dataset has over 8000 entries that take up well over 250000 lines in Excel... trying to separate the wheat from the chaff is not so easy...

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STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS COLONY COUNT >100000 CFU/M
DD SS : CC(SS),FM(SS),GAT(SS),GM(SS)
OX(SS),SXT(SS),TE(SS),VA(SS)
R : PE+(R)
HIDE : E(R),RIFA(SS)
#NAME?
susceptible strains are RESISTANT
to Beta-lactamase-labile
penicillins, but SUSCEPTIBLE to
Beta-lactamase-stable penicillins
Beta-lactamase inhibitor
combinations, relevant Cephems,
and Carbapenems.

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STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS (MODERATE TO NUMEROUS)
MIC1 SS : AMC(<=4/2),CDM(<=0.5),E(<=0.5)
OX(<=0.25),SXT(<=0.5/9.5),TE(<=4)
HIDE : CFXS(<=4-SS)

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STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS AEROBIC AND ANAEROBIC
BOTTLE SET
DD SS : CC(SS),E(SS),GAT(SS),GM(SS)
OX+(SS),RIFA+(SS),SXT(SS),TE(SS)
VA(SS)
R : PE(R)
#NAME?
susceptible strains are RESISTANT
to Beta-lactamase-labile
penicillins, but SUSCEPTIBLE to
Beta-lactamase-stable penicillins
Beta-lactamase inhibitor
combinations, relevant Cephems,
and Carbapenems.
#NAME?
for chemotherapy.
MIC1 Unk : SYNCI(<=0.25)
SS : CC(<=0.25),CIP+(<=0.25),E(<=0.5)
GAT(<=0.5),GM(<=1),LVX(<=0.5)
OX+(0.5),RIFA+(<=1),SXT(<=2/38)
TE(<=1),VA(<=2)
R : PE(>8)
#NAME?
develop resistance during
prolonged therapy with quinolones
Isolates that are usually
susceptible may become resistant
within 3 to 4 days after
initiation of therapy.
#NAME?
susceptible strains are RESISTANT
to Beta-lactamase-labile
penicillins, but SUSCEPTIBLE to
Beta-lactamase-stable penicillins
Beta-lactamase inhibitor
combinations, relevant Cephems,
and Carbapenems.
#NAME?
for chemotherapy.