You can often use the Instr function in an unorthodox way to write more concise code. A typical example is when you need to test a single character:

' test whether CHAR contains a vowel' the standard wayIf UCase$(char) = "A" Or UCase$(char) = "E" Or UCase$(char) = "I" Or UCase$ _    (char) = "O"  Or UCase$(char) = "U" Then        ' it is a vowelEnd If' the more concise solutionIf InStr("AaEeIiOoUu", char) Then    ' it is a vowelEnd If

You can also use InStr to check the contents of a variable against a list of multi-character words, using a delimiter character that can’t appear in the word:

' test whether WORD contains the name of a season' the standard wayIf LCase$(word) = "winter" Or LCase$(word) = "spring" Or LCase$(word) = _    "summer" Or LCase$(word) = "fall" Then        ' it is a season's nameEnd If' the more concise wayIf Instr(";winter;spring;summer;fall;", ";" & word & ";") Then    ' it is a season's nameEnd If

In some sames you can even use InStr to replace a Select Case block, but you must pay a lot of attention to the number of characters in the arguments:

' convert a string in the range from "zero" to "nine" to the corresponding ' numeric value:' the standard waySelect Case LCase$(word)    Case "zero"        result = 0    Case "one"        result = 1    Case "two"        result = 2    Case "three"        result = 3    Case "four"        result = 4    Case "five"        result = 5    Case "six"        result = 6    Case "seven"        result = 7    Case "eight"        result = 8    Case "nine"        result = 9End Select' the more concise way' note that the longest word in the list is 5 characters long, so we must' pad shorter strings with the necessary number of semicolonsresult = InStr(";zero;;one;;;two;;;three;four;;five;;six;;;seven;eight;nine;", _    ";" & LCase$(word) & ";")  6