MS Excel: InStr Function (VBA only)

In Excel, the InStr function returns the position of the first occurrence of a string in another string.

The syntax for the InStr function is:

InStr( [start], string_being_searched, string2, [compare] )

start is optional. It is the starting position for the search. If this parameter is omitted, the search will begin at position 1.

string_being_searched is the string that will be searched.

string2 is the string to search for.

compare is optional. This is the type of comparison to perform. The valid choices are:

VBA Constant Value Explanation

vbUseCompareOption -1 Uses option compare.

vbBinaryCompare 0 Binary comparison

vbTextCompare 1 Textual comparison

vbDatabaseCompare 2 Comparison based on your database.

Applies To:

Excel 2007, Excel 2003, Excel XP, Excel 2000

For example:

InStr(1, "Tech on the Net", "the") would return 9.

InStr("Tech on the Net", "the") would return 9.

InStr(10, "Tech on the Net", "t") would return 15.

VBA Code

The InStr function can only be used in VBA code. For example:

Dim LPosition As Integer

LPosition = InStr(10, "Tech on the Net", "t")

In this example, the variable called LPosition would now contain the value 15.