Today, while answering a reader’s email, I wrote this VBA code,
If Target.Value = "yes" Then
'do something
End If
But I realized that my code would run only the Target cell has “yes” in it. It wont run if the target cell has “YES”, or “Yes” or “YeS”.
This is because by default, all VBA comparisons are binary. That means, “yes” ≠ “Yes”.
One quick work-around for this problem is to use UCASE to convert target.value to Uppercase and then compare, like this,
If UCASE(Target.Value) = "YES" Then
'do something
End If
But this seemed painful, especially, if I had to do similar comparison at multiple places in my code, I had to use UCASE() everywhere.
If only there is an option to tell VBA how to compare?!?
Well, there is an option.
Use Option Compare Text
If you write Option Compare Text at the top of your module, all the VBA comparisons with in that module will use Text comparison instead of Binary comparison. Thus, “yes” will be equal to “YES”.
Do you use Option Compare?
There are 3 settings for Option Compare.
Option Compare Binary: This is the default setting. Compares everything at binary level.Option Compare Text: Used for situations like this.Option Compare Database: Can be used only with MS Access VBA. Uses Database Table settings to determine how to compare.
This is the first time I have used Option Compare Text. But it seems like an elegant way to tell Excel VBA how to compare. I will be using it more often.
What about you? Do you use Option Compare? What are your favorite tips & tricks? Please share with us using comments.
More on Excel VBA
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- Introduction to VBA & Excel Macros
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10 Responses to “Multiple Find Replace with Power Query List.Accumulate()”
Note: The text-formula above miss a -1. The video is correct.
😀 sorry, I made the exact same mistake as you did - initially - in the video. {0..3} is one thing, and Table.RowCount(replacements) -->3 items ={0,1,2} is another thing.
1st question : you've created a new column to put the replacements in. how ca we replace in the original column without creating a new one ?
2nd question : how can we replace the value in the entire cell and not only the text (Using ReplaceValue instead of text.Replace) ?
Thanks you in advance
Chandoo, I would be very interested to have your answers in both Yassine's questions!
Thank you for sharing,
Vassilis
Thank you for this! I was just doing an assignment where I was having to replace words with other words in my Excel sheet. We are starting with the basics in my class, so I know I don't have a huge list that I would need to find and replace, but this is something that could be useful down the road for me!
Hi
This is nearly perfect for my needs thank you, however I would like just the "replace" to be the result if possible please, I have tried in vain adjusting the formula without success.
Thank you in advance
Thank you! Awesome tip, and very flexible, too.
My find/replace values were in non-adjacent columns of a table containing a bunch of other data. Worked prefectly and I am now a tiny bit less clueless.
Hi!!!
I have the same question that Yassine did.
I need to replace the values in the same column. I don't want to create a new column e then have to remove the old column.
How could I could that?
That's a real fun article. It inspired me to delve deeper into the topic of List.Accumulate. I can see how the function works, but it takes an additional step to imagine how one can use it for more complex applications.
Your example also made it into my article, together with some other use-cases. Would be great to get your opinion on which other areas you would include in the article.
Let me drop the link to the page so others can too find it for further reading: https://gorilla.bi/power-query/list-accumulate/
Expression.Error: The name 'replacements' wasn't recognized. Make sure it's spelled correctly.