VBA's Trim function does not work like the spreadsheet formula's TRIM
function... it only removes external blanks.. multiple internal blanks
will
remain. So, the above line will not reduce consecutive blank spaces to a
single blank; hence, your count would be incorrect in that situation.
Replace the above line with this...

a = s
Do While InStr(a, " ")
a = Replace(a, " ", " ")
Loop

Rick

Rick,

Instead of the loop, one could also use:

a = application.worksheetfunction.trim(a)

That's true... having been (and still am) a compiled VB person for more than
10 years now, I tend to think of solutions in terms of pure language code,
hence the loop. I have often wondered, though, is there a time (or
efficiency) penalty of any kind to pay for using
Application.WorkSheetFunction? I'm thinking since there is a time penalty to
pay when the spreadsheet world reaches into the VBA world for a solution,
that there is probably one to when going in the reciprocal direction too. Do
you know if that is the case?

Rick