Parse cell formula to another cell as string

[carbarym]

I'm using the default Microsoft Rack-mounted equipment stencil and I have a single rack and cable tray spacer connected to it.

The 1-D Endpoints (Begin X/Y End X/Y) refer to the connections of the rack via a formula similar to

"PAR(PNT(Rack!Connections.Xi, Rack!Connections.Yi))" where i denotes the connection on the rack.

I simply want to parse the formula of the BeginX/Y cells as a string into another cell to manipulate the string. Basically I want to do

RIGHT(LEFT(PAR(PNT(Rack!Connections.Xi, Rack!Connections.Yi),#),#) and extract just the Xi value so I can perform the math required to determine the U-Position of the equipment on the rack (Xi/2-1 should do it, IIRC)

Is there any way to parse this formula as a string such as this without VBA?

[aledlund]

David Parker has some code in his book that demonstrates how to get the RU from the generic rack shape.

http://www.amazon.com/Visualizing-Information-Microsoft%C2%AE-Office-Visio%C2%AE/dp/007148261X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299783942&sr=1-1

chapter 4

hth,
al