HOWTO: Search for the Last Occurrence of a Substring

ID: Q168836

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual Basic Control Creation, Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 5.0
Microsoft Visual Basic Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions, 16-bit and 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0
Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) included with: - Microsoft Access versions 7.0, 97 - Microsoft Excel, versions 7.0, 97 for Windows - Microsoft Word 97 for Windows - Microsoft PowerPoint 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

The InStr() function provides a method to search for the first occurrence of one string (substring) inside another string. However, there is no intrinsic method to search for the last occurrence of a substring. This article provides a sample function written in Basic.

MORE INFORMATION

There are two main methods of searching for the last occurrence of a substring:

1. Searching from the right-hand end of the string and stopping when the

   first match is found.

2. Searching from the left-hand end of the string until no more matches are

   found, and remembering the location of the last match.

While the first method would seem the logical approach (and would be in a language such a C that allowed direct pointer manipulation), the second method is nearly always faster in Visual Basic using the InStr() function to search forward through the string.

This is because InStr() is highly optimized and many orders of magnitude faster than emulating the functionality via looping through the string using the Mid$() function to extract each character.

The code example below demonstrates the second method.

WARNING: Microsoft provides code/macro examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This code is provided 'as is' and Microsoft does not guarantee that the following code can be used in all situations. Microsoft does not support modifications of the code to suit customer requirements for a particular purpose.

NOTE: In versions of Basic that don't support the "_" line continuation character, the split lines must be entered on a single line when typing the code into the module.

Step-by-Step Example

1. Create a new project and add a module:

      Function InStrR(ByVal sTarget As String, _
                      ByVal sFind As String, _
                      ByVal iCompare As Long) As Long
      Dim P As Long, LastP As Long, Start As Long
        P = InStr(1, sTarget, sFind, iCompare)
        Do While P
          LastP = P
          P = InStr(LastP + 1, sTarget, sFind, iCompare)
        Loop
        InStrR = LastP
      End Function

2. In Visual Basic only, run the project and when the default Form1 is

   displayed, pause it.

3. To test this function, type the following line in the Debug/Immediate

   window, and then press the ENTER key:

      ?InStrR("The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog", "the", 0)

   You should see 33 as the result.

   Values for iCompare can be:

      0   Binary comparison
      1   Text comparison
      2   Database Comparison (Microsoft Access)

REFERENCES

Microsoft Visual Basic online Help topic "InStr."

Keywords          : kbprg kbVBp400 kbVBp500 kbhowto VB4WIN VBKBProgramming vbwin 
Version           : WINDOWS:4.0 5.0
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: October 2, 1997