VBA code to only show rows that contain similar text to an input field? - vba

Question

I'm new to VBA and am trying to cobble together some code to allow a user to input a word (or several words) into a cell and then show a list of matching row entries.
I have tried the following code but am getting an "instring = type mismatch" error.
Note that "B3" is the field dedicated for the "search word" and column F is the column containing the text I want to search within. If the word is contained, I want to show that row and hide all rows that don't contain that word.
Sub Find_Possible_Task()
ROW_NUMBER = 0
SEARCH_STRING = Sheets("codeset").Range("B3")
ROW_NUMBER = ROW_NUMBER + 1
ITEM_IN_REVIEW = Sheets("codeset").Range("F:F")
If InStr(ITEM_IN_REVIEW, SEARCH_STRING) Then
Do
Cells(c.Row).EntireRow.Hidden = False
Loop Until ITEM_IN_REVIEW = ""
End If
End Sub
TIA!

Answer 1

Few bad coding conventions or even possibly downright errors:
It's a good practice to explicity declare the scope Public/Private of your Sub procedure
Unless you're passing the variables from some place else, they need to be declared with Dim keyword
Using Option Explicit will help you prevent aforementioned error(s)
(Subjective) variables in all caps are ugly and in most programming languages it is convention to reserve all caps variables names for constants (Const)
Option Explicit
Private Sub keep_matches()
Dim what As Range
Dim where As Range
Dim res As Range ' result
Dim lr As Long ' last active row
Dim ws As Worksheet: Set ws = Sheets("codeset")
lr = ws.Cells(ws.Rows.Count, "F").End(xlUp).Row
Set what = ws.Range("B3")
Set where = ws.Range("F1:F" & lr)
' we'll create an extra column for a loop in our .Find method
where.Copy
ws.Range("F1").EntireColumn.Insert
ws.Range("F1").PasteSpecial xlPasteValues
where.EntireRow.Hidden = True ' preemptively hide them all
Set where = ws.Range("F1:F" & lr)
Set res = where.Find(what, lookIn:=xlValues) ' ilook for matches, 1st attempt
If Not res Is Nothing Then ' if found
Do Until res Is Nothing ' repeat for all results
res.EntireRow.Hidden = False
res = "Checked"
Set res = where.FindNext(res)
Loop
Else
MsgBox("No matches were found")
where.EntireRow.Hidden = False ' we don't wanna hide anything
End If
ws.Range("F1").EntireColumn.Delete ' remove the extra help column for Find method
End Sub
Should work as expected.
If there are any question, let me know.

Answer 2

instead of instr(), consider range.find().
Sub Find_Possible_Task()
Dim SEARCH_STRING As String
Dim ITEM_IN_REVIEW As Range
Dim found As Range
Dim i As Integer
SEARCH_STRING = Sheets("Sheet1").Range("B3").Value
i = 1
Do
Set ITEM_IN_REVIEW = Sheets("Sheet1").Cells(i, 6)
Set found = ITEM_IN_REVIEW.Find(What:=SEARCH_STRING)
If found Is Nothing Then
ITEM_IN_REVIEW.EntireRow.Hidden = True
End If
i = i + 1
Loop Until ITEM_IN_REVIEW = ""
End Sub
alternatively, consider using filter table:
1. check if your table has filter on ==> if yes, pass. if no, turn on filter.
2. filter column F for keyword to contain value in cell B3.