InStr Function (Visual Basic)
Returns an integer specifying the start position of the first occurrence of one string within another.
Public Shared Function InStr(_
ByVal String1 As String, _
ByVal String2 As String, _
Optional ByVal Compare As CompareMethod _
) As Integer
' -or-
Public Shared Function InStr(_
ByVal Start As Integer, _
ByVal String1 As String, _
ByVal String2 As String, _
Optional ByVal Compare As Microsoft.VisualBasic.CompareMethod _
) As Integer
Parameters
Start
Optional. Numeric expression that sets the starting position for each search. If omitted, search begins at the first character position. The start index is 1-based.String1
Required. String expression being searched.String2
Required. String expression sought.Compare
Optional. Specifies the type of string comparison. If Compare is omitted, the Option Compare setting determines the type of comparison.
Settings
The Compare argument settings are:
Constant |
Value |
Description |
|---|---|---|
Binary |
0 |
Performs a binary comparison |
Text |
1 |
Performs a text comparison |
Return Value
If |
InStr returns |
|---|---|
String1 is zero length or Nothing |
0 |
String2 is zero length or Nothing |
start |
String2 is not found |
0 |
String2 is found within String1 |
Position where match begins |
Start > String2 |
0 |
Exceptions
Exception type |
Error number |
Condition |
|---|---|---|
Start < 1. |
See the "Error number" column if you are upgrading Visual Basic 6.0 applications that use unstructured error handling. (You can compare the error number against the Number Property (Err Object).) However, when possible, you should consider replacing such error control with Structured Exception Handling Overview for Visual Basic.
Remarks
Typically, the InStr function is used when parsing strings.
Note
The InStrB function in previous versions of Visual Basic returns a number of bytes rather than a character position. It is used primarily for converting strings in double-byte character set (DBCS) applications. All Visual Basic 2005 strings are in Unicode, and InStrB is no longer supported.
Example
This example uses the InStr function to return the position of the first occurrence of one string within another.
' String to search in.
Dim SearchString As String = "XXpXXpXXPXXP"
' Search for "P".
Dim SearchChar As String = "P"
Dim TestPos As Integer
' A textual comparison starting at position 4. Returns 6.
TestPos = InStr(4, SearchString, SearchChar, CompareMethod.Text)
' A binary comparison starting at position 1. Returns 9.
TestPos = InStr(1, SearchString, SearchChar, CompareMethod.Binary)
' If Option Compare is not set, or set to Binary, return 9.
' If Option Compare is set to Text, returns 3.
TestPos = InStr(SearchString, SearchChar)
' Returns 0.
TestPos = InStr(1, SearchString, "W")
Requirements
Namespace:Microsoft.VisualBasic
**Module:**Strings
Assembly: Visual Basic Runtime Library (in Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll)
See Also
Concepts
Programming Element Support Changes Summary
Reference
InStrRev Function (Visual Basic)
StrComp Function (Visual Basic)