VBA Script to Dynamically Change Subject Line on Incoming Emails for Outlook 2013

Question

I have looked at this Outlook script example, which is similar and a great start for me: Outlook Script to edit subject

However, I am in need to change incoming message subject lines on arrival in a more difficult method which requires more complex string manipulation.

This is actually my base code I've used, which worked up to date:

Sub ConvertToPlain(MyMail As MailItem)
    Dim strID As String
    Dim objMail As Outlook.MailItem

    strID = MyMail.EntryID
    Set objMail = Application.Session.GetItemFromID(strID)
    objMail.Subject = Left(objMail.Subject, 18)
    objMail.Save

    Set objMail = Nothing
End Sub

Now, I the original subjects are always in the following format (anything in brackets is a variable):

Ticket [#] - [SOMETHING] - [SOMETHING] - [TITLE]

I wish to remove the "[SOMETHING] - [SOMETHING] -" which is dynamically changing as you can see, and keep only:

Ticket [#] - [TITLE]

In this way, I can once again sort/filter with ease in outlook. How can this be accomplished in VBA? Thank you.

Answer 1

Your best bet is either to REGEX out the parts you want, or if you know the format is ALWAYS in this format, you could split the string on the - and take the first and last ones.

Along the lines of:

Sub ConvertToPlain(MyMail As MailItem)
    Dim strID As String
    Dim objMail As Outlook.MailItem
    Dim splitSubject() as String
    Dim concatSubject as String

    strID = MyMail.EntryID
    Set objMail = Application.Session.GetItemFromID(strID)
    splitSubject = Split(objMail.Subject, "-")
    concatSubject = splitSubject(LBound(splitSubject)) & " - " & splitSubject(UBound(splitSubject))
    objMail.Subject = concatSubject
    objMail.Save

    Set objMail = Nothing
End Sub

That code is completely untested but hopefully puts you on track somewhat.