Why am I getting an error with Find in VBA?

Question

I'm trying to search for a string in a range using VBA. I've cobbled together some code but I keep getting a 1004 error at the "If Not" line:

Sub test1()

Dim wb As Workbook
Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim found_range As Range
Dim search_range As Range

Set wb = Workbooks("D1")
Set ws = wb.Sheets("Master data")

Set search_range = ws.Cells(147, 1).EntireRow

If Not Range(search_range).Find("Test") Is Nothing Then
    'match found
    Set found_range = Range(search_range).Find("Test")
    Debug.Print found_range.Column
Else
    MsgBox "No match found"
    'no match found
End If

End Sub

Any ideas as to why I'm getting the error?

Answer 1

I'm kind of confused with the double .Find
If your Range.Find method already returns a Range object once, there's no need to set it twice.

Also search_range is already a Range object, so need to try to encapsulate it in another Range() object.

In fact it's the reason, you are getting the error, because it expects a string inside the type-casted Range(<string>)

As @MathieuGuindon correctly pointed out:

It is the cause of the error, but the reason is because the unqualified Range call is a child object of whatever the ActiveSheet is, and you can't do Sheet1.Range(Sheet2.Cells(1, 1) , Sheet2.Cells(1,> 10)) - error 1004 is thrown in OP's code because ws isn't the ActiveSheet ; qualifying the Range call with ws would have fixed the error too... but yeah Range(someRange ) is definitely redundant.

Sub test1()

  Dim wb As Workbook
  Dim ws As Worksheet
  Dim found_range As Range
  Dim search_range As Range

  Set wb = Workbooks("D1")
  Set ws = wb.Sheets("Master data")

  Set search_range = ws.Cells(147, 1).EntireRow
  Set found_range = search_range.Find("Test")

  If Not found_range Is Nothing Then
      Debug.Print found_range.Address
  Else
      MsgBox "No match found"
  End if

End Sub

Answer 2

You could use:

Option Explicit

Sub test1()

    Dim wb As Workbook
    Dim ws As Worksheet
    Dim found_range As Range, search_range As Range

    Set wb = Workbooks("D1")
    Set ws = wb.Sheets("Master data")

    Set search_range = ws.Rows(147).EntireRow
    Set found_range = search_range.Find(What:="Test", LookIn:=xlValues, LookAt:=xlWhole)

    If Not found_range Is Nothing Then

        Debug.Print found_range.Column

    Else
        MsgBox "No match found"
        'no match found
    End If

End Sub

Note:

• i you want exact match you should use LookAt:=xlWhole