Situation
Not always we want to lookup values based on one search parameter. For eg. Imagine you have data like below and you want to find how much sales Joseph made in January 2007 in North region for product “Fast car”?
Data:
Solution
Simple, use your index finger to scan the list and find the match 😉
Of course, that wouldn’t be scalable. Plus, you may want to put your index finger to better use, like typing . So, lets come up with some formulas that do this for us.
You can extract items from a table that match multiple criteria in multiple ways. See the examples to understand the techniques:
| Using SUMIFS Formula [help] | |
| Formula | =SUMIFS(lstSales, lstSalesman,valSalesman, lstMonths,valMonth, lstRegion,valRegion, lstProduct,valProduct) |
| Result | 1592 |
| Using SUMPRODUCT Formula [help] | |
| Formula | =SUMPRODUCT(lstSales,(lstSalesman=valSalesman)*(lstMonths=valMonth)*(lstRegion=valRegion)* (lstProduct=valProduct)) |
| Result | 1592 |
| Using INDEX & Match Formulas (Array Formula) [help] | |
| Formula | {=INDEX(lstSales,MATCH(valSalesman&valMonth&valRegion&valProduct, lstSalesman&lstMonths&lstRegion&lstProduct,0))} |
| Result | 1592 |
| Using VLOOKUP Formula [help] | |
| Formula | =VLOOKUP(valMonth&valSalesman&valRegion&valProduct,tblData2,7,FALSE) |
| Result | 1592 |
| Conditions: | A helper column that concatenates month, salesman, region & product in the left most column of tblData2 |
| Using SUM (Array Formula) [help] | |
| Formula | {=SUM(lstSales*(lstSalesman=valSalesman)*(lstMonths=valMonth)* (lstRegion=valRegion)*(lstProduct=valProduct))} |
| Result | 1592 |
Sample File
Download Example File – Looking up Based on More than One Value
Go ahead and download the file. It also has some homework for you to practice these formula tricks.
Also checkout the examples Vinod has prepared.
Special Thanks to
Rohit1409, dan l, John, Godzilla, Vinod
Similar Tips
- Excel SUMIFS Formula – What is it, how to use it & examples
- Excel SUMPRODUCT Formula – What is it, how to use it & examples
6 Responses to “Make VBA String Comparisons Case In-sensitive [Quick Tip]”
Another way to test if Target.Value equal a string constant without regard to letter casing is to use the StrCmp function...
If StrComp("yes", Target.Value, vbTextCompare) = 0 Then
' Do something
End If
That's a cool way to compare. i just converted my values to strings and used the above code to compare. worked nicely
Thanks!
In case that option just needs to be used for a single comparison, you could use
If InStr(1, "yes", Target.Value, vbTextCompare) Then
'do something
End If
as well.
Nice tip, thanks! I never even thought to think there might be an easier way.
Regarding Chronology of VB in general, the Option Compare pragma appears at the very beginning of VB, way before classes and objects arrive (with VB6 - around 2000).
Today StrComp() and InStr() function offers a more local way to compare, fully object, thus more consistent with object programming (even if VB is still interpreted).
My only question here is : "what if you want to binary compare locally with re-entering functions or concurrency (with events) ?". This will lead to a real nightmare and probably a big nasty mess to debug.
By the way, congrats for you Millions/month visits 🙂
This is nice article.
I used these examples to help my understanding. Even Instr is similar to Find but it can be case sensitive and also case insensitive.
Hope the examples below help.
Public Sub CaseSensitive2()
If InStr(1, "Look in this string", "look", vbBinaryCompare) = 0 Then
MsgBox "woops, no match"
Else
MsgBox "at least one match"
End If
End Sub
Public Sub CaseSensitive()
If InStr("Look in this string", "look") = 0 Then
MsgBox "woops, no match"
Else
MsgBox "at least one match"
End If
End Sub
Public Sub NotCaseSensitive()
'doing alot of case insensitive searching and whatnot, you can put Option Compare Text
If InStr(1, "Look in this string", "look", vbTextCompare) = 0 Then
MsgBox "woops, no match"
Else
MsgBox "at least one match"
End If
End Sub