InStr Function

Returns the position of the first occurrence of one string within another.

                      InStr([start, ]string1, string2[, compare])

Arguments

• start
  Optional. Numeric expression that sets the starting position for each search. The first character position is position 1. If this argument is omitted, search starts at the first character position.

  If the compare argument is specified, a start argument is required.

• string1
  Required. String expression being searched.

• string2
  Required. String expression searched for.

• compare
  Optional. Numeric value indicating the kind of comparison to use when evaluating substrings. See Settings section for values. If this argument is omitted, a binary comparison is performed.

  If this argument is specified, a start argument is required.

Settings

The compare argument can have the following values:

Return Value

The InStr function returns the following values:

Remarks

The following examples use InStr to search a string:

Dim MyPos

' This is a binary comparison because the last argument is omitted.
' Returns 3.
MyPos = InStr ("abcdefgh", "c")

' In this binary comparison, the uppercase "C" is not found
' in the lowercase string.
' Returns 0 (not found).
MyPos = InStr ("abcdefgh", "C")

' In this text comparison starting at the first position,
' the uppercase "C" is found in the lowercase string.
' Returns 3.
MyPos = InStr (1, "abcdefgh", "C", vbTextCompare)

Requirements

Version 1

See Also

Reference

InStrRev Function

Change History