Give this a try...

Function CountDots(S As String) As Long
CountDots = UBound(Split(S, ".")) - (Len(S) = 0)
End Function

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"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!