How to Count the Number of a Specific Character in a Cell with Excel VBA

Question

I have a number of items in cells that are separated by dashes. I\'m trying to normalize the database by splitting rows so that each row contains only one entry. How do you

Answer 1

This will count the number of hyphens in the activecell

Sub test()
    a = Len(ActiveCell)
    my_txt = Replace(ActiveCell, "-", "", 1, -1, vbTextCompare)
    b = Len(my_txt)
    numb_occur = a - b
End Sub

Answer 2

Using hint from ron's function above I've created this formula and it worked fine :

=LEN(A1) - LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1, "-", ""))

Answer 3

Here's the UDF to count single string occurence in string:

Option Explicit
Function COUNTTEXT(ref_value As Range, ref_string As String) As Long

Dim i As Integer, count As Integer

count = 0
If Len(ref_string) <> 1 Then COUNTTEXT = CVErr(xlErrValue): Exit Function
For i = 1 To Len(ref_value.value)
    If Mid(ref_value, i, 1) = ref_string Then count = count + 1
Next

COUNTTEXT = count

End Function

Here's using Array formula:

=SUM(IF(ISERROR(SEARCH("-",MID(A1,ROW(INDIRECT("$1:$" & LEN(A1))),1))),0,1))

Entered using Ctrl+Shift+Enter.
Hope this helps.

Answer 4

Follow up to: davex, by davex.. :)

I had been looking all over trying to find a way to test same for find text string in a formula. This answer seems to work correctly for both formulas / not & fits in a 1 liner.. (am still pretty novice at vba, let me know if any better way(s) ) thanks.

If countChar(UCase(Selection.Formula), UCase("offset")) > 0 Then   'YES (thee? answer, works for both formulas / not)
'If countChar(Selection.Formula, "OFFSET") > 0 Then   'yes
'If countChar(Cells(ActiveCell.row, Selection.Column).Formula, "OFFSET") > 0 Then   'yes
'If countChar(Cells(ActiveCell.row, "BG").Formula, "OFFSET") > 0 Then   'yes
'If countChar(UCase(Selection), UCase("OffSET")) > 0 Then    'yes but not work on formula
'If Selection.Formula Like "*offset*" Then   'no (for eq)
MsgBox "YES" & Space(15), vbQuestion
Else
MsgBox "NO" & Space(15), vbQuestion
End If

NOTE: in place of variable "BG" above, i use permanent work cells to improve use for column BG example, work cell A3 has / shows: BG:BG

=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(CELL("address",$BG3),"$",""),ROW(),"")&":"&SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(CELL("address",$BG3),"$",""),ROW(),"")

you will also need to dim the work cell, at the top / before the vba:

Dim A3 As String
A3 = RANGE("A3")

pardon, tried 3 times to get all of code into 1 box. really suggest putting a code stop start icon in the toolbar.

Answer 5

I found this answer:

Sub xcountCHARtestb() 
     'If countCHAR(RANGE("aq528"), ".") > 0 Then    'YES
    If countCHAR(Selection, ".") > 0 Then 'YES
        MsgBox "YES" & Space(10), vbQuestion ', "title"
    Else 
        MsgBox "NO" & Space(10), vbQuestion ', "title"
    End If 
End Sub 


Sub xcountCHARtesta() 'YES
    MsgBox "There are " & countCHAR(Selection, "test") & " repetitions of the character string", vbQuestion 'YES
End Sub 

Function countCHAR(myString As String, myCHAR As String) As Integer 'as: If countCHAR(Selection, ".") > 1 Then  selection OR RANGE("aq528") '"any char string"
    countCHAR = UBound(split(myString, myCHAR)) 'YES
End Function 

Answer 6

This code might be of your help .. you can also use it as a UDF... :)

Function CountHypens(rng_Src As Range) As Long

'A VARIANT FOR SPLITTING CELL CONTENTS
Dim var As Variant

On Error Resume Next
var = Split(rng_Src.Value, "-", , vbTextCompare)

If Err.Number <> 0 Then
    Debug.Print "This cell does not have any hyphens."
Else
    CountHypens = UBound(var)
    End If
Err.Clear: On Error GoTo 0

End Function