I am simply trying to find a user-input variable on the worksheet.

Dim itemn As String
itemn = "&5050"
Columns("a:a").Select
Find(What:=itemn, After:=ActiveCell, LookIn:=xlValues, _
LookAt:=xlWhole, SearchOrder:=xlByColumns, SearchDirection:=xlNext, _
MatchCase:=False).Activate

this code always returns the compiler error 'Object variable or With block
not set.'
This is the entire code. I do not recieve the error if use a set value in
place of 'itemn'. I also do not recieve the error if I do not set 'itemn' to
a value
anyone able to tell me why this happens???
thanks