Creating a Search Engine in VBA for an Excel Spreadsheet

[elafis]

Hello all, I'm trying to update a masterfile spreadsheet which contains a whole load of employee names. In order to make it easier to navigate, I'd like to create a search bar (rather like that of google, where you type in the text box, click search, and it takes you to what you queried).

I've searched and searched but can't find anything that fits my exact spreadsheet, hence me asking here! I'm quite inexperienced with VBA coding but I get the basics as I did some work with C++ a few years back (I know it's different but, yeah, ya know).

My issue is, I have the names in rows, not columns, with the header as names, for instance, instead of having the title "Names" in A1, and then the names being displayed below the title vertically (B1, B2....), the title "Names" is in A1, and then the employee names are displayed horizontally (ie A2, A3....) I cannot change the way this is laid out as it's very specific to the work I'm doing.

I want to create a search bar, preferably in the employee sheet (called Upload Template) where you type in an employee name, for instance "John", and when you click the "Search" button, it takes you to the cell with the employee called John in it and the information relating to that employee, I'd like the search engine to search up anything with the name "John" for instance, if you just typed in "Jo" it would return any name with "Jo" in it (like using the * function in Excel).

Sorry if I'm being vague, if I've left anything out that could help please let me know! Thanks in advance

 

[AkaTrouble]

there is a built in find function just push CTRL + H keys

 

[elafis]

I know about this, but I'm wanting an actual search bar as I'm not the only one using it! Thank you

 

[S_Wish]

I`d create a macro, running after you edit a textbox field:
1. hide all rows of data
2. unhide rows, where instr(range("a1"),textbox.text)>0

 

[AkaTrouble]

i would probably go for freezing row 1 and creating a vlookup based on name put in A1 so it returns the row of that name to the top row

edit example

[TABLE="width: 332"]
<colgroup><col><col><col></colgroup><tbody>[TR]
[TD]name1[/TD]
[TD]address 1[/TD]
[TD]postcode 1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]name1[/TD]
[TD]address 1[/TD]
[TD]postcode 1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]name2[/TD]
[TD]address 2[/TD]
[TD]postcode 2[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]name3[/TD]
[TD]address 3[/TD]
[TD]postcode 3[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]name4[/TD]
[TD]address 4[/TD]
[TD]postcode 4[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]name5[/TD]
[TD]address 5[/TD]
[TD]postcode 5[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]name6[/TD]
[TD]address 6[/TD]
[TD]postcode 6[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]name7[/TD]
[TD]address 7[/TD]
[TD]postcode 7[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]


formula in b2 dragged across for as many columns needed

=VLOOKUP($A$1,$A:$C,COLUMN())

 

[elafis]

Hi akatrouble, surely this just returns the names in the columns, rather than rows (which I need)?
Appreciate the help!

 

[AkaTrouble]

if you have 10 columns one of which is Name it will return the contents of those ten columns from the row where name matches. if 20 columns drag the formula as far as needed

my example above i typed name1 in A1 and the other info was returned by the formula


if not what you are looking for then apart from userform or macro i can't think of a way sorry

 

[elafis]

Unfortunately that's not exactly what I'm looking for, I was thinking more of some sort of VBA code, but I greatly appreciate your feedback! :D