Monster Search - Loop (string search + integer insert) - vba

Question

I have a large string(over 255 char) called strMonsterEssay.
There is a string character repeated throughout this essay with exact format like Monster X and I want to be able to find the largest monster number. Throughout the essay there is Monster 1, Monster 2...Monster X. Note, there is a max number of 99 monsters possible.
At the end of the code I want to be able to say something like "There are 25 Monsters".
I don't know the syntax to enter an integer into a 'like' search loop. This is the code I have so far and I would appreciate some help, please:
Dim MonsterNum As Integer
Dim strHowManyMonsters As String
MonsterNum = 1
For MonsterNum 1 to 99
If (NOT strMonsterEssay like ("*Monster&Char(32)&'"MonsterNum + 1"'*") And strMonsterEssay like ("*Monster&Char(32)&'"MonsterNum"'*") Then strHowManyMonsters = "There are '"MonsterNum"' Monsters."
Else: strHowManyMonsters = "There are no Monsters."
End If
Next MonsterNum

Answer 1

Try this
Dim MonsterNum As Integer
Dim strHowManyMonsters As String
strHowManyMonsters = "There are no Monsters."
For MonsterNum = 99 To 1 Step -1
If strMonsterEssay Like "*[mM]onster " & MonsterNum & "*" Then
strHowManyMonsters = "There are " & MonsterNum & " Monsters."
Exit For
End If
Next MonsterNum
Note the usage of [mM] to test make the search not case-sensitive. I think it might be a better option to use VBA's Instr() function like this:
If InStr(1, strMonsterEssay, "Monster " & MonsterNum, vbTextCompare) > 0 Then
Also note the backward counting.

Answer 2

Use the next function, please. If all existing 'Monster' strings are followed by different numbers, the number does not matter. It is enough to count Monster.
Function CountMonsters(FullString As String, strMonster As String) As Long
CountMonsters = UBound(Split(FullString, strMonster))
End Function
It can be called in this way:
Sub testFindMonsters()
Dim strMonsterEssay As String
strMonsterEssay = "Monster 1 and Monster 2 goes to school. Monster 3 is waitting for the first two..."
MsgBox "There are " & CountMonsters(strMonsterEssay, "Monster") & " Monsters."
End Sub
If the "largest monster number" must be returned, the same function will be called in this way:
Sub testMaxMonsterNumber()
Dim MonsterNum As Long, strMonsterEssay As String, maxNo As Long, i As Long
Dim strHowManyMonsters As String
strMonsterEssay = "Monster 1 and Monster 2 goes to school. Monster 3 is waiting for the first two. However, Monster 1 and Monster 2 saw Monster 3 waiting and went a different way. Monster 3 waited for a long time for Monster 1 and Monster 2 but they never showed up"
For i = 99 To 1 Step -1
If CountMonsters(strMonsterEssay, "Monster " & i) > 0 Then
maxNo = i: Exit For
End If
Next
If maxNo > 0 Then
MsgBox "There are " & maxNo & " Monsters."
Else
MsgBox "There are no Monsters."
End If
End Sub
But if "Monster 32 is waiting for the first two", it will return 32. I asked you about consecutive monsters number 'rule', but you did not say anything...