Using a loop to combine all text down a column - vba

Question

Looking for help regarding writing a loop that will combine all the text values in a column while adding "OR" in between each one. To give some context, I have filenames stored in a column and I want to write a macro that will combine all those filenames separated by "OR" so I can copy and paste the string into a windows search bar and find all those files in a folder.
For example (in Column A)
Apples
Oranges
Bananas
Pears
Blueberries
In B1, the result should be Apples OR Oranges OR Bananas OR Pears OR Blueberries.

Answer 1

While learning to use For and Do loops in VBA is an essential skill, you will find that looping over ranges of cells is slow, and often too slow to be useful. There is often an alternative, and in this case it's the Join function:
Function MergeColumn(rng As Range, Delimiter As String) As Variant
MergeColumn = Join(Application.Transpose(rng.Columns(1).Value), Delimiter)
End Function
How this works:
It's a UDF, so it can be called from other VBA code, or from a worksheet cell
You pass it a Range object. It processes only the left most column of that Range
rng.Columns(1).Value returns the left most column, as a 2D Variant Array, size n x 1 where n is the number of rows in rng. That is, its dimension is 1 to n, 1 to 1
Application.Transpose transposes the array. It has the added feature that when passed a n x 1 array it returns a 1D array length n. That is, its dimension is 1 to n
Join concatenates each member of the array, inserting Delimiter between each element.
Use it like this
In VBA
Sub Demo
Dim r as Range
Dim strResult as String
' Get a reference to the range to be processed, eg
Set r = Range("A1:A10")
' Call the function
strResult = MergeColumn(r, " OR ")
' Print Result to Imedieate window
Debug.Print strResult
End Sub
As a cell formula
=MergeText(A1:A10," OR ")

Answer 2

here is a simple example using For Each Loop
Dim cel as Range, rng as Range
Set rng = Range("A1","A5")
For Each cel in rng
With Range("B1")
If .Value = "" Then
.Value = cel
Else
.Value = .Value & "OR" & cel
End If
End With
Next
Using simple For Loop:
Dim rng as Range, i as integer
Set rng = Range("A1", "A5")
For i = 1 to rng.Rows.Count
With Range("B1")
If .Value = "" Then
.Value = rng.Range("A" & i)
Else
.Value = .Value & "OR" & rng.Range("A" & i)
End If
End With
Next
Using Do Loop
Dim rng as Range, i as integer
Set rng = Range("A1", "A5")
i = 1
Do Until i > rng.Rows.Count
With Range("B1")
If .Value = "" Then
.Value = rng.Range("A" & i)
Else
.Value = .Value & "OR" & rng.Range("A" & i)
End If
End With
i = i + 1
Loop
Hope this helps.

Answer 3

With a formula (assuming Apples is in A2 and B1 is blank):
=IF(ISBLANK(B1),A2,B1&" OR "&A2)
copied down to suit (and output in last row).

Answer 4

A simple solution. Feel free to modify the code.
I did not include much flexibility such as count last row.
Just a basic template to show you how to use for loop.
for li_row = 1 to 10
if str_file = '' then
str_file = cells(li_row,1).value
else
str_file = str_file + ' OR ' + cells(li_row,1).value
end if
next
cells(1,2).value = str_file

Answer 5

One more method ..it works upto last used row in column A
Tested
Sub testing()
Dim lrow As Integer
Dim erange As Range
Dim str As String
With ActiveSheet
lrow = .Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
str = ""
For Each erange In .Range("A2:A" & lrow)
If str = "" Then
str = erange.Value
Else
str = str & " OR " & erange.Value
End If
Next erange
MsgBox (str)
End With
End Sub