Instr With a Wildcard

[Joshann]

Is it possible to use a wildcard with the Instr() function?

For example, if I want to determine if a string contains a string that has any alphabetic character followed by a hyphen, how would I do that? I need to use a wildcard because I want it to return false if the string contains a space followed by a hyphen. I only want it to return true if there is an alphabetic character followed by a hyphen.

The following doesn't work:

If Instr(strLookingIn, "?" & "-") > 0 Then

 

[modest]

? includes all characters:

If strLookingIn Like "*?-*" Then

Return true for all letters in the range a-Z:

If strLookingIn Like "*[a-Z]-*" Then True

If you're just looking for the <space> then hyphen:

If strLookingIn Like "* -*" Then False

 

[Joshann]

Thanks. That should work.