Check if a value is in an array or not with Excel VBA

You can brute force it like this:

Public Function IsInArray(stringToBeFound As String, arr As Variant) As Boolean
    Dim i
    For i = LBound(arr) To UBound(arr)
        If arr(i) = stringToBeFound Then
            IsInArray = True
            Exit Function
        End If
    Next i
    IsInArray = False

End Function

Use like

IsInArray("example", Array("example", "someother text", "more things", "and another"))

This Question was asked here: VBA Arrays - Check strict (not approximative) match

Sub test()
    vars1 = Array("Examples")
    vars2 = Array("Example")
    If IsInArray(Range("A1").value, vars1) Then
        x = 1
    End If

    If IsInArray(Range("A1").value, vars2) Then
        x = 1
    End If
End Sub

Function IsInArray(stringToBeFound As String, arr As Variant) As Boolean
    IsInArray = Not IsError(Application.Match(stringToBeFound, arr, 0))
End Function

Use Match() function in excel VBA to check whether the value exists in an array.

Sub test()
    Dim x As Long

    vars1 = Array("Abc", "Xyz", "Examples")
    vars2 = Array("Def", "IJK", "MNO")

    If IsNumeric(Application.Match(Range("A1").Value, vars1, 0)) Then
        x = 1
    ElseIf IsNumeric(Application.Match(Range("A1").Value, vars2, 0)) Then
        x = 1
    End If

    MsgBox x
End Sub

I searched for this very question and when I saw the answers I ended up creating something different (because I favor less code over most other things most of the time) that should work in the vast majority of cases. Basically turn the array into a string with array elements separated by some delimiter character, and then wrap the search value in the delimiter character and pass through instr.

Function is_in_array(value As String, test_array) As Boolean
    If Not (IsArray(test_array)) Then Exit Function
    If InStr(1, "'" & Join(test_array, "'") & "'", "'" & value & "'") > 0 _
        Then is_in_array = True
End Function

And you'd execute the function like this:

test = is_in_array(1, array(1, 2, 3))

The below function returns '0' if there is no match and a 'positive integer' in case of matching:

Function IsInArray(stringToBeFound As String, arr As Variant) As Integer 
    IsInArray = InStr(Join(arr, ""), stringToBeFound) 
End Function

Note: the function first concatenates the entire array content to a string using 'Join' (not sure if the join method uses looping internally or not) and then checks for a match within this string using InStr.

I would like to provide another variant that should be both performant and powerful, because

• it does not use the sometimes slower Match)
• supports String, Integer, Boolean etc. (not String-only)
• returns the index of the searched-for item
• supports nth-occurrence

...

'-1 if not found
'https://stackoverflow.com/a/56327647/1915920
Public Function IsInArray( _
  item As Variant, _
  arr As Variant, _
  Optional nthOccurrence As Long = 1 _
  ) As Long

    IsInArray = -1

    Dim i As Long:  For i = LBound(arr, 1) To UBound(arr, 1)
        If arr(i) = item Then
            If nthOccurrence > 1 Then
                nthOccurrence = nthOccurrence - 1
                GoTo continue
            End If
            IsInArray = i
            Exit Function
        End If
continue:
    Next i

End Function

use it like this:

Sub testInt()
  Debug.Print IsInArray(2, Array(1, 2, 3))  '=> 1
End Sub

Sub testString1()
  Debug.Print IsInArray("b", Array("a", "b", "c", "a"))  '=> 1
End Sub

Sub testString2()
  Debug.Print IsInArray("b", Array("a", "b", "c", "b"), 2)  '=> 3
End Sub

Sub testBool1()
  Debug.Print IsInArray(False, Array(True, False, True))  '=> 1
End Sub

Sub testBool2()
  Debug.Print IsInArray(True, Array(True, False, True), 2)  '=> 2
End Sub

While this is essentially just @Brad's answer again, I thought it might be worth including a slightly modified function which will return the index of the item you're searching for if it exists in the array. If the item is not in the array, it returns -1 instead.

The output of this can be checked just like the "in string" function, If InStr(...) > 0 Then, so I made a little test function below it as an example.

Option Explicit

Public Function IsInArrayIndex(stringToFind As String, arr As Variant) As Long

    IsInArrayIndex = -1

    Dim i As Long
    For i = LBound(arr, 1) To UBound(arr, 1)
        If arr(i) = stringToFind Then
            IsInArrayIndex = i
            Exit Function
        End If
    Next i

End Function

Sub test()

    Dim fruitArray As Variant
    fruitArray = Array("orange", "apple", "banana", "berry")

    Dim result As Long
    result = IsInArrayIndex("apple", fruitArray)

    If result >= 0 Then
        Debug.Print chr(34) & fruitArray(result) & chr(34) & " exists in array at index " & result
    Else
        Debug.Print "does not exist in array"
    End If

End Sub

Then I went a little overboard and fleshed out one for two dimensional arrays because when you generate an array based on a range it's generally in this form.

It returns a single dimension variant array with just two values, the two indices of the array used as an input (assuming the value is found). If the value is not found, it returns an array of (-1, -1).

Option Explicit

Public Function IsInArray2DIndex(stringToFind As String, arr As Variant) As Variant

    IsInArray2DIndex= Array(-1, -1)

    Dim i As Long
    Dim j As Long

    For i = LBound(arr, 1) To UBound(arr, 1)
        For j = LBound(arr, 2) To UBound(arr, 2)
            If arr(i, j) = stringToFind Then
                IsInArray2DIndex= Array(i, j)
                Exit Function
            End If
        Next j
    Next i

End Function

Here's a picture of the data that I set up for the test, followed by the test:

Sub test2()

    Dim fruitArray2D As Variant
    fruitArray2D = sheets("Sheet1").Range("A1:B2").value

    Dim result As Variant
    result = IsInArray2DIndex("apple", fruitArray2D)

    If result(0) >= 0 And result(1) >= 0 Then
        Debug.Print chr(34) & fruitArray2D(result(0), result(1)) & chr(34) & " exists in array at row: " & result(0) & ", col: " & result(1)
    Else
        Debug.Print "does not exist in array"
    End If

End Sub

You want to check whether Examples exists in Range("A1").Value If it fails then to check Example right? I think mycode will work perfect. Please check.

Sub test()
Dim string1 As String, string2 As String
string1 = "Examples"
string2 = "Example"
If InStr(1, Range("A1").Value, string1) > 0 Then
    x = 1
ElseIf InStr(1, Range("A1").Value, string2) > 0 Then
    x = 2
End If

End Sub