This formula will give you the count of all the cells where Excel found “text” at any place.

But let’s say you want to count wildcard characters in a range, then you can write something like this:
=SUM(IF(NOT(ISERR(FIND("*",data))),1,0))

This formula should be entered as an array formula with Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Usually, wildcard can be “escaped” using a tilde (~), but the FIND function doesn’t understand wildcard characters like the SEARCH function does.

Here’s the code for t-test:

'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Procedure : TTESTM
' DateTime  : 10/29/2008 08:35
' Author    :
' Purpose   : To get the t-stat value when comparing two means with an optional input
'               for equal or unequal variances
'               by default the function assumes that the user is comparing means with unequal variances
' davg1 is the mean of first sample
' dcnt1 is the sample size of sample 1 
' dvar1 is the variance of first samaple 
' davg2 is the mean of second sample
' dcnt2 is the sample size of sample 2 
' dvar2 is the variance of second samaple 
' blnEqVar set TRUE to assume equal variance for the test
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Function TTESTM(davg1 As Double, dcnt1 As Double, dvar1 As Double, davg2 As Double, dcnt2 As Double, dvar2 As Double, Optional blnEqVar As Boolean = False) As Double
 
On Error GoTo TTESTM_Error
Dim dResult As Double, dNumer As Double, dDenon As Double, dPooledVar As Double
 
dNumer = davg1 - davg2
 
'if equal variances are not assumed
'http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/eda/section3/eda353.htm
If Not blnEqVar Then
	dDenon = Sqr((dvar1 ^ 2 / dcnt1) + (dvar2 ^ 2 / dcnt2))
Else
'if equal variances are assumed, then calculated the pooled variance
	dPooledVar = Sqr((((dcnt1 - 1) * dvar1 ^ 2) + ((dcnt2 - 1) * dvar2 ^ 2)) / (dcnt1 + dcnt2 - 2))
	dDenon = dPooledVar * Sqr((1 / dcnt1) + (1 / dcnt2))
End If
 
dResult = dNumer / dDenon
 
TTESTM = dResult
Exit Function
 
TTESTM_Error:
	TTESTM = Null
 
End Function

Code for degrees of freedom

'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Procedure : DOFTTESTM
' DateTime  : 10/29/2008 08:50
' Author    :
' Purpose   : To get the degrees of freedom for the t-test when comparing two means with an optional input
'               for equal or unequal variances
'               by default the function assumes that the user is comparing means with unequal variances

' dcnt1 is the sample size of sample 1 
' dvar1 is the variance of first samaple 
' dcnt2 is the sample size of sample 2 
' dvar2 is the variance of second samaple 
' blnEqVar set TRUE to assume equal variance for the test
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'
Public Function DOFTTESTM(dcnt1 As Double, dvar1 As Double, dcnt2 As Double, dvar2 As Double, Optional blnEqVar As Boolean = False) As Double
 
Dim dResult As Double, dNumer As Double, dDenon As Double
 
On Error GoTo DOFTTESTM_Error
'if equal variances are not assumed, then use a complicated formula to compute degrees of freedom
'http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/eda/section3/eda353.htm
If Not blnEqVar Then
	dNumer = ((dvar1 ^ 2 / dcnt1) + (dvar2 ^ 2 / dcnt2)) ^ 2
	dDenon = ((dvar1 ^ 2 / dcnt1) ^ 2 / (dcnt1 - 1)) + ((dvar2 ^ 2 / dcnt2) ^ 2 / (dcnt2 - 1))
	dResult = dNumer / dDenon
Else
	dResult = dcnt1 + dcnt2 - 2
End If
 
DOFTTESTM = dResult
 
Exit Function
 
DOFTTESTM_Error:
	DOFTTESTM = Null
 
End Function

Here’s my code for uppercase conversion:
(If you want to convert your text to lowercase, replace Ucase with Lcase function in the code)

One repetitive use I found is to create OR/AND conditions for Access queries. I copy-paste the field values of a column from Access, do some filtering and my conditions are ready. Then I use this concatfunc to create a string to use in my Access query.

For example, look at this print screen:

The Range A1:A4 houses the string condition I want to use in my Access query to restrict the fruits from my data. In cell B1 I have the formula

, and the return string from this function is listed in cell B1.

Now, all you have to do is copy and paste this in Access criteria and put a quotation mark at the start and at the end of this string.

I have found one more use of this when I want to store some values in an Array, using the Array function in VBA.

One more print screen:

In this example, I insert a comma (CHAR(44) instead of string OR, and this function returns a string that I can use in VBA to store these values in an array using Array function, after adding a quotation mark, of course, at the start and at the end.

Here are both:

Procedure:

Here’s the function:

An array formula using SUM and SEARCH

Another using COUNTIF:

This picture might make it clear:

If you want to have a value specific number of digits otherwise add zeros in front of it, this formula could be used:
=TEXT(A1,REPT(“0″,n))
where n is the number of digits you want.

So 4555 becomes 000004555 with formula =TEXT(4555,REPT(“0″,9))

This sub will return random text for the specified length and number of random texts needed.

“The following points provide suggestions for ways to enhance the performance of string operations:
Minimize concatenation operations when you can. You can use the Mid function on the left side of the equal sign to replace characters within the string, rather than concatenating them together. The drawback to using the Mid function is that the replacement string must be the same length as the substring you are replacing.

Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) provides a number of intrinsic string constants that you can use to replace function calls. For example, you can use the vbCrLf constant to represent a carriage return/linefeed combination within a string, rather than using Chr(13) & Chr(10).
String-comparison operations are slow. Sometimes, you can avoid them by converting a character in the string to an ANSI value. For example, the following code checks whether the first character in a string is a space:

The previous code is faster than the following: