Hi RV,

Probably the arbitrary Lookup's section within
http://cpearson.com/excel/lookups.htm may offer you some ideas on how to go
ahead with it.

I think u can set up one formula to evaluate how many occurrences of -- a --
is there, then use the above formula (after modifying) to output the row
number of occurrences

Thanks a lot,
Hari
India

"R.VENKATARAMAN" $$$ wrote in message
...
a trivial example

a a a s d f d g

normally in match and othere lookup function it goes to the first lookup
value
for example if want to find the ;position of a in the above row by using
match function
it will only give as 1
but I want 2 and 3 also. similarly for d.

kindly advise me how to go about.
though I am not an expert I am doing many customised programmes in vba.

thanks and regards.