Question

temps(X) = "set port name *** DESCRIPTION *** *** PORT ***   "

first = InStr(temps(x), "***")   ' find start postition 
last = InStr(InStr(1, temps(x), "***") + 1, temps(x), "***") 'find end

snip = Mid(temps(x), first, last)

MsgBox (snip)

Why does this result in the out put

*** DESCRIPTION *** *** PORT **

and not the expected *** DESCRIPTION ***

Cheers

Aaron

Answer 1

instr takes the parameters as string, startpos, len … so it’s failing because you’ve assumed the parameters are: string, startpos, endpos.

You can fix your code by doing this instead:

snip = Mid(temps(x), first, last - first)

Note as well that your construct:

last = InStr(InStr(1, temps(x), "***") + 1, temps(x), "***")

can be written more simply. Note that you’ve already done Instr(1, temps(s), "***") once when you got the value for first, so you can rewrite that line to the much more simple:

last = InStr(first + 1, temps(x), "***")