Rory, you are thinking about this too hard, you somethning simple like this.
Sub dave() a = Array("d", "a", "v", "e") For Each x In a For i = 0 To 25 If Chr(Asc("a") + i) = x Then s = s & Chr(Asc("a") + i): Exit For End If Next i Next x MsgBox s End Sub
Bookmarks