Match The Nth Instance In Excel

Question

I am using the match function on spreadsheets and the spreadsheets have the same keywords but in different rows, I am attempting to get the row number and to do this I want to use the second instance of a keyword. How would this be done in VBA my current code is

Application.WorksheetFunction.Match("Hello", Range("A1:A100"), 0)

I was thinking about using the Index function, but I am not exactly sure how to use it.

Answer 1

Start the second match just below the first:

Sub dural()
    Dim rw As Long

    With Application.WorksheetFunction
        rw = .Match("Hello", Range("A1:A1000"), 0)
        rw = .Match("Hello", Range("A" & (rw + 1) & ":A1000"), 0) + rw
        MsgBox rw
    End With
End Sub

If you want the N ^th match, I would use Find() and a FindNext() loop.

EDIT#1:

Another way to find the N ^th instance is to Evaluate() the typical array formula within VBA. For N=3 , in the worksheet, the array formula would be:

=SMALL(IF(A1:A1000="Hello",ROW(A1:A1000)),3)

So with VBA:

Sub dural()
    Dim rw As Long, N As Long

    N = 3
    rw = Evaluate("SMALL(IF(A1:A1000=""Hello"",ROW(A1:A1000))," & N & ")")
    MsgBox rw
End Sub

Answer 2

Here is a method using Range.Find .

Option Explicit
Sub FindSecond()
    Dim rSearch As Range, C As Range
    Const sSearchFor As String = "Hello"
    Dim sFirstAddress As String

Set rSearch = Range("A1:A100")

With rSearch  'Note that search starts at the bottom
    Set C = .Find(what:=sSearchFor, after:=rSearch(.Rows.Count, 1), _
        LookIn:=xlValues, lookat:=xlWhole, searchorder:=xlByRows, _
        searchdirection:=xlNext, MatchCase:=False)
    If Not C Is Nothing Then
        sFirstAddress = C.Address
        Set C = .FindNext(C)
        If C.Address <> sFirstAddress Then
            MsgBox "2nd instance of " & sSearchFor & " on row " & C.Row
        Else
            MsgBox "Only one instance of " & sSearchFor & " and it is on row " & C.Row
        End If
    Else
        MsgBox "No instance of " & sSearchFor
    End If
End With
End Sub

Answer 3

There might be a better way, but this works:

=MATCH("Hello",INDIRECT("A"&(1+MATCH("Hello",A1:A100,0))&":A100"),0)

This would return the index of the second occurrence, by searching for the first occurrence and using that to define the range to search for the next one.