Using for loops to identify rows - excel

Question

I tried here, here, and here.
I'm trying to highlight a row based on the string contents of a cell in the first column.
For example, if a cell in the first column contains the string "Total", then highlight the row a darker color.
Sub tryrow()
Dim Years
Dim rownum As String
Years = Array("2007", "2008", "2009") ' short example
For i = 0 To UBound(Years)
Set rownum = Range("A:A").Find(Years(i) & " Total", LookIn:=xlValues).Address
Range(rownum, Range(rownum).End(xlToRight)).Interior.ColorIndex = 1
Next i
End Sub
I get this error message:
Compile error: Object required
The editor highlights rownum = , as if this object hadn't been initialized with Dim rownum As String.

Answer 1

You've got a couple issues here, indicated below alongside the fix:
Sub tryrow()
Dim Years() As String 'Best practice is to dim all variables with types. This makes catching errors early much easier
Dim rownum As Range 'Find function returns a range, not a string
Years = Array("2007", "2008", "2009") ' short example
For i = 0 To UBound(Years)
Set rownum = Range("A:A").Find(Years(i) & " Total", LookIn:=xlValues) 'Return the actual range, not just the address of the range (which is a string)
If Not rownum Is Nothing Then 'Make sure an actual value was found
rownum.EntireRow.Interior.ColorIndex = 15 'Instead of trying to build row range, just use the built-in EntireRow function. Also, ColorIndex for gray is 15 (1 is black, which makes it unreadable)
End If
Next i
End Sub

Answer 2

You can avoid loop by using autofilter which will work much faster. The code assumes that table starts from A1 cell:
Sub HighlightRows()
Dim rng As Range, rngData As Range, rngVisible As Range
'//All table
Set rng = Range("A1").CurrentRegion
'//Table without header
With rng
Set rngData = .Offset(1).Resize(.Rows.Count - 1)
End With
rng.AutoFilter Field:=1, Criteria1:="*Total*"
'// Need error handling 'cause if there are no values, error will occur
On Error Resume Next
Set rngVisible = rngData.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible)
If Err = 0 Then
rngVisible.EntireRow.Interior.ColorIndex = 1
End If
On Error GoTo 0
End Sub