Is it possible to use regexprep to insert a '*' between a number following a letter?

I have a an excel file containing cells of letters and number. I want to add a * symbol every time a number comes directly after a letter.

Some examples of the individual cells are,

28Si+H3

13C+D3

23Na

C2+H4

13C2+H2

So I want search each one and if a number follows a letter to put * in between.

28Si+H3 would become 28Si+H*3

[Rik]

Why wouldn't it become 28*Si+H*3?

[Stephan]

@Rik Because number follows letter

[Image Analyst]

Because 28 is not letters A-Z. And, even though it's after 28, Si is not a number. If it were Si28, it would become Si*28, but it's not so you leave it alone.

Answer 1

[Rik]

Now I'm awake again: you can also do this in a oneliner:

str='C2+H4-28D';
m=regexprep(str,'([A-Za-z])(\d)','$1*$2');

[jonas]

That's much better, really useful +1

[stephen geddes]

Thanks! I knew it was regexprep I needed to use just not familiar with it.

[Rik]

@Stephen, you're welcome. I still struggle with regular expressions sometimes, but the best way to learn them is to just start. I still grab the doc for regexp whenever I'm writing a regexp, even simple ones.

PS if this solved your question, please consider marking it as accepted answer

@jonas, your post gave me something I could easily adapt. As someone once told me: a good programmer is lazy, i.e. borrow and tweak working code whenever you can ;)

[stephen geddes]

Haven't posted any questions until today. Didn't know I should do that! Thanks again.