"Ron Rosenfeld" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 18:18:51 GMT, Oliver Annells
wrote:

This formula array entered (Ctrl+Shift+Enter) works without any VBA.

=MAX((TRANSPOSE(MID($A$18,ROW($A$1:INDEX(A:A,LEN ($A$18))),1))=MID($C5,ROW($A$1:INDEX(A:A,LEN($C5)) ),1))*TRANSPOSE(ROW($A$1:INDEX(A:A,LEN($A$18)))))

When I entered this the word was in C5 and the alphabet string was in
A18.



I made Alphabet a Defined Name.
With the alphabet string in F1,
Alphabet Refers To: =MID(Sheet1!$F$1,ROW(INDIRECT("1:99")),1)


This makes Alphabet an array constant with each letter a single
element, then:

array-entered:
=MAX(MATCH(MID(A1,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1))),1),A lphabet,0)) gives
the requested results.


Oliver, Ron -
Thanks to both of you for sharing a different approach!

--
Clif McIrvin

(clare reads his mail with moe, nomail feeds the bit bucket :-)