Finding the n-th cell in a column with a given property - excel

Question

I don't have much experience but I'm trying to write a function that will search column A and the 1st time it finds a string beginning with "AT" it will copy that whole string to Cell N1, the 2nd string beginning with "AT" will be copied to N2, so on and so forth until column A is exhausted. This is my feeble attempt so far but I'm not having much luck.
Function Find_AT(ByVal I As Integer)
Dim c As Range
Dim COUNTER As Integer
Dim CAPTURE As Long
COUNTER = 0
For Each c In Range("A1", Range("A65636").End(xlUp))
If Left(c, 2) = AT Then
COUNTER = COUNTER + 1
If COUNTER = I Then
CAPTURE = c
Exit For
End If
End If
Next c
Find_AT = CAPTURE
End Function

Answer 1

Consider:
Function Find_AT(ByVal I As Long) As String
Dim c As Range
Dim COUNTER As Long
Dim CAPTURE As String
Dim v As String
COUNTER = 0
CAPTURE = "xx"
For Each c In Range("A1", Range("A65636").End(xlUp))
v = c.Text & " "
If Left(v, 2) = "AT" Then
COUNTER = COUNTER + 1
If COUNTER = I Then
CAPTURE = c.Address
Exit For
End If
End If
Next c
Find_AT = CAPTURE
End Function

Answer 2

The error with your code is that the text (the string) AT needs to be enclosed in double-quotes "AT". Add Option Explicit to the top of the Module and it would take you to this error when you try to compile or execute the function.
However, given your description, I suspect that you might want to write a sub-procedure (SUB) not a Function. A function is intended to return a value. If you want to use a function you might define it like this:
Function Find_AT(rng As Range, ByVal i As Integer)
That is, you would supply it a Range to search and the number 1 to find the first value in the range that begins with "AT". However, if you put this function in a cell and copy it down, it will still return only the first occurrence. You would need to manually change 1 to 2, 3, etc. (or use a variation of ROW() to automatically generate this sequence).
Anyway, I suspect you really want a SUB-procedure that you might run by clicking a button on the worksheet.
If you wish to continue with your current function, then you could declare the return type as a string:
Function Find_AT(ByVal i As Integer) As String
'...
Dim CAPTURE As String
'...
CAPTURE = c.Text
Otherwise, setting CAPTURE = c and attempting to return this value causes a problem because c is a Range object.

Answer 3

Filtering is much more efficient. Two approaches below:
Filter
Sub GetAT1()
X = Filter(Application.Transpose(Range([a1], Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp))), "AT", True)
If UBound(X) > 0 Then [n1].Resize(UBound(X) + 1) = Application.Transpose(X)
End Sub
AutoFilter
Sub GetAT()
Dim rng1 As Range
Set rng1 = Range([a1], Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp))
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
ActiveSheet.AutoFilterMode = False
rng1.AutoFilter 1, "=AT*"
rng1.Copy [n1]
If LCase$(Left$([n1], 2)) <> "at" Then [n1].Delete xlUp
ActiveSheet.AutoFilterMode = False
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub