[RESOLVED] Excel - Identifying "valid" characters in two specific columns

Good afternoon everyone -

Here's my situation, I have two columns of information that I want to "validate" before the info in those cells is used in a series of macros.

The columns in question are AF and AG, and run from rows 3 through Range("M65536").End(xlUp).Row
The "valid" characters are numbers 1 through 0 and the apostrophe (').

If the cell contains "invalid" characters I want it to shade the cell red, change font to white, and add 1 to a an integer that will feed a message box that states it found "x" number of invalid cells.
If the cells all contain nothing but valid characters then the macro continues with no further action required.


My thanks to anyone that can help,
Frank M.

Try something like this (but it doesn't handle a single ' character):

Code:

---

Sub validate()
    Dim lastRow As Long
    Dim i As Integer
    Dim testVal1 As String
    Dim testVal2 As String
    Dim counter As Long
   
    lastRow = Range("af" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
   
    For i = 3 To lastRow
        testVal1 = Range("af" & i).Value
        If testVal1 <> "0" And testVal1 <> "1" And testVal1 <> "'" Then
            Range("af" & i).Interior.Color = vbRed
            Range("af" & i).Font.Color = vbWhite
            counter = counter + 1
        End If
        testVal2 = Range("ag" & i).Text
        If testVal2 <> "0" And testVal2 <> "1" And testVal2 <> "'" Then
            Range("ag" & i).Interior.Color = vbRed
            Range("ag" & i).Font.Color = vbWhite
            counter = counter + 1
        End If
    Next i
End Sub

---

Thanks vbfbryce, I'll give that a try. One question tho'...and I think I know the answer...do I have to make a seperate entry for each of the numbers? Ie., If testVal1 <> "0" And testVal1 <> "1" And testVal1 <> "2" And testVal1 <> "3" And testVal1 <> "4" And testVal1 <> "5" And testVal1 <> "6" And testVal1 <> "7" And testVal1 <> "8" And testVal1 <> "9" And testVal1 <> "'" ??

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were only trying to look for "0" or "1" or "'" rather than 1,2,3,4,5...

This:

Code:

---

If Not IsNumeric(testVal1) And Range("af" & i).PrefixCharacter <> "'" Then

---

will check for either a numeric value or an apostrophe.

Will that do what you're looking for?

I entered the code as above (including the "Not IsNumeric" modification) but it didn't catch an error that I purposefully enetered to test the code. I entered ";0615" in AF3 and the code passed right over it. All of my data will be four digits (times) with the possibility of an apostrophe in front of any times that start with a zero(s) in order to keep the full four digits (ie., '0030, '0615, 1230, etc.)

One concern - when you set testVal1 you used .Value, but when you set testVal2 you used .Text - was that a typo? Will it make a difference?

Thanks for your help,
Frank

Quote:

---

when you set testVal1 you used .Value, but when you set testVal2 you used .Text - was that a typo? Will it make a difference?

---

.value is the content of the cell, .text is the displayed content, which includes cell formatting


another method to test if the cell content is numeric

Code:

---

if val(cell.value = cell.value then

---

this will only work with whole numbers or decimal character of .

Quote:

---

All of my data will be four digits (times) with the possibility of an apostrophe in front of any times that start with a zero(s) in order to keep the full four digits (ie., '0030, '0615, 1230, etc.)

---

values preceded with ' are considered, by excel, to be strings, rather than numeric, so those with ' will by default justify to left of the cell, whereas numeric values will justify to right, though value will consider them to be the same, but not =

What about assigning my valid characters to an array and comparing the contents of each cell to the array? Or would I have to put in each possible times combo, ie., 0015, 0030, 0045, 0100, 0115, etc.?
Or maybe examining each character individually using Left, Mid, and/or Right?


Thanks,
Frank

I used the following...

Ext = Mid$(ActiveCell, f, 1)
If InStr(1, "'0123456789", Ext, vbTextCompare) <= 0 Then

Oops...not sure how that posted on me...should have continued lke this...

in place of...

Code:

---

If Not IsNumeric(testVal1) And Range("af" & i).PrefixCharacter <> "'" Then

---

And it seems to work great...


thanks,
Frank