VBA Instr function on 100K+ records - excel

Question

I have 100.000 records/rows with 17 columns. One of these columns needs to be checked to output either a 1 or 0 to the next column. For this I use a loop with the Instr function, but after 10 mins it still isn't outputting anything on my machine and I believe the code is too intensive or slow running it row for row.
Dim rng As Range
Set rng = Range("F:F")
For Each cell In rng
TicketType = cell
If InStr(1, TicketType, "locker", 1) > 0 Then
cell.Offset(0, 1) = 1
Else
cell.Offset(0, 1) = 0
End If
Next
There are only 100 TicketTypes to check however, and based on the names of these TicketTypes it should output a 1 or 0 (match or not). So I was thinking, maybe there is a way to sort the entire table, run through it to see which categories there are, store their vertical ranges, run a check and then output +-10.000 rows at once? I noticed this is instant, so I believe it's really the Instr function that is the bottleneck.

Answer 1

Try this:
Dim rng As Range, f
With ActiveSheet
Set rng = Application.Intersect(.Columns("F"), .UsedRange)
f = "=--NOT(ISERROR(SEARCH(""locker""," & rng(1).Address(False, False) & ")))"
Debug.Print f
rng.Offset(0, 1).Formula = f
rng.Offset(0, 1).Value = rng.Offset(0, 1).Value
End With

Answer 2

Variant array approach
As mentioned by BigBen it's faster than looping through each cell by means of VBA.
Sub VariantArray()
With Sheet1
'~~> Set you relevant range here
Dim lastRow As Long, rng As Range
lastRow = .Range("F" & .Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
Set rng = .Range("F1:F" & lastRow)
'~~> create a one based 2-dim datafield array
Dim myArray As Variant
myArray = rng
'~~> check TicketType
Dim i As Long
For i = 1 To UBound(myArray)
myArray(i, 1) = IIf(InStr(1, myArray(i, 1), "locker", 1) > 0, 1, 0)
Next i
'~~> fill target with array values
rng.Offset(0, 1) = myArray
End With
End Sub

Answer 3

you could try filtering:
With Worksheets("actualSheetName") '<-- change "actualSheetName" to your actual sheet name
With .Range("F1", .Cells(.Rows.Count, "F").End(xlUp))
.Offset(, 1).Value = 0
.AutoFilter Field:=1, Criteria1:="*locker*"
.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible).Offset(, 1) = 1
End With
.AutoFilterMode = False
End With

Answer 4

As suggested by BigBen, a far better solution is the usage of a worksheet function, like Find.All() (at least that how I think it's called). If it finds something, it gives a number, else it gives an error. You might turn this into an interesting formula like this:
=IF(IF.ERR(FIND.ALL("locker";A2);0)=0;0;1)