twilliamson2
MIS
I am using Excel 2003. Does anyone have any tips on how to create a list of acronyms automatically in Excel 2003. For example, I have a list of departments and would like to create a 10 character acronym for each department.
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Creating Acronyms in Excel
- Thread starter twilliamson2
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AnotherHiggins
Technical User
How do you want to come up with the 10 characters?
There must be some logic behind what you're trying to do in order to make a formula do it.
If you can state in plain English how you want to accomplish this, we can probably help you come up with a way to do it, but you need to give us [!]A LOT[/!] more information first.
[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue][/tt]
[tab][red]The plural of anecdote is not data[/red]
Help us help you. Please read FAQ 181-2886 before posting.
There must be some logic behind what you're trying to do in order to make a formula do it.
If you can state in plain English how you want to accomplish this, we can probably help you come up with a way to do it, but you need to give us [!]A LOT[/!] more information first.
[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue][/tt]
[tab][red]The plural of anecdote is not data[/red]
Help us help you. Please read FAQ 181-2886 before posting.
- Thread starter
- #3
twilliamson2
MIS
Hi John,
The problem is that the depends are not the same in length. For example:
Department of Mathematics
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Department of Music
I would like to create acronyms for each of the departments listed above, but the length must be 10 characters. I do not know where to start. Please help!
The problem is that the depends are not the same in length. For example:
Department of Mathematics
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Department of Music
I would like to create acronyms for each of the departments listed above, but the length must be 10 characters. I do not know where to start. Please help!
SkipVought
Programmer
Hi,
"but the length must be 10 characters"
These are ALL 10 characters...
[tt]
" THIS"
" THIS "
"THIS "
"T H I S "
"TH IS"
[/tt]
Could you please be more specific?
Skip,
[sub]
![[glasses]](/data/assets/smilies/glasses.gif "[glasses] [glasses]")
I'll be dressed to the nines this week, as I go to have my prostatectomy...Because, if I'm gonna BE impotent, I want to LOOK impotent!
![[tongue]](/data/assets/smilies/tongue.gif "[tongue] [tongue]")
[/sub]- Thread starter
- #5
twilliamson2
MIS
Actually, it is required that I have up to 10 characters in each ACRONYM.
For example:
Department of Mathematics - ACRONYM: MATHEMATIC
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science - ACRONYM: MATCOMPSCI
Department of Music
ACRONYM: MUSIC
For example:
Department of Mathematics - ACRONYM: MATHEMATIC
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science - ACRONYM: MATCOMPSCI
Department of Music
ACRONYM: MUSIC
SkipVought
Programmer
"MUSIC" == 5
not
"MUSICMUSIC" == 10
or
"MMUUSSIICC"
???
Skip,
[sub]
I'll be dressed to the nines this week, as I go to have my prostatectomy...Because, if I'm gonna BE impotent, I want to LOOK impotent!
[/sub]What are the RULES?
Department of Mathematics - ACRONYM: MATHEMATIC
The "rule" appears to be "First 10 characters of last word".
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science - ACRONYM: MATCOMPSCI
The "rule" appears to be "First three letters of any word that is not 'department', 'or' or 'and'".
Department of Music
ACRONYM: MUSIC
The "rule" appears to be "The last word".
It is a relatively trivial matter to develop an excel formula to apply A SINGLE RULE.
More complicated to develop an excel formula that applies a context sensitive rule.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to do anything until you decide what it is that you want to do, and are able to communicate that requirement to someone.
Department of Mathematics - ACRONYM: MATHEMATIC
The "rule" appears to be "First 10 characters of last word".
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science - ACRONYM: MATCOMPSCI
The "rule" appears to be "First three letters of any word that is not 'department', 'or' or 'and'".
Department of Music
ACRONYM: MUSIC
The "rule" appears to be "The last word".
It is a relatively trivial matter to develop an excel formula to apply A SINGLE RULE.
More complicated to develop an excel formula that applies a context sensitive rule.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to do anything until you decide what it is that you want to do, and are able to communicate that requirement to someone.
Looks like the rules could be:
1.Ignore "Department" and any word not starting in upper case*
2.Abbreviate some common words (Mathematics to Maths)*
3.Count the number of words remaining = A
4.Calculate integer value of 10/A= B
5.Take first B letters from each word except the last
6.Take 10-B(A-1) letters from the last word
7.Check that the result does not already exist in your list (acronyms must be unique). If not unique then....
*Do not do steps 1 or 2 if result would leave total non-blank characters<10
Of course you might want to be able to cope with situations such as a 'word' of less than B letters.
How failsafe does this need to be - is manual intervention an option for results that are less than 10 characters or not unique?
Rules may not give as intuitive result as you or the department concerned could devise manually - context may be important.
Is this a one-off task? How many Acronyms do you need to generate. Could well be that optimum results would be from manual generation plus a way of checking that a manually created acronym is unique and of the correct length.
Gavin
1.Ignore "Department" and any word not starting in upper case*
2.Abbreviate some common words (Mathematics to Maths)*
3.Count the number of words remaining = A
4.Calculate integer value of 10/A= B
5.Take first B letters from each word except the last
6.Take 10-B(A-1) letters from the last word
7.Check that the result does not already exist in your list (acronyms must be unique). If not unique then....
*Do not do steps 1 or 2 if result would leave total non-blank characters<10
Of course you might want to be able to cope with situations such as a 'word' of less than B letters.
How failsafe does this need to be - is manual intervention an option for results that are less than 10 characters or not unique?
Rules may not give as intuitive result as you or the department concerned could devise manually - context may be important.
Is this a one-off task? How many Acronyms do you need to generate. Could well be that optimum results would be from manual generation plus a way of checking that a manually created acronym is unique and of the correct length.
Gavin
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