Vba excel поиск строки с текстом

InStr Function in Excel VBA

The VBA InStr function helps find the position of a given substring within a string. It returns the first occurrence of the substring in the form of an integer (output). A string is a series of characters or text supplied to the function in double quotation marks.

For example, the InStr can extract a substring from a sentence, apply the desired font to a particular string, find the position of a character within the string, and so on.

The VBA InStr function in excel begins searching from left to right.

You are free to use this image on your website, templates, etc, Please provide us with an attribution linkArticle Link to be Hyperlinked
For eg:
Source: VBA InStr (wallstreetmojo.com)

The Syntax of the VBA InStr Function

The syntax of the function is shown in the following image:

The function accepts the following arguments:

• Start: This is the position from which the function begins to search. For example, if “start” is set at 3 and the character “a” is to be found in the word “Bangalore,” the output is 5.
• String 1: This is the actual string within which the substring is to be found. For example, if the character “a” is to be found in the word “Bangalore,” “string 1” is “Bangalore.”
• String 2: This is the substring to be found. For example, if the character “a” is to be found in the word “Bangalore,”“string 2” is “a.”
• Compare: This is the type of comparison to be performed. The types of comparison methods are shown in the following image.

The three comparison methods are explained as follows:

1. vbBinaryCompare: This is a binary comparison and can be entered as zero (0). It is a case-sensitive search of the substring (string 2) in the actual string (string 1).

For example, if 0 is specified in the argument and:

a. The character “a” is to be found in the word “Bangalore,” the output is 2.

b. The character “A” is to be found in the word “Bangalore,” the output is 0. This is because the supplied string is in uppercase which is not found in “string 1.”

2. vbTextCompare: This is a textual comparison and can be entered as one (1). It is a case-insensitive search of the “string 2” in the “string 1.”

For example, if 1 is specified in the argument and:

a. The character “a” is to be found in the word “Bangalore,” the output is 2.

b. The character “A” is to be found in the word “Bangalore,” the output is 2. This is because this comparison method ignores the casing of the substring.

3. vbDatabaseCompare: This can be entered as two (2). It compares based on the information of the Microsoft Access database.

The “string 1” and “string 2” are required arguments, while “start” and “compare” are optional.

Note 1: If the “start” parameter is omitted, the default is 1, implying that the search begins from the first position.

Note 2: If the “compare” parameter is omitted, the default method is “vbBinaryCompare.”

VBA InStr Examples

You can download this VBA Instr Function Excel Template here – VBA Instr Function Excel Template

Example #1–“Start” Argument is Omitted

We have to find the position of character “a” in the word “Bangalore.”

Step 1: Enter the following code.

Sub Instr_Example1()

Dim i As Variant

i = InStr("Bangalore", "a")

MsgBox i

End Sub

Step 2: Press F5 or run the VBA codeVBA code refers to a set of instructions written by the user in the Visual Basic Applications programming language on a Visual Basic Editor (VBE) to perform a specific task.read more manually, as shown in the following image.

Step 3: The output is 2, as shown in the following image. Hence, the character “a” is at the second position in the word “Bangalore.”

Example #2–“Start” Argument is Specified

We have to find the position of character “a” in the word “Bangalore.” The search should begin from the third position.

Step 1: Enter the following code.

Sub Instr_Example2()

Dim i As Variant

i = InStr(3, "Bangalore", "a")

MsgBox i

End Sub

Step 2: Press F5 or run the VBA code manually, as shown in the following image. 

Step 3: The output is 5, as shown in the following image. Since the search begins from the third letter (n), the VBA InStr function in excel ignores the first occurrence (second position) of the character “a.”

Hence, in this case, the character “a” is at the fifth position in the word “Bangalore.”

Example #3–Case-sensitive Search

We have to find the character “A” in the word “Bangalore.”

Let us supply the compare argument “vbBinaryCompare” to the VBA InStr function.

Step 1: Enter the following code.

Sub Instr_Example3()

Dim i As Variant

i = InStr(1, "Bangalore", "A", vbBinaryCompare)

MsgBox i

End Sub

Step 2: Press F5 or run the VBA code manually, as shown in the following image. 

Step 3: The output is 0, as shown in the following image. Since the argument “vbBinaryCompare” is supplied, the VBA InStr function in excel searches for the uppercase letter “A.”

Hence, the function returns 0 because it could not find the uppercase letter “A” in the word “Bangalore.”

Example #4–Case-insensitive Search

We have to find the character “A” in the word “Bangalore” using the case-insensitive approach.

Let us supply the compare argument “vbTextCompare” to the VBA InStr function.

Step 1: Enter the following code.

Sub Instr_Example4()

Dim i As Variant

i = InStr(1, "Bangalore", "A", vbTextCompare)

MsgBox i

End Sub

Step 2: Press F5 or run the VBA code manually, as shown in the following image.

Step 3: The output is 2, as shown in the following image. Since the argument “vbTextCompare” is supplied, the InStr function ignores the casing of the substring “A.”

Hence, the function returns 2 because the letter “A” or “a” is present at the second position in the word “Bangalore.”

Example #5–Advanced Level

Let us consider an example of the advanced level of VBA InStr function in excel.

The succeeding image shows five worksheets in Excel with the names, “Data,” “Summary 1,” “Summary 2,” “Summary 3,” and “Summary 4.”

We want to hide all worksheets except for the sheet “Data.”

Step 1: Enter the following code to hide all those sheets which contain the word “Summary” in their name.

Sub To_Hide_Specific_Sheet()

Dim Ws As Worksheet

For Each Ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets

If InStr(Ws.Name, "Summary") > 0 Then
Ws.Visible = xlSheetVeryHidden
End If

Next Ws
'InStr function looks for word or phrase in the sheet name
'If it finds then it will be hidden
End Sub

Step 2: Press F5 or run the VBA code manually, as shown in the following image. In the output, only the sheet “Data” is visible. The remaining four sheets are hidden.

Likewise, we can unhide those sheetsThere are different methods to Unhide Sheets in Excel as per the need to unhide all, all except one, multiple, or a particular worksheet. You can use Right Click, Excel Shortcut Key, or write a VBA code in Excel. read more which contain the word “Summary” in their name.

Step 1: Enter the following code to unhide all the sheets.

Sub To_UnHide_Specific_Sheet()

Dim Ws As Worksheet

For Each Ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets

If InStr(Ws.Name, "Summary") > 0 Then
Ws.Visible = xlSheetVisible
End If

Next Ws
'InStr function looks for word or phrase in the sheet name
'If it finds then it will be hidden
End Sub

Step 2: Press F5 or run the VBA code manually, as shown in the following image. In the output, all the five sheets are unhidden.

Properties of VBA InStr Function

The properties of the function are listed as follows:

• It is a case-sensitive function. To eliminate this issue, supply the “compare” argument “vbTextCompare.”
• It is a VBA functionVBA functions serve the primary purpose to carry out specific calculations and to return a value. Therefore, in VBA, we use syntax to specify the parameters and data type while defining the function. Such functions are called user-defined functions.read more and cannot be used like other in-built formulas of Excel.
• It returns zero if it cannot find “string 2” in “string 1.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to VBA InStr Function in Excel. Here we learn how to use the InStr function along with step by step examples and a downloadable excel template. Below you can find some useful Excel VBA articles-

• VBA FileCopy Function
• Excel VBA FileDialog
• Excel VBA String Functions
• Excel VBA SubString
• VBA Name Worksheet

VBA InStr Function

In VBA we have a function called InStr Function which is used to return the position of the first occurrence of a substring in a string. Which means, for example, we have a name called “Jhon” and we have to find the occurrence of the position of H alphabet in the string. This is what the function is used for.

Formula for InStr Function in Excel VBA

Excel VBA InStr function has the following syntax:

In the syntax Start and compare are optional while string and substring values are required. A string is a string where we want to find our substring and substring is the value which is required to be found in the string. Suppose if we had to use the above syntax on our example of Jhon above the VBA code would be as below,

Instr(“Jhon”,”H”) and the result would be 2 as the position of alphabet H is 2 in the string.

Now we move towards the optional parts of the syntax which are, start and compare. The start is the position of the string from where we want to start the search, whereas compare is of three types,

1. VbUseCompareOption: (-1) It is used to do option compare.
2. VbBinaryCompare: (0) It is used to do binary compare.
3. VbTextCompare: (1) It is used to the textual comparison.

But we need a variable to store the value of the result. As the value is an integer so the variable defined should also be an integer. Now if we have calculated the value we also need to display the result we use msgbox function to display the result.

How to Use Excel VBA InStr Function?

We will learn how to use a VBA InStr Excel function with few examples.

You can download this VBA InStr Excel Template here – VBA InStr Excel Template

VBA InStr Function – Example #1

In the explanation above I used the word Jhon as a string and wanted to find the position of H in the string. I will write the code for the same in VBA and use Instr function to find the position of J in the string.

Follow the below steps to use InStr function in VBA.

Step 1: In the Developer Tab click on Visual Basic to open the VB Editor.

Step 2: Once the module is open, declare a sub-function to start writing the code.

Code:

Sub Compare()

End Sub

Step 3: Now the function is declared, We need to declare a variable to store the position of the substring.

Code:

Sub Compare()

Dim Pos As Integer

End Sub

Step 4: Now we write the InStr function to find out the position of our substring.

Code:

Sub Compare()

Dim Pos As Integer 
Pos = InStr("Jhon", "J")

End Sub

Step 5: To return the position of the substring as a value, we use the MsgBox function and close the subfunction.

Code:

Sub Compare()

Dim Pos As Integer 
Pos = InStr("Jhon", "J")

MsgBox Pos

End Sub

Step 6: If we run the code it shows the position of alphabet J in the string.

Step 7: If we change the substring to check that the code is running properly, let us find the alphabet n in the string.

Code:

Sub Compare()

Dim Pos As Integer 
Pos = InStr("Jhon", "n")

MsgBox Pos

End Sub

Step 8: Now if we run the code we can see the position of alphabet n in the string.

VBA InStr Function – Example #2

Now we have seen what the required arguments of the function do, now let us use the optional ones. The String is “I am a Good Boy but not a Good Runner”. We will find the substring “Good” from the string but ignore the first Good from the sentence.

Follow the below steps to use InStr function in VBA.

Step 1: Open the VB editor from the developers’ tab by clicking on Visual Basic.

Step 2: Start by declaring a sub-function.

Code:

Sub Compare1()

End Sub

Step 3: Now declare a variable to store the position of the substring.

Code:

Sub Compare1()

Dim Pos1 As Integer

End Sub

Step 4: Now we will use InStr function to find the position of the string.

Code:

Sub Compare1()

Dim Pos1 As Integer 
Pos = InStr(12, "I am a Good Boy but bot a Good Runner", "Good", vbBinaryCompare)

End Sub

Step 5: Now we use the Msgbox function to return the value of the string.

Code:

Sub Compare1()

Dim Pos1 As Integer 
Pos = InStr(12, "I am a Good Boy but bot a Good Runner", "Good", vbBinaryCompare)

MsgBox Pos

End Sub

Step 6: Now if we run the code we can get the position of the substring.

Explanation of Excel VBA Instr Function

InStr function in VBA is used to return the position of the value of the substring in a string. What happens if the value is not found? If the value is not found in the string the result displayed is zero.

One thing we should always remember the Instr function is case sensitive. To prove this we move to example 1 where we used instr function to search an alphabet.

What happens if the substring is “N” instead of “n’? let us find out. I have changed the case of the alphabet in the string.

Now if I run the code I will get the result as shown below.

This proves that the instr function is case sensitive.

Things to Remember

• The two required fields are String and Substring.
• Instr Function is case sensitive.
• The value of the InStr function is an integer.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to VBA InStr Function. Here we discussed how to use Excel VBA InStr Function along with practical examples and downloadable excel template. You can also go through our other suggested articles –

1. VBA VLOOKUP
2. VBA RGB
3. VBA On Error
4. VBA Login