One way

Option Explicit
Sub countperiodsincell()
Dim mc As Long
Dim i As Long
Dim j As Long
Dim ic As Double
mc = 9 ' column I
For i = 3 To 6 ' first row to last row in range
ic = 0
For j = 1 To Len(Cells(i, mc))
If Mid(Cells(i, mc), j, 1) = "." Then ic = ic + 1
Next j
MsgBox ic
Next i
End Sub


--
Don Guillett
Microsoft MVP Excel
SalesAid Software

"Bubba" wrote in message
...
I am looking to count the number of periods within a single cell using vba.

For instance if I have 4 cells that contain the following:

5M09-0000700.01.10
5M09-0000700.01.10.10
5M09-0000700.01.10.10.10
5M09-0000700.01.10.10.20

Thus the output of the code for the first cell should be '2', the second
cell output would be '3', and the third/fourht cells would be '4' because
that many period characters were encountered. Data within these cells will
contain letters, numbers, periods, a few spaces and the "-" dash symbol.
Any
help is greatly appreciated!