Find columns with a specific headers that may be spelled differently - excel

Question

Good evening. I am developing a subroutine for a project whereby the user is able to upload specific data from a separate workbook into the master. The routine will search through the chosen excel file for specific column headers and only copy/paste those desired columns to the master sheet. This is my first coding project and I think I have the process mostly sorted, however there is one bit of functionality that is eluding me: The specific column titles are moderately similar no matter the workbook, except they may vary between full name and abbreviation. For example the title of the column may be "AZM" or it may be "Azimuth". Alternatively one column title may be "N/S", "Northing" or "NS". There will never be multiple of these titles, just the one in the format that the workbook creator decided to go with.
My current code does not currently account for that:
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim wb As Workbook
Dim filename As String, colName As String
Dim LRow As Long, LCol As Long
Dim pColName As String, MyHead(1 To 8) As String
Dim sCell As Range, PRng As Range
Dim col As Long, pCol As Long
MsgBox "Ensure plan includes MD/INC/AZM/TVD/NS/EW/VS/DLS"
With Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogOpen) 'Open file explorer
.AllowMultiSelect = False 'Only allow one file to be chosen
.Filters.Add "Excel Files", "*.xlsx; *.xlsm; *.xls; *.xlsb", 1 'Limit selection options to excel files
If .Show Then
filename = .SelectedItems(1) 'Assign file path to variable filename
Set wb = Workbooks.Open(filename:=filename) 'Set selected Excel file to variable wb
MyHead(1) = "MD"
MyHead(2) = "Inc"
MyHead(3) = "Azimuth"
MyHead(4) = "TVD"
MyHead(5) = "N/S"
MyHead(6) = "E/W"
MyHead(7) = "VS"
MyHead(8) = "DLS"
If Not IsEmpty(ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("5D-Lite").Range("M33")) Then
LRow = Cells(Rows.Count, 13).End(xlUp).Row 'Find the last row of data in column M from previous plan
LCol = Cells(LRow, Columns.Count).End(xlToLeft).Column 'Find the last column of data in the last row
ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("5D-Lite").Range("M33:" & Col_Letter(LCol) & LRow).ClearContents 'Clear the contents of the range determined by the Last functions
End If
With wb.Worksheets(1)
For i = LBound(MyHead) To UBound(MyHead)
Set sCell = .Range("A1:R50").Find(What:=MyHead(i), LookIn:=xlValues, LookAt:=xlWhole, _
SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False) 'Search for the desired directional plan items in column headers
If Not sCell Is Nothing Then
col = sCell.Column 'Located item's column number
pCol = i + 12 'Column number in master workbook to paste in
colName = Split(.Cells(, col).Address, "$")(1) 'Located item's column letter
pColName = Split(.Cells(, pCol).Address, "$")(1) 'Column letter in master workbook to paste in
LRow = FindLastNumeric() 'Find the final row with numeric data
Set PRng = .Range(sCell.Address & ":" & colName & LRow) 'Set total data range of desired column
wb.Activate
wb.Worksheets(1).Range(PRng.Address).Copy ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("5D-Lite").Range(pColName & "32") 'Copy contents of selected file to the 5D sheet
End If
Next
Range("M32:T" & LRow + 33).NumberFormat = "0.00" 'Assigns numeric formatting to the pasted data range
wb.Close SaveChanges:=False
Set wb = Nothing
End With
Else
MsgBox "No Plan Selected"
End If
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
Is there any way to modify the .Find function or the MyHead(i) variables to account for multiple possible variations on the same header name? Thanks for any ideas.

Answer 1

It looks to me like you need prepare some kind of a dictionary. A simple solution would be to have an Excel table which stores all the information, which is stored in an array on startup (for quicker references) and then used to translate inputs to outputs. It could look something like this:
POSSIBLE_SOURCE VALID_NAME
appl apple
apple apple
orng orange
orange orange
To use this you would search the source files for matches in POSSIBLE_SOURCE column, find corresponding value in VALID_NAME column and use the latter for whatever you need to do with the input row.