The following code should do the trick. I don’t have Excel in front of me, so I haven’t tested it, but the concept is sound.
If this ends up being too slow, we can look at ways to improve the efficiency.
Sub SelectSomeRecords()
Dim testLine As String
Open inputFileName For Input As #1
Open outputFileName For Output As #2
While Not EOF(1)
Line Input #1, testLine
If RecordIsInteresting(testLine) Then
Print #2, testLine
End If
Wend
Close #1
Close #2
End Sub
Function RecordIsInteresting(recordLine As String) As Boolean
Dim lineItems(1 to 8) As String
GetRecordItems(lineItems(), recordLine)
''// do your custom checking here:
RecordIsInteresting = lineItems(8) = "LS1 7AA"
End Function
Sub GetRecordItems(items() As String, recordLine as String)
Dim finishString as Boolean
Dim itemString as String
Dim itemIndex as Integer
Dim charIndex as Long
Dim inQuote as Boolean
Dim testChar as String
inQuote = False
charIndex = 1
itemIndex = 1
itemString = ""
finishString = False
While charIndex <= Len(recordLine)
testChar = Mid$(recordLine, charIndex, 1)
finishString = False
If inQuote Then
If testChar = Chr$(34) Then
inQuote = False
finishString = True
charIndex = charIndex + 1 ''// ignore the next comma
Else
itemString = itemString + testChar
End If
Else
If testChar = Chr$(34) Then
inQuote = True
ElseIf testChar = "," Then
finishString = True
Else
itemString = itemString + testChar
End If
End If
If finishString Then
items(itemIndex) = itemString
itemString = ""
itemIndex = itemIndex + 1
End If
charIndex = charIndex + 1
Wend
End Sub