Find and Replace All With Excel VBA
What This VBA Code Does
These VBA macros will show you various ways to find and replace all for any text or numerical value.
Find/Replace All Within A Specific Worksheet
Sub FindReplaceAll()
'PURPOSE: Find & Replace text/values throughout a specific sheet
'SOURCE: www.TheSpreadsheetGuru.com
Dim sht As Worksheet
Dim fnd As Variant
Dim rplc As Variant
fnd = "April"
rplc = "May"
'Store a specfic sheet to a variable
Set sht = Sheets("Sheet1")
'Perform the Find/Replace All
sht.Cells.Replace what:=fnd, Replacement:=rplc, _
LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, _
SearchFormat:=False, ReplaceFormat:=False
End SubFind/Replace All Throughout Entire Workbook
Sub FindReplaceAll()
'PURPOSE: Find & Replace text/values throughout entire workbook
'SOURCE: www.TheSpreadsheetGuru.com
Dim sht As Worksheet
Dim fnd As Variant
Dim rplc As Variant
fnd = "April"
rplc = "May"
For Each sht In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
sht.Cells.Replace what:=fnd, Replacement:=rplc, _
LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, _
SearchFormat:=False, ReplaceFormat:=False
Next sht
End SubMultiple Iterations of Find/Replace At Once!
If you need to perform a bunch of find and replace actions at once, you can use Arrays to store your values.
Sub Multi_FindReplace()
'PURPOSE: Find & Replace a list of text/values throughout entire workbook
'SOURCE: www.TheSpreadsheetGuru.com/the-code-vault
Dim sht As Worksheet
Dim fndList As Variant
Dim rplcList As Variant
Dim x As Long
fndList = Array("Canada", "United States", "Mexico")
rplcList = Array("CAN", "USA", "MEX")
'Loop through each item in Array lists
For x = LBound(fndList) To UBound(fndList)
'Loop through each worksheet in ActiveWorkbook
For Each sht In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
sht.Cells.Replace What:=fndList(x), Replacement:=rplcList(x), _
LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, _
SearchFormat:=False, ReplaceFormat:=False
Next sht
Next x
End SubMultiple Iterations of Find/Replace At Once (Feeding From A Table)
You can also read my post describing how you can populate your Array variables from an Excel spreadsheet Table if you already have you list handy on your spreadsheet (sometimes it can be a pain typing all your values out inside your VBA code). Below is an example of how this can be accomplished.
Sub Multi_FindReplace()
'PURPOSE: Find & Replace a list of text/values throughout entire workbook from a table
'SOURCE: www.TheSpreadsheetGuru.com/the-code-vault
Dim sht As Worksheet
Dim fndList As Integer
Dim rplcList As Integer
Dim tbl As ListObject
Dim myArray As Variant
'Create variable to point to your table
Set tbl = Worksheets("Sheet1").ListObjects("Table1")
'Create an Array out of the Table's Data
Set TempArray = tbl.DataBodyRange
myArray = Application.Transpose(TempArray)
'Designate Columns for Find/Replace data
fndList = 1
rplcList = 2
'Loop through each item in Array lists
For x = LBound(myArray, 1) To UBound(myArray, 2)
'Loop through each worksheet in ActiveWorkbook (skip sheet with table in it)
For Each sht In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
If sht.Name <> tbl.Parent.Name Then
sht.Cells.Replace What:=myArray(fndList, x), Replacement:=myArray(rplcList, x), _
LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, _
SearchFormat:=False, ReplaceFormat:=False
End If
Next sht
Next x
End SubNotifying How Many Cells Were Changed
You may find yourself wanting to report out how many changes were made after your code has run. You can accomplish this by using the COUNTIF() function to count how many cells contain your Find value before you actually perform your find & replace.
The one downside to using the COUNTIF() function is it will not count multiple occurrences within a single cell. I could not figure out a way around this and if you know of a way to accomplish this please let me know in the comments section (this article might point you in the right direction).
Sub FindReplaceAll_CountReplacements()
'PURPOSE: Find & Replace text/values throughout entire workbook, notify user of how many cells were affected
'SOURCE: www.TheSpreadsheetGuru.com
Dim sht As Worksheet
Dim fnd As Variant
Dim rplc As Variant
Dim ReplaceCount As Long
fnd = "April"
rplc = "May"
For Each sht In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
ReplaceCount = ReplaceCount + Application.WorksheetFunction.CountIf(sht.Cells, "*" & fnd & "*")
sht.Cells.Replace what:=fnd, Replacement:=rplc, _
LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, _
SearchFormat:=False, ReplaceFormat:=False
Next sht
MsgBox "I have completed my search and made replacements in " & ReplaceCount & " cell(s)."
End SubUsing VBA Code Found On The Internet
Now that you’ve found some VBA code that could potentially solve your Excel automation problem, what do you do with it? If you don’t necessarily want to learn how to code VBA and are just looking for the fastest way to implement this code into your spreadsheet, I wrote an article (with video) that explains how to get the VBA code you’ve found running on your spreadsheet.
Getting Started Automating Excel
Are you new to VBA and not sure where to begin? Check out my quickstart guide to learning VBA. This article won’t overwhelm you with fancy coding jargon, as it provides you with a simplistic and straightforward approach to the basic things I wish I knew when trying to teach myself how to automate tasks in Excel with VBA Macros.
Also, if you haven’t checked out Excel’s latest automation feature called Power Query, I have put together a beginner’s guide for automating with Excel’s Power Query feature as well! This little-known built-in Excel feature allows you to merge and clean data automatically with little to no coding!
How Do I Modify This To Fit My Specific Needs?
Chances are this post did not give you the exact answer you were looking for. We all have different situations and it’s impossible to account for every particular need one might have. That’s why I want to share with you: My Guide to Getting the Solution to your Problems FAST! In this article, I explain the best strategies I have come up with over the years to get quick answers to complex problems in Excel, PowerPoint, VBA, you name it!
I highly recommend that you check this guide out before asking me or anyone else in the comments section to solve your specific problem. I can guarantee that 9 times out of 10, one of my strategies will get you the answer(s) you are needing faster than it will take me to get back to you with a possible solution. I try my best to help everyone out, but sometimes I don’t have time to fit everyone’s questions in (there never seem to be quite enough hours in the day!).
I wish you the best of luck and I hope this tutorial gets you heading in the right direction!
After 10+ years of creating macros and developing add-ins, I've compiled all the hacks I wish I had known years ago!
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Chris Newman
Chris is a finance professional and Excel MVP recognized by Microsoft since 2016. With his expertise, he founded TheSpreadsheetGuru blog to help fellow Excel users, where he shares his vast creative solutions & expertise. In addition, he has developed over 7 widely-used Excel Add-ins that have been embraced by individuals and companies worldwide.