Excel VBA wildcard search

Question

I currently have an Excel file with 1 column and many rows. The column holds a first name, last name, and possibly a middle name (EXAMPLE: John Abe Smith). I am writing a macro that has 1 textbox and 1 button. In the excel sheet I have a couple names:

Column A
--------
John Abe Smith
Cindy Troll Bee
Randy Row
Joe Jumbo
Katie Kool Kat

I want to write a macro that when I type something in the textbox and click the button, it will look in this column for the name. If it finds it, then just say "found" in a message box.

I want to use the wildcard "*" when searching the names, but I do not know how. I currently have some code like this, but the wildcard does not work:

Private Sub search_Click()
    For firstloop = 3 To 10
        If Range("G" & firstloop).Text = name.Text & "*" Then
            MsgBox "Found!"
            Exit Sub
        Else
            MsgBox "NOT FOUND"
        End If
    Next
End Sub

For example, let's say I type in " Troll " in the text box and I click the button. I want the loop to go through the column to find anything with "Troll" in it. The result from the example data would be just Cindy Troll Bee .

How could I go about doing this?

Answer 1

You can use Like operator ( case-sensitive ):

Private Sub search_Click()
    For firstloop = 3 To 10
        If Range("G" & firstloop).Text Like name.Text & "*" Then
            MsgBox "Found!"
            Exit Sub
        Else
            MsgBox "NOT FOUND"
        End If
    Next
End Sub

for case-insensitive search use:

If UCase(Range("G" & firstloop).Text) Like UCase(name.Text) & "*" Then

Also if you want to determine whether cell contains text (not only starts with text), you can use ( case-sensitive ):

If InStr(1, Range("G" & firstloop).Text, name.Text) > 0 Then

or ( case-insensitive )

If InStr(1, Range("G" & firstloop).Text, name.Text, vbTextCompare) > 0 Then

UPD:

If the point only to show msgbox , then I'd suggest to use Application.Match :

Private Sub search_Click()
    If Not IsError(Application.Match("abc" & "*", Range("G3:G10"), 0)) Then
        MsgBox "Found!"
    Else
        MsgBox "NOT FOUND"
    End If
End Sub

Answer 2

You can also avoid a loop and use the Range.Find Method. You can pass as option if you want it case sensitive or not. (By default it is not case sensitive.)

Set rngFound= Range("G" & firstloop).Find(name.Text & "*") 
If rngFound Is Nothing Then
    MsgBox "Not Found!"
Else           
    MsgBox "FOUND"
End If