Delete all rows that dont contain a specific word.

**BPSJACK** · 03-14-2012, 09:24 AM

Hi,

I have a range of values in Column A (A4:A500) which have hundreds of detailed product descriptions, these descriptions vary but will always contain a keyword. I want to narrow this list down to one or two key products. Is there a way I can delete all rows which don't contain certain keywords. To keep things simple, lets say I wanted to keep all descriptions which contain "apple" or "pear".

Anyone know how I might do this so I can make it in to a macro. I've tried to use advanced filter but as descriptions vary I can't can't make it filter results which just contain specific words. Help would be much appreicated.

**arlu1201** · 03-14-2012, 10:24 AM

Do you have a few sample descriptions that you can post here?

**Dionysos** · 03-14-2012, 10:25 AM

Non-macro
Insert into B4: =IF(OR(ISERROR(FIND("APPLE",UPPER(A4)))=FALSE,ISERROR(FIND("PEAR",UPPER(A4)))=FALSE),TRUE,FALSE)
*When replacing APPLE and PEAR, insert new keywords in uppercase format
Copy down
Filter on TRUE to get rows you want to keep OR filter on FALSE and delete rows you don't want

**BarryTSL** · 03-14-2012, 10:36 AM

An example sheet attached but using VBA code. Cell H1 is used for the name you want to keep. But the code only hides the rows in case you want to search again later something different. Also starts at A4 until a blank cell is found but easily changed in the code to suit your application. And a quick reset button to unhide the rows again.

**BPSJACK** · 03-15-2012, 05:05 AM

Both good solutions, thanks for the response. I'll play around it the IF statements and see how I go. The macro works well but only filters one word at a time, what I'm really looking to do is narrow a long list of products down to a manageable list of 2 or 3.