How to find and change every match in excel find from VBA not just the next one? [duplicate] - excel

Question

I am trying to write a VBA routine that will take a string, search a given Excel workbook, and return to me all possible matches.
I currently have an implementation that works, but it is extremely slow as it is a double for loop. Of course the built in Excel Find function is "optimized" to find a single match, but I would like it to return an array of initial matches that I can then apply further methods to.
I will post some pseudocode of what I have already
For all sheets in workbook
For all used rows in worksheet
If cell matches search string
do some stuff
end
end
end
As previously stated, this double for loop makes things run very slowly, so I am looking to get rid of this if possible. Any suggestions?
UPDATE
While the below answers would have improved my method, I ended up going with something slightly different as I needed to do multiple queries over and over.
I instead decided to loop through all rows in my document and create a dictionary containing a key for each unique row. The value this points to will then be a list of possible matches, so that when I query later, I can simply just check if it exists, and if so, just get a quick list of matches.
Basically just doing one initial sweep to store everything in a manageable structure, and then query that structure which can be done in O(1) time

Answer 1

Using the Range.Find method, as pointed out above, along with a loop for each worksheet in the workbook, is the fastest way to do this. The following, for example, locates the string "Question?" in each worksheet and replaces it with the string "Answered!".
Sub FindAndExecute()
Dim Sh As Worksheet
Dim Loc As Range
For Each Sh In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
With Sh.UsedRange
Set Loc = .Cells.Find(What:="Question?")
If Not Loc Is Nothing Then
Do Until Loc Is Nothing
Loc.Value = "Answered!"
Set Loc = .FindNext(Loc)
Loop
End If
End With
Set Loc = Nothing
Next
End Sub

Answer 2

Based on Ahmed's answer, after some cleaning up and generalization, including the other "Find" parameters, so we can use this function in any situation:
'Uses Range.Find to get a range of all find results within a worksheet
' Same as Find All from search dialog box
'
Function FindAll(rng As Range, What As Variant, Optional LookIn As XlFindLookIn = xlValues, Optional LookAt As XlLookAt = xlWhole, Optional SearchOrder As XlSearchOrder = xlByColumns, Optional SearchDirection As XlSearchDirection = xlNext, Optional MatchCase As Boolean = False, Optional MatchByte As Boolean = False, Optional SearchFormat As Boolean = False) As Range
Dim SearchResult As Range
Dim firstMatch As String
With rng
Set SearchResult = .Find(What, , LookIn, LookAt, SearchOrder, SearchDirection, MatchCase, MatchByte, SearchFormat)
If Not SearchResult Is Nothing Then
firstMatch = SearchResult.Address
Do
If FindAll Is Nothing Then
Set FindAll = SearchResult
Else
Set FindAll = Union(FindAll, SearchResult)
End If
Set SearchResult = .FindNext(SearchResult)
Loop While Not SearchResult Is Nothing And SearchResult.Address <> firstMatch
End If
End With
End Function
Usage is the same as native .Find, but here is a usage example as requested:
Sub test()
Dim SearchRange As Range, SearchResults As Range, rng As Range
Set SearchRange = MyWorksheet.UsedRange
Set SearchResults = FindAll(SearchRange, "Search this")
If SearchResults Is Nothing Then
'No match found
Else
For Each rng In SearchResults
'Loop for each match
Next
End If
End Sub

Answer 3

Function GetSearchArray(strSearch)
Dim strResults As String
Dim SHT As Worksheet
Dim rFND As Range
Dim sFirstAddress
For Each SHT In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
Set rFND = Nothing
With SHT.UsedRange
Set rFND = .Cells.Find(What:=strSearch, LookIn:=xlValues, LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlRows, SearchDirection:=xlNext, MatchCase:=False)
If Not rFND Is Nothing Then
sFirstAddress = rFND.Address
Do
If strResults = vbNullString Then
strResults = "Worksheet(" & SHT.Index & ").Range(" & Chr(34) & rFND.Address & Chr(34) & ")"
Else
strResults = strResults & "|" & "Worksheet(" & SHT.Index & ").Range(" & Chr(34) & rFND.Address & Chr(34) & ")"
End If
Set rFND = .FindNext(rFND)
Loop While Not rFND Is Nothing And rFND.Address <> sFirstAddress
End If
End With
Next
If strResults = vbNullString Then
GetSearchArray = Null
ElseIf InStr(1, strResults, "|", 1) = 0 Then
GetSearchArray = Array(strResults)
Else
GetSearchArray = Split(strResults, "|")
End If
End Function
Sub test2()
For Each X In GetSearchArray("1")
Debug.Print X
Next
End Sub
Careful when doing a Find Loop that you don't get yourself into an infinite loop... Reference the first found cell address and compare after each "FindNext" statement to make sure it hasn't returned back to the first initially found cell.

Answer 4

You may use the Range.Find method:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff839746.aspx
This will get you the first cell which contains the search string. By repeating this with setting the "After" argument to the next cell you will get all other occurrences until you are back at the first occurrence.
This will likely be much faster.

Answer 5

Based on the idea of B Hart's answer, here's my version of a function that searches for a value in a range, and returns all found ranges (cells):
Function FindAll(ByVal rng As Range, ByVal searchTxt As String) As Range
Dim foundCell As Range
Dim firstAddress
Dim rResult As Range
With rng
Set foundCell = .Find(What:=searchTxt, _
After:=.Cells(.Cells.Count), _
LookIn:=xlValues, _
LookAt:=xlWhole, _
SearchOrder:=xlByRows, _
SearchDirection:=xlNext, _
MatchCase:=False)
If Not foundCell Is Nothing Then
firstAddress = foundCell.Address
Do
If rResult Is Nothing Then
Set rResult = foundCell
Else
Set rResult = Union(rResult, foundCell)
End If
Set foundCell = .FindNext(foundCell)
Loop While Not foundCell Is Nothing And foundCell.Address <> firstAddress
End If
End With
Set FindAll = rResult
End Function
To search for a value in the whole workbook:
Dim wSh As Worksheet
Dim foundCells As Range
For Each wSh In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
Set foundCells = FindAll(wSh.UsedRange, "YourSearchString")
If Not foundCells Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print ("Results in sheet '" & wSh.Name & "':")
Dim cell As Range
For Each cell In foundCells
Debug.Print ("The value has been found in cell: " & cell.Address)
Next
End If
Next

Answer 6

You can read the data into an array. From there you can do the match in memory, instead of reading one cell at a time.
Pass cell contents into VBA Array

Answer 7

Below code avoids creating infinite loop. Assume XYZ is the string which we are looking for in the workbook.
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
Dim Sh As Worksheet, myCounter
Dim Loc As Range
For Each Sh In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
With Sh.UsedRange
Set Loc = .Cells.Find(What:="XYZ")
If Not Loc Is Nothing Then
MsgBox ("Value is found in " & Sh.Name)
myCounter = 1
Set Loc = .FindNext(Loc)
End If
End With
Next
If myCounter = 0 Then
MsgBox ("Value not present in this worrkbook")
End If
End Sub