Search for number and degree symbol

Question

I have a worksheet with a lot of other information as well as a section where elbows need to be categorized according to their degrees. I employ VBA. I can't just search for 45, 90, etc. using a Like or InStr function because it returns other content. To obtain the degree symbol and the number, I used the formula below, although it only returns values if both appear in the cell, not necessarily next to one another. Therefore, it causes problems if I enter data in the cell that reads "Qty 90 of 45° elbows" and "Qty 45 of 90° elbows."

For Each cell In Range("A1:A5000")
If InStr(cell.Value, ChrW(176)) > 0 And cell Like "*45*" Then
    cell.Offset(0,5).Value = "45 Degree"
End If
Next cell

I figure I can do a workaround and try to extract info from the cell, enter it into another one, and then search on that. But that's a pain. Any ideas?

Answer 1

The Instr and Like operators are not mutually excluding which means you are getting "false positives". Why not just a single Like a statement:

Sub Test()

Dim arr As Variant: arr = Array("Qty 90 of 45° elbows", "Qty 45 of 90° elbows", "Qty 90 of 145° elbows")

'Using Like expressions:
For Each el In arr
    Debug.Print el Like "*45°*"
Next

'Using Regular expressions:
With CreateObject("vbscript.regexp")
    .Pattern = "(?:^|\D)45°(?:$|\D)"
    For Each el In arr
        Debug.Print .Test(el)
    Next
End With

End Sub