Find a string within a cell using VBA - string

Question

I have been driving myself mad with this for a day, searched high and low, and am probably trying to be too cute so am totally stuck.
I am trying to run a simple if then
If a cell contains "%" I'd like it to do one thing, and if not another. For reasons I don't understand I can't get it to work out. I've clearly taken a couple ideas from elsewhere but still can't get it to work.
Complicating factors- I don't want to run this on the whole column, just a table, so it is embedded in a larger sub using lots or relative ActiveCells. I never know where in the A column I am going to run into the "% Change" so the Range always has to be variable. I want VBA/VBE to do something different when it comes upon a cell with the "%" in it. SO
Here is what the raw data looks like
Initial Value (6/30/06)
Value (12/31/06)
Net Additions (9/30/07)
Withdrawal (12/07)
Value (12/31/07)
Withdrawal (2008)
Value (12/31/08)
Addition (8/26/09)
Value (12/31/09)
Value (12/31/10)
Value (12/30/11)
Value (3/31/12)
% Change 1st Quarter
% Change Since Inception
But when I run the following it gets stuck in a bad loop where it should have pulled out into the "If Then" as opposed to the "Else" part of the sub.
Sub IfTest()
'This should split the information in a table up into cells
Dim Splitter() As String
Dim LenValue As Integer 'Gives the number of characters in date string
Dim LeftValue As Integer 'One less than the LenValue to drop the ")"
Dim rng As Range, cell As Range
Set rng = ActiveCell
Do While ActiveCell.Value <> Empty
If InStr(rng, "%") = True Then
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 0).Select
Splitter = Split(ActiveCell.Value, "% Change")
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 10).Select
ActiveCell.Value = Splitter(1)
ActiveCell.Offset(0, -1).Select
ActiveCell.Value = "% Change"
ActiveCell.Offset(1, -9).Select
Else
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 0).Select
Splitter = Split(ActiveCell.Value, "(")
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 9).Select
ActiveCell.Value = Splitter(0)
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).Select
LenValue = Len(Splitter(1))
LeftValue = LenValue - 1
ActiveCell.Value = Left(Splitter(1), LeftValue)
ActiveCell.Offset(1, -10).Select
End If
Loop
End Sub
All help is appreciated, thank you!

Answer 1

I simplified your code to isolate the test for "%" being in the cell. Once you get that to work, you can add in the rest of your code.
Try this:
Option Explicit
Sub DoIHavePercentSymbol()
Dim rng As Range
Set rng = ActiveCell
Do While rng.Value <> Empty
If InStr(rng.Value, "%") = 0 Then
MsgBox "I know nothing about percentages!"
Set rng = rng.Offset(1)
rng.Select
Else
MsgBox "I contain a % symbol!"
Set rng = rng.Offset(1)
rng.Select
End If
Loop
End Sub
InStr will return the number of times your search text appears in the string. I changed your if test to check for no matches first.
The message boxes and the .Selects are there simply for you to see what is happening while you are stepping through the code. Take them out once you get it working.

Answer 2

you never change the value of rng so it always points to the initial cell
copy the Set rng = rng.Offset(1, 0) to a new line before loop
also, your InStr test will always fail
True is -1, but the return from InStr will be greater than 0 when the string is found. change the test to remove = True
new code:
Sub IfTest()
'This should split the information in a table up into cells
Dim Splitter() As String
Dim LenValue As Integer 'Gives the number of characters in date string
Dim LeftValue As Integer 'One less than the LenValue to drop the ")"
Dim rng As Range, cell As Range
Set rng = ActiveCell
Do While ActiveCell.Value <> Empty
If InStr(rng, "%") Then
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 0).Select
Splitter = Split(ActiveCell.Value, "% Change")
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 10).Select
ActiveCell.Value = Splitter(1)
ActiveCell.Offset(0, -1).Select
ActiveCell.Value = "% Change"
ActiveCell.Offset(1, -9).Select
Else
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 0).Select
Splitter = Split(ActiveCell.Value, "(")
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 9).Select
ActiveCell.Value = Splitter(0)
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).Select
LenValue = Len(Splitter(1))
LeftValue = LenValue - 1
ActiveCell.Value = Left(Splitter(1), LeftValue)
ActiveCell.Offset(1, -10).Select
End If
Set rng = rng.Offset(1, 0)
Loop
End Sub

Answer 3

For a search routine you should look to use Find, AutoFilter or variant array approaches. Range loops are nomally too slow, worse again if they use Select
The code below will look for the strText variable in a user selected range, it then adds any matches to a range variable rng2 which you can then further process
Option Explicit
Const strText As String = "%"
Sub ColSearch_DelRows()
Dim rng1 As Range
Dim rng2 As Range
Dim rng3 As Range
Dim cel1 As Range
Dim cel2 As Range
Dim strFirstAddress As String
Dim lAppCalc As Long
'Get working range from user
On Error Resume Next
Set rng1 = Application.InputBox("Please select range to search for " & strText, "User range selection", Selection.Address(0, 0), , , , , 8)
On Error GoTo 0
If rng1 Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
With Application
lAppCalc = .Calculation
.ScreenUpdating = False
.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
End With
Set cel1 = rng1.Find(strText, , xlValues, xlPart, xlByRows, , False)
'A range variable - rng2 - is used to store the range of cells that contain the string being searched for
If Not cel1 Is Nothing Then
Set rng2 = cel1
strFirstAddress = cel1.Address
Do
Set cel1 = rng1.FindNext(cel1)
Set rng2 = Union(rng2, cel1)
Loop While strFirstAddress <> cel1.Address
End If
If Not rng2 Is Nothing Then
For Each cel2 In rng2
Debug.Print cel2.Address & " contained " & strText
Next
Else
MsgBox "No " & strText
End If
With Application
.ScreenUpdating = True
.Calculation = lAppCalc
End With
End Sub