I use the Find function to find words in vba Excel

Question

Good morning people, I'm creating an excel Macro to find words and mark the word and the cell as well. I want to find the words I have in my Array. The problem I have is that it marks all the words that it finds, even if it's contained in another word. For example: I have the word skin, and it marks the word "A skin g" so it marks the word skin in the word Asking, and I only want the words "skin" to mark. Is there a way for me to change this?

Here I have my code.

 Dim med_Arr As Integer
    Dim ws As Worksheet
    Dim oRange As Range
    Dim wordToFind As String
    Dim Lista As Variant
    Dim cellRange As Range
    Dim Foundat As String
    
 
    
    
    For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets ' for
        Set oRange = ws.Range("M:M")
        ws.Activate
        Lista = Array("BRAKE", "OIL", "FALL", "CUT", _
        "EXPOSED", "COPPER", "TREND", "NO ALARM", _
        "NOT ALARM", "ALARM IN", "SORE", "BURN", _
        "SPARK", "FLUID", "PAIN", "BLOOD", "MOULD", _
        "HURT", "ITSELF", "SEVERED", "BLISTER", _
        "SELF RUN", "STAY UP", "SKIN", "STAYING UP", _
        "BUZZER", "HEAT", "LATCH", "SPLIT", "VOICE", _
        "FIRE", "SMOKE", "HOT", "FRAY", "VOLUME", _
        "BED EXIT", "COLLAPSE", "WARNING", "LABEL", _
        "HEART MO", "HHR", "RESPIRATORY MONITOR", _
        "COMMUNICATING", "HR NO", "10 C0", "CONTAMINATION", _
        "INGRESS", "EGRESS", "SAFETY", "INJURED", "DIED", _
        "FELL", "WARM", "TILT", "TIPP", "UNSTABLE", "ARC", _
        "VITAL SIGN", "SHOCK", "FLICKER", "ELECTROCUTED", _
        "SHARP", "SLICE", "LACERAT", "ELECTROMAG", "FLAM", _
        "IN HALF", "MUTILA", "EARLYSENSE", "EARLY SENSE", _
        "ENTRAP", "DROP")
        
        med_Arr = UBound(Lista) - LBound(Lista) 'LBound (0)
        For i = 0 To med_Arr 'for loop From 0 to Array Length
            wordToFind = Lista(i) 'saves word to find
            Set cellRange = oRange.Find(What:=wordToFind, LookIn:=xlValues, _
                            LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, SearchDirection:=xlNext, _
                            MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False) ' Finds first cell that contains at least one word and sets it to cell range
            If Not cellRange Is Nothing Then ' cell range exists then
                Foundat = cellRange.Address ' variable that contains address of cell that contains the word
                Do ' create variable textStart and set it to 1
                    Dim textStart As Integer
                    textStart = 1
                    Do
                        textStart = InStr(textStart, cellRange.Value, wordToFind) ' set position of current word found to textStart
                        If textStart <> 0 Then ' if textStart different than zero, then it didn't find anything
                            cellRange.Characters(textStart, Len(wordToFind)).Font.Color = RGB(250, 0, 0) ' font Color-red
                            cellRange.Characters(textStart, Len(wordToFind)).Font.Bold = True 'bold
                            cellRange.Interior.ColorIndex = 40 'background color to 40
                            textStart = textStart + 1 ' increase one to textStart (position)  to check if there's more words to look for in the rest of the paragraph
                        End If
                    Loop Until textStart = 0 ' loop again
                    Set cellRange = oRange.FindNext(After:=cellRange) ' set cellRange and find if there's another word in the rest of the paragraph
                Loop Until cellRange Is Nothing Or cellRange.Address = Foundat ' loop until cellRange is empty or the cellRange adress is equal to the current cell
            End If
        Next i
    Next

I appreciate your time and help.

Answer 1

Here's an approach using the VBsript Regexp object:

Option Explicit

Sub RunHighlights()
    Dim ws As Worksheet, c As Range
    'loop over worksheets
    For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets ' for
        For Each c In ws.Range("M1", ws.Cells(Rows.Count, "M").End(xlUp)).Cells
            If Len(c.Value) > 0 Then
                'highlight cell if any matches
                c.Interior.ColorIndex = IIf(HighlightWords(c) > 0, 40, xlNone)
            End If
        Next c
    Next ws
End Sub

'Highlight all words in a cell matching anything in WordList, 
'   and return number of matches
Function HighlightWords(c As Range) As Long
    Dim re As Object, txt As String, matches As Object, m, rv As Long
    Set re = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
    re.Pattern = "\b(" & Join(WordList(), "|") & ")\b" 'join word array to create pattern
                                                       '  \b = word boundary
    re.ignorecase = True
    re.MultiLine = True
    re.Global = True 'match whole text
    
    c.Font.Color = vbBlack 'reset any existing coloring
    Set matches = re.Execute(c.Value)
    For Each m In matches 'loop each match and apply font color
        Debug.Print c.Parent.Name, c.Address, m, m.firstindex, m.Length
        c.Characters(m.firstindex + 1, m.Length).Font.Color = vbRed
        rv = rv + 1
    Next m
    HighlightWords = rv 'return # of matches
End Function

'just returns an array of words to match on
Function WordList()
    WordList = Array("BRAKE", "OIL", "FALL", "CUT", _
        "EXPOSED", "COPPER", "TREND", "NO ALARM", _
        "NOT ALARM", "ALARM IN", "SORE", "BURN", _
        "SPARK", "FLUID", "PAIN", "BLOOD", "MOULD", _
        "HURT", "ITSELF", "SEVERED", "BLISTER", _
        "SELF RUN", "STAY UP", "SKIN", "STAYING UP", _
        "BUZZER", "HEAT", "LATCH", "SPLIT", "VOICE", _
        "FIRE", "SMOKE", "HOT", "FRAY", "VOLUME", _
        "BED EXIT", "COLLAPSE", "WARNING", "LABEL", _
        "HEART MO", "HHR", "RESPIRATORY MONITOR", _
        "COMMUNICATING", "HR NO", "10 C0", "CONTAMINATION", _
        "INGRESS", "EGRESS", "SAFETY", "INJURED", "DIED", _
        "FELL", "WARM", "TILT", "TIPP", "UNSTABLE", "ARC", _
        "VITAL SIGN", "SHOCK", "FLICKER", "ELECTROCUTED", _
        "SHARP", "SLICE", "LACERAT", "ELECTROMAG", "FLAM", _
        "IN HALF", "MUTILA", "EARLYSENSE", "EARLY SENSE", _
        "ENTRAP", "DROP")
End Function