Geoff, thanks for this, I'm nearly there now... What does 'right' do, because i now have a similar problem with column B. Col B has data like 'MCCA/D Enc 7 EDC 1 (Teletext)' and I'm only interested in the 'Enc7 EDC1' bit, where Enc can be 7 or 8 and EDC can be 1, 2 or 3.
Much obliged for your help