How do I get a cell's position within a range?

Question

How would I go about getting the relative position of a cell within a range? Finding the position of a cell in a worksheet is trivial, using the Row - and Column -properties, but I am unsure of how to do the same within a range.

I considered using the position of the top-left cell in the range I want to find the position of a cell in, and just deduct it (-1) from the position of the cell in the worksheet, but it gets a little bit cumbersome. Is there a more elegant way to go about this?

My best attempt, including a test, so far is this:

Option Explicit

Sub test()
  Dim r As Range: Set r = Sheet1.Range("B2:E10")
  Dim c As Range: Set c = Sheet1.Range("C2")

  Debug.Print "Column in sheet: " & c.Column
  Debug.Print "Row in sheet: " & c.Row
  Debug.Print "Column in range: " & column_in_range(r, c)
  Debug.Print "Row in range: " & row_in_range(r, c)
End Sub

Function column_in_range(r As Range, c As Range) As Long
  column_in_range = c.Column - (r.Cells(1, 1).Column - 1)
End Function

Function row_in_range(r As Range, c As Range) As Long
  row_in_range = c.Row - (r.Cells(1, 1).Row - 1)
End Function

This gives the desired output:

Column in sheet: 3
Row in sheet: 2
Column in range: 2
Row in range: 1

But I wonder if there are any native functions I can use instead?

Answer 1

updated using variant provided by lori_m

But I wonder if there are any native functions ...

use this

Sub test()
    Dim r As Range, c As Range
    With Sheet1
        Set r = .[B2:E10]
        Set c = .[C2]
    End With
    If Not Intersect(r, c) Is Nothing Then
        Debug.Print "Column in sheet: " & c.Column
        Debug.Print "Row in sheet: " & c.Row
        Debug.Print "Column in range: " & Range(r(1), c).Columns.Count
        Debug.Print "Row in range: " & Range(r(1), c).Rows.Count
    End If
End Sub

output

Column in sheet: 3
Row in sheet: 2
Column in range: 2
Row in range: 1

Answer 2

There is no native way to do it. I also do what you have mentioned in the code above. However I put some extra checks.

Sub test1()
    Dim r As Range: Set r = Sheet1.Range("B2:E10")
    Dim c As Range: Set c = Sheet2.Range("C2") '<~~ Changed Sheet1 to sheet2
    Dim rng As Range

    On Error Resume Next
    Set rng = Intersect(c, r)
    On Error GoTo 0

    '~~> Check if the range is in main range
    If Not rng Is Nothing Then
        '
        '~~> Rest of your code
        '
    Else
        MsgBox c.Address & " in " & c.Parent.Name & _
               " is not a part of " & _
               r.Address & " in " & r.Parent.Name
    End If
End Sub

Answer 3

In my opinion there is almost native way to check it but result is a string required some additional manipulation. All you need to use is a proper construction of .Address property (according to MSDN ). Some examples:

Dim r As Range: Set r = Sheet1.Range("B2:E10")

Dim c As Range: Set c = Sheet1.Range("c2")
Debug.Print c.Address(False, False, xlR1C1, , r.Cells(0, 0))
        '>>result: R[1]C[2]
'-----------------------------------------------------

Set c = Sheet1.Range("e2")
Debug.Print c.Address(False, False, xlR1C1, , r.Cells(0, 0))
        '>>result: R[1]C[4]
'-----------------------------------------------------

Set c = Sheet1.Range("e5")
Debug.Print c.Address(False, False, xlR1C1, , r.Cells(0, 0))
        '>>result: R[4]C[4]
'-----------------------------------------------------

Answer 4

Take a look on MSDN to see more .

You can use something like :

MsgBox ActiveCell.Address(RowAbsolute:=True, _
                          ColumnAbsolute:=True, _
                          ReferenceStyle:=xlR1C1, _
                          External:=False, _
                          RelativeTo:=Range("B2"))

'Or shorter version :
MsgBox ActiveCell.Address(, , xlR1C1, False, Range("B2"))

But you'll have both information about row and column in the range, but not separately.

So you'll still need to extract these values from the answer (look like : R18C20 ) in two functions, so almost the same issue...

Answer 5

I'm not totally sure if this is what you are after. But here it goes:

Sub ts2()

    Dim test As Range
    Set test = Range("B2:E10")

    Dim topcorner As Range
    Dim testcell As Range

    Set topcorner = Cells(test.Row, test.Column)
    Set testcell = Range("D7")
    rel_row = testcell.Row - topcorner.Row
    rel_col = testcell.Column - topcorner.Column

End Sub

By this, you will find the relative position. But maybe you were looking for some built in function ? If this was not the thing you were after, please edit your post...