Bulk editing cells in Microsoft Excel

Question

I need to edit a large number of cells in Microsoft Excel and I have no idea what the best way to accomplish what I want is.

Basically, I have a list of thousands of ids like this:

503kekd23k0dLY4_
ytp-4r30=-340rR_
HdgfkER4ww=_4--3
=4tR_Ee4we403Prr

I need to be able to add a prefix of "UC_" to each of these cells so the cells look like:

UC_503kekd23k0dLY4_
UC_ytp-4r30=-340rR_
UC_HdgfkER4ww=_4--3
UC_=4tR_Ee4we403Prr

I need to run a Macro of some form in order to accomplish this most likely, but I'm not sure how to do this. If you can help, let me know.

Solution 1

In Excel 2013 and above, you can use Flash Fill.

Manually enter the first value. Select that cell and click Flash Fill on the Data ribbon.

Before

After

Solution 2

If your id is in cell A1, you could use this formula in cell B1

="UC_"&A1

Then drag that formula down.

The "&" symbol basically acts like a plus sign for text. You put the UC_ in double quotes to denote it's a string, then just "add" it to the id.

Solution 3

You can do this manually with a "helper" column or select the cells and run this:

Sub AddPrefix()
    Dim r As Range
    For Each r In Selection
        r.Value = "UC_" & r.Value
    Next r
End Sub