What data type does find method return? - vba

Question

I am trying to search 3 columns contained in the range specified below. I have spent a long time looking online and I have found similar questions but when I apply it to mine I am not getting the correct answer. So far (from another questions answer) I have:
Dim result As Range
Set result = range("DailyTable[[AmtNumberOut]:[AMTOutstanding]]").find(What:="#N/A Requesting Data...", After:=ActiveCell, LookIn:= _
xlFormulas, LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, SearchDirection:= _
xlNext, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False)
If result Is Nothing Then
ElseIf IsEmpty(result.Offset(0, 2)) Then
MsgBox ("Please wait for information to finish downloading. Import cancelled.")
Exit Sub
Else
MsgBox ("Please wait for information to finish downloading. Import cancelled.")
Exit Sub
End If
I understand that find returns nothing if no value is found which can cause issues with data types but I have tried defining result as Range, Object, Variant, String and all give mismatch error. I also read somewhere that it can return Boolean outputs (which did not work either). I have spent a long time stuck on a simple problem and I would be very grateful for any answers!
Thanks.

Answer 1

In your find you have
After:=ActiveCell,
This throws a mismatch error if your active cell is not in the table you reference, "DailyTable".
Also, your logic will have the message box appear if the offset is empty or not. So if Result is nothing, then nothing, but if the offset is empty or not, you get the message. As long as that's what you want, then why are you checking the offset to be empty?

Answer 2

Range.Find returns a Range object reference, initialized or not, period. If Range.Find found anything, you get a Range object reference, otherwise you get Nothing, which is an uninitialized object reference that will make your code throw run-time error 91 "object reference not set" if you try to make member calls against it.
I have tried defining result as Range, Object, Variant, String and all give mismatch error.
You want a Range. Object would work, however it would make all member calls made against it late-bound, i.e. resolved at run-time - you'd get no IntelliSense or auto-completion, and VBA would happily compile a typo regardless of whether Option Explicit is specified.
Variant would work as well, but again you'd lose IntelliSense, and you'd be wrapping the object reference into a Variant/Object, which incurs overhead you don't need.
String is dangerous. First, for it to even have any chance to work you need to drop the Set keyword. And then this is what you're really doing, with both the implicit default member access and implicit type conversion made explicit:
Dim result As String
result = CStr(Range(...).Find(...).Value)
The implicit default member call .Value is illegal against Nothing in the first place, and then there's no guarantee that the CStr string conversion will succeed: if the cell contains an error value (e.g. #N/A), then this is where you're getting a type mismatch run-time error, because an Error value can't be implicitly (or explicitly) converted to a String (or anything, actually).
If you're getting a type mismatch with result As Range, then you're doing something with the returned Range object's Value (implicitly or explicitly) and that value is an Error - you can't compare an error value against any type. You need to wrap whatever it is you're doing with it, with If IsError(result) Then - but it looks like none of the code you posted would cause a type mismatch error with Dim result As Range, assuming .Offset(0,2) isn't an error value either.