Vba word if text not found

INSTR Function

The VBA Instr Function checks if a string of text is found in another string of text.  It returns 0 if the text is not found. Otherwise it returns the character position where the text is found.

The Instr Function performs exact matches. The VBA Like Operator can be used instead to perform inexact matches / pattern matching by using Wildcards.

Instr Example

The following code snippet searches the string “Look in this string” for the word “Look”. The Instr Function returns 1 because the text is found in the first position.

Sub FindSomeText()
  MsgBox InStr("Look in this string", "Look")
End Sub

This second example returns 7 because the text is found starting in the 7th position:

Sub FindSomeText2()
  MsgBox InStr("Don't Look in this string", "Look")
End Sub

Important! The Instr Function is case-sensitive by default. This means “look” will not match with “Look”. To make the test case-insensitive read below.

Instr Syntax

The syntax for the Instr function is as follows:

Instr( [start], string, substring, [compare] )

[start] (optional) – This optional argument is the starting position of the search. Enter 1 to start searching from position 1 (or leave blank). Enter 5 to start searching from position 5. Important! The INSTR function calculates the character position by counting from 1 NOT from the [start] position.

string – The string of text to search in.

substring – The string of text to find in the primary string.

[compare] (optional) – By default, Instr is case-sensitive. By setting this argument you can make Instr Case insensitive:

Argument vb Value	Argument Integer	Description
vbBinaryCompare	0	(Default) Case-sensitive
vbTextCompare	1	Not Case-sensitive
vbDatabaseCompare	2	MS Access Only. Uses information in the database to perform comparison.

Instr Start Position

The Instr start position allows you to indicate the character position where you will begin your search.  Keep in mind however, the Instr output will always count from 1.

Here we set the start position to 3 to skip the first B:

Sub Instr_StartPosition()
  MsgBox InStr(3, "ABC ABC", "B")
End Sub

The result is 6 because the second B is the 6th character in the string.

Case-Insensitive INSTR Test

By default, VBA treats “L” different from “l”. In other words, VBA is case-sensitive. This is true of all text functions.  To make VBA case-insensitive, set the [compare] argument to 1 or vbTextCompare.

Public Sub FindText_IgnoreCase()
  MsgBox InStr(1, "Don't Look in this string", "look", vbTextCompare)
End Sub

Alternatively, you can add Option Compare Text to the top of your code module:

Option Compare Text

Option Compare Text

Public Sub FindText_IgnoreCase2()
  MsgBox InStr("Don't Look in this string", "look")
End Sub

Option Compare Text will impact all of the code in that module. I personally place this at the top of any module that deals with text because I never care about case differences.

InstrRev Function

The Instr Function searches from the left. Instead you can search from the right using the InstrRev Function.  The InstrRev Function works very similarly to the Instr function.

Sub FindSomeText_FromRight()
  MsgBox InStrRev("Look in this string", "Look")
End Sub

Just like the Instr function this will return 1 because there is only one instance of “Look” in the text. But if we add a second “Look”, you’ll see that it returns the position of the right-most “Look”:

Sub FindSomeText_FromRight()
  MsgBox InStrRev("Look in this string Look", "Look")
End Sub

Next we will review more Instr examples.

InString Examples

If String Contains Substring

Here we will use an If statement to test if a string contains a a substring of text:

Public Sub FindSomeText()

If InStr("Look in this string", "look") = 0 Then
   MsgBox "No match"
Else
   MsgBox "At least one match"
End If

End Sub

Find Text String in a Cell

You can also find a string in a cell:

Sub Find_String_Cell()
    If InStr(Range("B2").Value, "Dr.") > 0 Then
        Range("C2").Value = "Doctor"
    End If
End Sub

Or loop through a range of cells to test if the cells contain some text:

Sub Search_Range_For_Text()
Dim cell As Range

    For Each cell In Range("b2:b6")
        If InStr(cell.Value, "Dr.") > 0 Then
            cell.Offset(0, 1).Value = "Doctor"
        End If
    Next cell
    
End Sub

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Find Position of a Character in a String

This code will find the position of a single character in a string and assign the position to a variable:

Sub Find_Char()
  Dim n As Long
  n = InStr("Here Look Here", "L")
End Sub

Search String for Word

This code will search a string for a word:

Sub Search_String_For_Word()
    Dim n As Long
    n = InStr("Here Look Here", "Look")
  
    If n = 0 Then
        MsgBox "Word not found"
    Else
        MsgBox "Word found in position: " & n
    End If
End Sub

If Variable Contains String

This code will test if a string variable contains a string of text:

Sub Variable_Contains_String()
    Dim str As String
    str = "Look Here"
    
    If InStr(str, "Here") > 0 Then
        MsgBox "Here found!"
    End If
End Sub

Instr and the Left Function

Instr can be used along with other text functions like Left, Right, Len, and Mid to trim text.

With the Left function you can output the text prior to a string of text:

Sub Instr_Left()
    Dim str As String
    Dim n As Long
    
    str = "Look Here"
    
    n = InStr(str, "Here")
    
    MsgBox Left(str, n - 1)

End Sub

Using Instr in Microsoft Access VBA

All of the above examples work exactly the same in Access VBA as in Excel VBA.

To learn more, read our article: VBA text functions

<<Return to VBA Examples

title	keywords	f1_keywords	ms.prod	api_name	ms.assetid	ms.date	ms.localizationpriority
Find.Execute method (Word)	vbawd10.chm162529724	vbawd10.chm162529724	word	Word.Find.Execute	3b607955-0e82-aa13-dad1-7a5069a57b9d	06/08/2017	medium

Find.Execute method (Word)

Runs the specified find operation. Returns True if the find operation is successful. Boolean.

Syntax

expression.Execute (FindText, MatchCase, MatchWholeWord, MatchWildcards, MatchSoundsLike, MatchAllWordForms, Forward, Wrap, Format, ReplaceWith, Replace, MatchKashida, MatchDiacritics, MatchAlefHamza, MatchControl)

expression Required. A variable that represents a Find object.

Parameters

Name	Required/Optional	Data type	Description
FindText	Optional	Variant	The text to be searched for. Use an empty string («») to search for formatting only. You can search for special characters by specifying appropriate character codes. For example, «^p» corresponds to a paragraph mark and «^t» corresponds to a tab character.
MatchCase	Optional	Variant	True to specify that the find text be case-sensitive. Corresponds to the Match case check box in the Find and Replace dialog box (Edit menu).
MatchWholeWord	Optional	Variant	True to have the find operation locate only entire words, not text that is part of a larger word. Corresponds to the Find whole words only check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.
MatchWildcards	Optional	Variant	True to have the find text be a special search operator. Corresponds to the Use wildcards check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.
MatchSoundsLike	Optional	Variant	True to have the find operation locate words that sound similar to the find text. Corresponds to the Sounds like check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.
MatchAllWordForms	Optional	Variant	True to have the find operation locate all forms of the find text (for example, «sit» locates «sitting» and «sat»). Corresponds to the Find all word forms check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.
Forward	Optional	Variant	True to search forward (toward the end of the document).
Wrap	Optional	Variant	Controls what happens if the search begins at a point other than the beginning of the document and the end of the document is reached (or vice versa if Forward is set to False). This argument also controls what happens if there is a selection or range and the search text is not found in the selection or range. Can be one of the WdFindWrap constants.
Format	Optional	Variant	True to have the find operation locate formatting in addition to, or instead of, the find text.
ReplaceWith	Optional	Variant	The replacement text. To delete the text specified by the Find argument, use an empty string («»). You specify special characters and advanced search criteria just as you do for the Find argument. To specify a graphic object or other nontext item as the replacement, move the item to the Clipboard and specify «^c» for ReplaceWith.
Replace	Optional	Variant	Specifies how many replacements are to be made: one, all, or none. Can be any WdReplace constant.
MatchKashida	Optional	Variant	True if find operations match text with matching kashidas in an Arabic-language document. This argument may not be available to you, depending on the language support (U.S. English, for example) that you have selected or installed.
MatchDiacritics	Optional	Variant	True if find operations match text with matching diacritics in a right-to-left language document. This argument may not be available to you, depending on the language support (U.S. English, for example) that you have selected or installed.
MatchAlefHamza	Optional	Variant	True if find operations match text with matching alef hamzas in an Arabic-language document. This argument may not be available to you, depending on the language support (U.S. English, for example) that you have selected or installed.
MatchControl	Optional	Variant	True if find operations match text with matching bidirectional control characters in a right-to-left language document. This argument may not be available to you, depending on the language support (U.S. English, for example) that you have selected or installed.
MatchPrefix	Optional	Variant	True to match words beginning with the search string. Corresponds to the Match prefix check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.
MatchSuffix	Optional	Variant	True to match words ending with the search string. Corresponds to the Match suffix check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.
MatchPhrase	Optional	Variant	True ignores all white space and control characters between words.
IgnoreSpace	Optional	Variant	True ignores all white space between words. Corresponds to the Ignore white-space characters check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.
IgnorePunct	Optional	Variant	True ignores all punctuation characters between words. Corresponds to the Ignore punctuation check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.

Return value

Boolean

Remarks

If MatchWildcards is True, you can specify wildcard characters and other advanced search criteria for the FindText argument. For example, «*(ing)» finds any word that ends in «ing».

To search for a symbol character, type a caret (^), a zero (0), and then the symbol’s character code. For example, «^0151» corresponds to an em dash (—).

Unless otherwise specified, replacement text inherits the formatting of the text it replaces in the document. For example, if you replace the string «abc» with «xyz», occurrences of «abc» with bold formatting are replaced with the string «xyz» with bold formatting.

Also, if MatchCase is False, occurrences of the search text that are uppercase will be replaced with an uppercase version of the replacement text, regardless of the case of the replacement text. Using the previous example, occurrences of «ABC» are replaced with «XYZ».

Example

This example finds and selects the next occurrence of the word «library».

With Selection.Find 
    .ClearFormatting 
    .MatchWholeWord = True 
    .MatchCase = False 
    .Execute FindText:="library" 
End With

This example finds all occurrences of the word «hi» in the active document and replaces each occurrence with «hello».

Set myRange = ActiveDocument.Content 
myRange.Find.Execute FindText:="hi", _ 
    ReplaceWith:="hello", Replace:=wdReplaceAll

[!includeSupport and feedback]

Bonjour,

Dans son message, < dave55 > écrivait :
In this message, < dave55 > wrote:

|| Hello,
|| I need help in writing a Word Macro that will find text in a paragraph
|| and change the paragraph to a particular font color. I have searched
|| the web and groups but can’t not find any code which I can customize
|| for my use. Any help would be appreciated!

Play around with the following:

‘_______________________________________

Dim SearchedWord As String
Dim CancelOrNot As Integer
Dim DocRange As Range
Dim ParColour As Range
Dim WasFound As Boolean

SearchedWord = «»
CancelOrNot = 0
WasFound = False

Do While SearchedWord = «»
SearchedWord = Trim(InputBox(«What word are you looking for?», _
«Colour paragraphs»))
If SearchedWord = «» Then
CancelOrNot = MsgBox(«You must type a word or cancel.», _
vbOKCancel, «No word»)
‘Ok = 1, Cancel = 2
If CancelOrNot = 2 Then Exit Sub
End If
Loop

Set DocRange = ActiveDocument.Range

With DocRange.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Text = SearchedWord
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindStop
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = True
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False

Do While .Execute
WasFound = True
Set ParColour = DocRange.Paragraphs(1).Range
ParColour.Font.Color = wdColorBlue
‘In case word is found more than once in paragraph
‘no need to find the word again in the same paragraph
DocRange.SetRange DocRange.Paragraphs(1).Range.End, _
ActiveDocument.Range.End
Loop
End With

If Not WasFound Then
MsgBox SearchedWord & » was not found in the document.», _
vbExclamation + vbOKOnly, «Word not found»
End If

End Sub
‘_______________________________________