yes, unfortunately the cell  contents could contain any mixture
of text  and numbers  (and other characters), but it's only when a 'string' of
9 numbers is recognised that I want the macro  to separate it from the rest.
And "-" will be the only non-numeric character contained within the number I
need recognised (when it is used), always at the same two positions
0-000000-0.

Thanks for the sample code - and thanks to everyone else for the code
samples & suggestions. I'm about to head off to work (early morning here in
Australia) and will give some of the ideas a try. Will let you know how I
go!