String Helper for VBA – 19 Functions for Text in MS Access

🧑‍💻 Marcus Dieterle 📅 6 November 2025 🔖 v1.0 ⏳ … 👀 0

Strings are everywhere – during import, reporting and text processing. Instead of constantly juggling substring, trim and replace, you get a toolbox of 19 VBA string functions here: fast, elegant and error-free, testable directly via a form interface.

If you work with VBA, you know the drill: strings are everywhere – during import, reporting, data preparation and text processing. And every time it’s substring here, trim there, replace over there. That ends now: a toolbox of 19 string functions, fast, elegant and error-free.

What makes them special?

Every function is directly testable via an integrated form interface. You see the result immediately, check your own inputs and combine functions as you like – maximum flexibility, less debugging.

Figure 1: The test form with all functions.

All 19 functions at a glance

Function	Description	Example
`StringFixLength`	Fixed length – too long is truncated, too short is padded.	`StringFixLength("ABC", 6, "_")` → `"ABC___"`
`StringCombine`	Joins strings with a freely selectable separator.	`StringCombine("FirstName", "LastName", " ")` → `"FirstName LastName"`
`StringRemoveTrailingChars`	Removes characters at the end of a text.	`StringRemoveTrailingChars("Test, ", ", ")` → `"Test"`
`StringRemoveChars`	Deletes specific characters throughout the string.	`StringRemoveChars("12-34-56", "-")` → `"123456"`
`StringRemoveWords`	Removes specified words from a text.	`StringRemoveWords("This is a test text", "test text")` → `"This is a"`
`StringExtractBetween`	Extracts text between two markers.	`StringExtractBetween("Hello [World]!", "[", "]")` → `"World"`
`StringCount`	Counts letters, numbers, special characters or words.	`StringCount("ABC 123", "letters")` → `3`
`StringCapitalizeWords`	Capitalizes the first letter of each word.	`StringCapitalizeWords("max mustermann")` → `"Max Mustermann"`
`StringCountSubstring`	Counts how often a substring occurs.	`StringCountSubstring("banana", "na")` → `2`
`StringIsNumeric`	Checks whether a string is a valid number.	`StringIsNumeric("-12.5")` → `True`
`StringContainsAny`	Searches for any of a list of terms.	`StringContainsAny("This is great", Array("great", "awesome"))` → `True`
`StringIsEmpty`	Detects empty, null or whitespace-only strings.	`StringIsEmpty(" ")` → `True`
`StringExtractEmails`	Finds all email addresses in a text.	`StringExtractEmails("Contact: test@mail.com or info@company.de")` → `Array("test@mail.com", "info@company.de")`
`StringClean`	Cleans up excessive spaces and control characters.	`StringClean(" Hello World ")` → `"Hello World"`
`StringRepeat`	Repeats a text a specified number of times.	`StringRepeat("-", 10)` → `"----------"`
`StringPadNumber`	Pads numbers with leading characters.	`StringPadNumber(42, 5, "0")` → `"00042"`
`StringWrap`	Wraps long text to a specified line length.	`StringWrap("This is a very long text", 10)`
`StringToInitials`	Generates initials from names or phrases.	`StringToInitials("Max Mustermann")` → `"MM"`
`StringMaskSensitive`	Masks sensitive parts of text.	`StringMaskSensitive("CreditCard1234", 4)` → `"********1234"`

Deployment & Integration

All functions are commented, validate their inputs and can be inserted directly into existing projects. For production you only need the module modHelper_String – everything else is just for testing and presentation. No setup, no add-in.

Conclusion

With these 19 Developer Helpers your string handling becomes faster, cleaner and much more efficient: less code, fewer errors, more productivity. You’ll find the detailed description directly in the code, well documented as usual.

Download

A VBA toolbox for MS Access with 19 string functions (StringFixLength, StringClean, StringExtractEmails, StringMaskSensitive and many more) – commented, validated and testable directly via a form.