Search Excel with multiple string criteria - excel

Question

I'd like to search a description cell for ANY words (criteria) from a predefined list, and pull the relevant dollar amount for the item from the adjacent cell.
To illustrate, here is my setup:
A | B | C | D | E | F |
Date | Descr.| Amount| Cat1 | Cat2 | Cat3 |
D,E,F: Each one of these are item categories. If the item in that row belongs to a category, I would like its amount to populate that category cell in that same row. Each category cell has a formula to test for this and perform the operation.
My first thought was to use VLookup, but I have a list of lookup values. I haven't been able to successfully do that. Each of the category cells has a formula like this -->
=IF(SUM(COUNTIF($B10,{"*costco*","*saputo*","*t & t*"}))>0,$C10," ")
Column B refers to the description, which is searched for any of the criteria. If any of the words are contained in the description, the cell is filled with the amount from column C, otherwise its left with a space.
This works perfectly as is, however I need the criteria (costco, saputo, t&t in this case) to be flexible (add or remove strings to the list) rather than hard-coded in the formula. This is my issue: the formula stops working if I replace the criteria with a reference to another cell. I'm relatively new to excel and not familiar with restrictions/constraints of its functions, which I suspect is the issue.
Any help is much appreciated, let me know if I need to provide more info.
Ankit

Answer 1

Create a Name (like a named range, but refers to a value rather than a range.)
For Excel 2007 and 2010, on the Formulas tab, Defined Names group, Name Manager
For Excel 2003 Insert, Names, Define
Create a new Name (lets use the name "KeyWords") , set it "Refers To" value to
={"*costco*","*saputo*","*t & t*"}
Formula then becomes EDIT enter as an array formula
=IF(SUM(COUNTIF($B10,KeyWords))>0,$C10," ")
Editing the list then becomes editing the value of KeyWords refers to value. This can be done through the Name Manager, or if you wish, through VBA
EDIT
Sample VBA
Sub SetKeyWords()
Dim wb As Workbook
Dim nm As Name
Set wb = ActiveWorkbook
Set nm = wb.Names("KeyWords")
nm.RefersTo = "={""NewString""}"
End Sub

Answer 2

Load the strings you are seeking into an array (via converting a range into an array, or having the user select the strings from a small form you design)
Sub MyLookup(arrCategories() As Variant)
Dim searchrange As Range
Dim xCell As Range
Dim count As Integer
'set searchrange to the proper column
For Each xCell In searchrange
For Each catg In arrCategories
If xCell = catg Then
'Do something here
End If
Next catg
Next xCell
End Sub
You may need to adjust your string array based on whether case matters. Depending on the size of your set of data, it might be better to convert searchrange into an array.
There may be a faster way to see if certain strings are found within a given range, but this is the general idea.