It sounds like you have a data problem. there may be spaces or other
invisible characters in the cell with your numbers. Using Instr will avoid
that problem, but causes the problem you originally posted about. If any
stray characters are only the right side of your number, you can try

If InStr(1, Trim(.Value), Trim(MyCriteria),vbTextCompare) = 1 Then

rather than

If InStr(1, .Value, MyCriteria) 0 Then

--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy


"Dean" wrote in message
oups.com...
Thanks Tom for the reply.

I tried the suggested change but the code will not return any search
results.

The department numbers in column A are randomly scattered
EG:

column A
1
5
9
17
13
9
8
15
etc etc....