a way to find a string within merged cells

Question

I need to search through files within a directory for the occurrences of a string and return a count.

For testing I have put 4 workbooks with 5 worksheets each into C:\test directory. I am looking for a count of the occurrences of the word ammonia anywhere within the workbooks. The code I am using is retuning "0" even though I am certain it exists. I believe its because lookin does not work with merged cells. Are there any tricks for making this work?

Sub LoopThroughFiles()
Range("'sheet1'!A6:M10000").ClearContents

Dim directory As String, fileName As String, sheet As Worksheet, i As Integer, j As Integer
directory = "C:\Test\"
fileName = Dir(directory & "*.xl??")



i = 5
Do While fileName <> ""

i = i + 1

If fileName <> "" Then
Dim wbk As Workbook
With wbk
Set wbk = Workbooks.Open(directory & fileName)
End With


Dim sh As Worksheet
Dim found As Range
Dim count As Integer

For Each sh In wbk.Worksheets
    Set found = sh.Cells.Find(what:="Ammonia", LookIn:=xlFormulas)


    If Not found Is Nothing Then
       sh.Activate
       found.Select
        count = count + sh.Range(found.Address).Offset(0, 3).Value
       Else
    End If
Next sh
wbk.Close
End If



fileName = Dir()

Loop

Range("'Sheet1'!C2").Value = count

End Sub

Code is not finding the value in a merged cell.

Answer 1

Welcome to SO.

The code you have provided is close to what it should be. However, it will only find one occurrence per worksheet. I am not sure if that's by design, so in the following code I'm demonstrating how you can find all the occurrences per worksheet.

Also, I am not sure I understand the logic of how you increase the count in each loop. Currently your code finds the cell whose value is "Ammonia" and then goes 3 cells to the right and adds whatever value is there to count. Again I am not sure if that's by design.

Also, you don't need either of sh.Activate and found.Select.

Below is the code I would suggest, along with comments that explain how it works.

Option Explicit

Sub LoopThroughFiles()
'
' your code to loop through workbooks
'

Debug.Print numOfOccurrences("Ammonia", wbk) 'call the search function and print the number of occurrences to the immediate window

'
' your code continues
'

End Sub

Public Function numOfOccurrences(keyword As String, wb As Workbook) As Long

Dim sht As Worksheet
Dim found As Range
Dim count As Long
Dim firstOccurence As String
count = 0

For Each sht In wb.Worksheets 'loop through sheets
    Set found = sht.Cells.Find(what:=keyword) 'search for the first occurrence if any
    If Not found Is Nothing Then 'if the keyword is found once, then we need to search for more occurrences
        firstOccurence = found.Address 'store the address of the first occurence
        Do
            Set found = sht.Cells.FindNext(found) 'search for the next occurrence in the same sheet
            count = count + 1 'keep track of the number of occurences
        If found Is Nothing Then
            GoTo DoneFinding    'this deals with what seems to be a bug when using .FindNext with merged cells
        End If
        Loop Until found.Address = firstOccurence 'repeat until the search goes full circle back to the first occurrence
    End If
DoneFinding:
Next sht
numOfOccurrences = count

End Function