This count you are doing... it is in a single cell, right? If so, this
function should do what you want...

Function CountTextInCell(CellText As String, TextToCount As String) As Long
If Len(CellText) = 0 Then Exit Function
CountTextInCell = (Len(CellText) - Len(Replace(CellText, TextToCount, _
"", , , vbTextCompare))) / Len(TextToCount)
End Function

Just pass in the text from the cell. For example...

Sub Test()
MsgBox CountTextInCell(Sheet2.Range("A1").Value, "abc")
End Sub

Rick


"Colin Hempsey" wrote in message
...
I am trying to count how many times a specific string "abc" forms part of a
cell in a spreadsheet.

For example

abcgfd, abcdse, efgabc would be vaild and I would like to count these

abdcef, bcadef, cbaeds would not be valid and I would not want to count
these.

Can anyone help point me in the right direction?

Thanks.