Microsoft® Visual Basic® Scripting Edition InStr Function | Language Reference Version 1

See Also

##### Description

> Returns the position of the first occurrence of one string within another.

##### Syntax

> InStr([start, ]string1, string2[, compare])

> The InStr function syntax has these arguments:

> Part | Description
> start | Optional. Numeric expression that sets the starting position for each search. If omitted, search begins at the first character position. If start contains Null, an error occurs. The start argument is required if compare is specified.
> string1 | Required. String expression being searched.
> string2 | Required. String expression searched for.
> compare | Optional. Numeric value indicating the kind of comparison to use when evaluating substrings. See Settings section for values. If omitted, a binary comparison is performed.

##### Settings

> The compare argument can have the following values:

> Constant | Value | Description
> vbBinaryCompare | 0 | Perform a binary comparison.
> vbTextCompare | 1 | Perform a textual comparison.

##### Return Values

> The InStr function returns the following values:

> If | InStr returns
> string1 is zero-length | 0
> string1 is Null | Null
> string2 is zero-length | start
> string2 is Null | Null
> string2 is not found | 0
> string2 is found within string1 | Position at which match is found
> start > Len(string2) | 0

##### Remarks

> The following examples use InStr to search a string:

> >     Dim SearchString, SearchChar, MyPos
> >     SearchString ="XXpXXpXXPXXP"            ' String to search in.
> >     SearchChar = "P"                        ' Search for "P".

> >     ' A textual comparison starting at position 4. Returns 6.
> >     MyPos = Instr(4, SearchString, SearchChar, 1)

> >     ' A binary comparison starting at position 1. Returns 9.
> >     MyPos = Instr(1, SearchString, SearchChar, 0)

> >     ' Comparison is binary by default (last argument is omitted).
> >     MyPos = Instr(SearchString, SearchChar)    ' Returns 9.

> >     ' A binary comparison starting at position 1. Returns 0 ("W" is not found).
> >     MyPos = Instr(1, SearchString, "W")

> Note The InStrB function is used with byte data contained in a string. Instead of returning the character position of the first occurrence of one string within another, InStrB returns the byte position.

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