Find a string within a cell using VBA

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.