Looping through cell values in Excel VBA - vba

Question

I have been trying to write a program that will loop through all the cells in an excel sheet and if one starts with a '#' it should display a message. here's the code:
(template is a worksheet variable)
Private Function processTemplate()
Dim total As Long
total = template.UsedRange.count
Dim count As Integer
count = 0
While count <= total
If template.Cells(count).Value Like "[#]*" Then 'Here I get a error
MsgBox "Found #"
End If
count = count + 1
Wend
End Function
I have isolated the error to using a variable inside of cells(). If I replace count with some number (like 8) it works fine. I am getting error 1004 on the line If template.Cells(count).Value Like "[#]*" Then
If I make total an Integer it has the same error at the same place. After about 2-3 hrs of research/banging my head on the wall I have no idea. I initially got the error when assigning template.cells(row, col).Value to a string variable.
Here's my code now:
Private Sub processTemplate()
MsgBox Len("")
Dim str As String
Dim rows As Long
Dim cols As Long
rows = template.UsedRange.Height
cols = template.UsedRange.Width
Dim row As Integer
row = 1
While row < rows
Dim col As Integer
col = 1
While col < cols
str = template.Cells(row, col).Text
If Len(str) > 0 Then
If Left(template.Cells(row, col).Text, 1) = "#" Then
MsgBox "Found IT"
End If
End If
Rem MsgBox template.Parent.Name & ": " & template.Name & ", Cell(" & row & ", " & col & "): " & template.Cells(row, col).Value
col = col + 1
Wend
row = row + 1
Wend
End Sub
Now I get the error on str = template.Cells(row, col).Text

Answer 1

We can use a sub rather than a function
We loop over all the cells in UsedRange looking for a # as the first character in the cell.
Sub FindThePound()
Dim r As Range, pound As String, template As Worksheet
pound = "#"
Set template = ActiveSheet
For Each r In template.UsedRange
If Left(r.Value, 1) = pound Then
MsgBox "Found # in " & r.Address(0, 0)
End If
Next r
End Sub
EDIT#1
This version loops over all the cells, but does not test cells containing formulas
Sub FindThePound()
Dim r As Range, pound As String, template As Worksheet
pound = "#"
Set template = ActiveSheet
For Each r In template.UsedRange
If r.HasFormula = False Then
If Left(r.Value, 1) = pound Then
MsgBox "Found # in " & r.Address(0, 0)
End If
End If
Next r
End Sub

Answer 2

You could use find/ find next function which i guess bit faster than looping through each cell and do string comparison.
With Worksheets(1).Range("a1:a500") 'Provide the search range
Set c = .Find(2, lookin:=xlValues) ' searching for 2 in cell value
If Not c Is Nothing Then
firstAddress = c.Address 'first occurance
Do
'do whatever you want to do with the matches even replace them
c.Value = 5
Set c = .FindNext(c)
Loop While Not c Is Nothing And c.Address <> firstAddress
End If
End With
Reference:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff196143(v=office.15).aspx