How can I use InStr to test for a broader value? - excel

Question

I currently use this code to search for a specific value entered by the user. However, I'd like it to test for the value if it's located within the string, for example, if the user typed "Jon" the search results could be "Jon, Jonathan, Jones" etc. I'm thinking I need to utilize the InStr function somehow, but I'm not sure how to set it up... Any help would be appreciated.
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
ActiveSheet.Range("H1").Select
Dim MyValue As String
MyValue = TextBox1.Value
If MyValue = "" Then
MsgBox "Please enter a sales managers name!"
TextBox1.SetFocus
Else
Application.EnableEvents = False
Worksheets("Sheet2").Activate
Range("A3:I200").Select
Selection.ClearContents
Worksheets("Sheet1").Activate
Me.Hide
Set i = Sheets("Sheet1")
Set E = Sheets("Sheet2")
Dim d
Dim j
d = 2
j = 2
Do Until IsEmpty(i.Range("A" & j))
If i.Range("A" & j) = MyValue Then
d = d + 1
E.Rows(d).Value = i.Rows(j).Value
End If
j = j + 1
Loop
Application.EnableEvents = True
Worksheets("Sheet2").Activate
ActiveSheet.Range("H1").Select
If Range("A3").Value = "" Then
MsgBox "No results were found."
Else
MsgBox "Results were found!"
End If
End If
Unload Me
End Sub

Answer 1

I'd use AutoFilter(), and make some little refactoring as follows:
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
Dim MyValue As String
MyValue = Me.TextBox1.Value
If MyValue = "" Then
MsgBox "Please enter a sales managers name!"
Me.TextBox1.SetFocus
Else
With Worksheets("Sheet1")
With .Range("A1", .Cells(.Rows.count, 1).End(xlUp))
.AutoFilter field:=1, Criteria1:=MyValue & "*"
If Application.WorksheetFunction.Subtotal(103, .Cells) > 1 Then
Worksheets("Sheet2").UsedRange.ClearContents
Intersect(.Parent.UsedRange, .Resize(.Rows.count - 1).Offset(1).SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible).EntireRow).Copy Worksheets("Sheet2").Range("A3")
MsgBox "Results were found."
Else
MsgBox "No results were found."
End If
End With
.AutoFilterMode = False
End With
Me.Hide '<--| hide the userform and move 'Unload UserformName' command to the sub that's calling the Userform
End If
End Sub

Answer 2

You can do this pretty easily with a regular expression in the form of something like:
(^Jon\s)|(\sJon\s)|(\sJon$)
I'd wrap it in a function to allow building the pattern dynamically from user input. This is just an example - you'd either need to do some more escaping beyond just the . or (probably better) add input restrictions on the TextBox.
'Add reference to Microsoft VBScript Regular Expressions
Private Function ContainsWord(target As String, search As String) As Boolean
Const template As String = "(^<word>\s)|(\s<word>\s)|(\s<word>$)"
Dim expression As String
expression = Replace$(template, "<word>", Replace$(search, ".", "\."))
With New RegExp
.Pattern = expression
ContainsWord = .Test(target)
End With
End Function
Sample usage:
Public Sub Example()
Debug.Print ContainsWord("foo bar baz", "bar") 'True
Debug.Print ContainsWord("foo barbaz", "bar") 'False
Debug.Print ContainsWord("foobar baz", "bar") 'False
Debug.Print ContainsWord("bar foo baz", "bar") 'True
Debug.Print ContainsWord("foo baz bar", "bar") 'True
End Sub
In your code, you'd just replace the line...
If i.Range("A" & j) = MyValue Then
...with:
If ContainsWord(i.Range("A" & j).Value, MyValue) Then
Note that since you are calling it in a loop, you'd probably want to cache the RegExp in your case though to avoid repeatedly creating it if you have a ton of cells to check.