Editing the volumes is a no go from the start... They will not let me do
that. Read only! The postcode is always going to be there as well as the
surname and thus that would be the basis for the search.

Fortunately that data is consistent across the files and thus should be able
to do any accurate search...

Scott


"Toppers" wrote in message
...
More questions:

- Do you always have the post code, as this normally give a single hit
(unless the SMITHs oocupy a street! and even then the hits would be
small)?
If so, this could (should) be the search criterion i.e Lastname + Post
Code).

- Is the data sorted in any way and/or can it be sorted if required?

_ With data volumes you specify, it might be possible to merge the data
into one (temporary) file: how confident are you on the volumes and how
dynamic are they?

TIA

"Scott" wrote:

Basically my users data is info about themselves... i.e.

firstname, lastname, house #, street, district, postcode, tel #, credit
card
# and policy #

What I need to do is maybe have a stand alone userform that searches
*.xls
file in the current directory and either (a) displays ala SQL list all
the
matches or (b) bring up a list of row numbers for which these are in.

This would have to asking for more than 1 piece of info because obviously
if
you put "smith" in it would bring up numerous hits...

Thanks for your time

Scott
(I'm surprised this is very easy as I would imagine it is quite a common
thing to do???)

"Toppers" wrote in message
...
Scott,
Some questions:

- How is the data organised e.g from your example it could be fields
with
FirstName, SurName, City, PostCode?
- How do you want to enter your selection(s) e.g. via Userform?
- Where do you want to put the selected data?

As answers to your previous post indicate, this is unlikely to be
simple
but
more info is needed to make a judgement on how best to tackle it.


"Scott" wrote:

I need to be able to search 5 or 6 separate excel files that in turn
hold
around 10,000 rows of customer data each and find precise records...

For instance I need to find PAUL SMITH of LONDON with postcode E17
4AJ,
how
can I do this simply?

Unfortunately I do not have that option. The only option I have is to
search each of the files and as opposed to opening each one
individually
and
searching I'm sure there must be a way I can automatically search each
one
from one location and produce the desired results.

It doesn't matter if the code is slow and crude... I just need
something
to
get my teeth into!!!

Regards

Scott

Sorry for the repost, its just im sure there is a solution!