How to Find a String in VBA: Master the Technique in 3 Minutes (Excel)

Written by Kasper Langmann

Mastering Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) can significantly enhance your productivity in Excel. One of the most common tasks you’ll encounter is finding a specific string in your data. This article will guide you through the process, ensuring you can find any string in VBA in just three minutes.

Understanding Strings in VBA

A string in VBA is a sequence of characters. It can be anything from a single character to a whole sentence or even a paragraph. Strings are enclosed in double quotes in VBA, such as “Hello, World!”.

When working with Excel, you often need to find specific strings in your data. For example, you might need to find all cells that contain the word “sales” or “profit”. This is where the ability to find a string in VBA becomes crucial.

Methods to Find a String in VBA

There are several methods to find a string in VBA. The most common ones are using the InStr function, the Range.Find method, and the Match function. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the best one to use depends on your specific needs.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these methods.

The InStr Function

The InStr function is a built-in function in VBA that returns the position of the first occurrence of a substring in a string. If the substring is not found, it returns 0.

The syntax of the InStr function is as follows:

InStr([start], string1, string2, [compare])

Where “start” is an optional parameter that specifies the start position for the search. “String1” is the string to search in, “string2” is the substring to search for, and “compare” is an optional parameter that specifies the type of comparison to perform.

The Range.Find Method

The Range.Find method is a method of the Range object in Excel VBA. It returns a Range object that represents the first cell where the specified value is found.

The syntax of the Range.Find method is as follows:

Range.Find(What, After, LookIn, LookAt, SearchOrder, SearchDirection, MatchCase, MatchByte, SearchFormat)

Where “What” is the value to search for, “After” is the cell after which the search should begin, and the rest of the parameters specify various search options.

The Match Function

The Match function is a worksheet function that you can use in VBA. It returns the relative position of an item in an array or range of cells.

The syntax of the Match function is as follows:

Match(lookup_value, lookup_array, [match_type])

Where “lookup_value” is the value to search for, “lookup_array” is the range of cells to search, and “match_type” is an optional parameter that specifies how to perform the match.

Practical Examples

Now that we’ve covered the theory, let’s look at some practical examples of how to find a string in VBA.

Finding a String Using the InStr Function

Suppose you have a string “Hello, World!” and you want to find the position of the word “World”. You can do this using the InStr function as follows:

Dim position As Integer
position = InStr(1, "Hello, World!", "World", vbTextCompare)
MsgBox position

This will display a message box with the number 8, which is the position of the word “World” in the string.

Finding a String Using the Range.Find Method

Suppose you have a range of cells A1:A10 and you want to find the cell that contains the word “sales”. You can do this using the Range.Find method as follows:

Dim rng As Range
Set rng = Range("A1:A10").Find("sales", LookIn:=xlValues)
If Not rng Is Nothing Then
    MsgBox rng.Address
Else
    MsgBox "Not found"
End If

This will display a message box with the address of the first cell that contains the word “sales”. If the word is not found, it will display “Not found”.

Finding a String Using the Match Function

Suppose you have a range of cells A1:A10 and you want to find the position of the cell that contains the word “profit”. You can do this using the Match function as follows:

Dim position As Variant
position = Application.Match("profit", Range("A1:A10"), 0)
If Not IsError(position) Then
    MsgBox position
Else
    MsgBox "Not found"
End If

This will display a message box with the position of the cell that contains the word “profit”. If the word is not found, it will display “Not found”.

Conclusion

Finding a string in VBA is a common task when working with Excel. By mastering the InStr function, the Range.Find method, and the Match function, you can easily find any string in your data. Remember to practice these techniques regularly to become proficient at them.

With this knowledge, you can now find a string in VBA in just three minutes. Happy coding!