On 24 Nov, 20:18, joeu2004 wrote:
On Nov 24, wrote:

as stated in the object, I need to find the maximum in an array of
strings, using VBA in Excel 2000. Of course I could use a (slooow)
linear search
[....]
I tried to use LOOKUP, but it doesn't work, since it expects the
array to be in ascending order, which of cours isn't the case,
otherwise I wouldn't need to LOOKUP at all (I'd just pick the first
element of the array).

I interpret that to mean that the array is not ordered at all, even in
descending order.

In that case, you must use a linear search to find the max or min of
anything.

VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP can do linear searches, as can MATCH. *Whether or
not they are faster than a VBA implementation, I cannot say with
impunity.

It might depend, in part, on what you want to find the max of. *String
comparisons? *Longest string? *Something else?

Hi,

you're perfectly right, the array is not ordered in any sense. My max
is defined in the sense of String comparison: I mean that for me,

"013" < "023"

and

"A03" "003"

in accordance to the Strcomp function.

Thanks,

Sergio