Find where named ranges are being used in big workbook

Question

I have a list of 594 named ranges in a workbook with nearly 20 sheets, each sheet has about 200 columns of data. I need to find out where the named ranges are being used so

Answer 1

Here is one way I can think of. I will explain this in 2 parts.

PART 1

Let's say we have a named range Sid.

This word Sid can appear in any one of these forms as shown in the image below. Why does it start with =? That has been explained in Part2 below.

=Sid    '<~~ 1
="Sid"  '<~~ 2
=XSid   '<~~ 3
=SidX   '<~~ 4
=_Sid   '<~~ 5
=Sid_   '<~~ 6
=(Sid)  '<~~ 7

Any other scenarios, I guess will be a subset of the above. Now out of these the only valid find in our case is the first one and the last one since we are looking for our named range.

So here is a quick function to check if the cell formula has a named range or not. I am sure it can be made more efficient

Function isNamedRangePresent(rng As Range, s As String) As Boolean
    Dim sFormula As String
    Dim pos1 As Long, pos2 As Long, sLen As Long, i As Long

    sFormula = rng.Formula: sLen = Len(sFormula)

    pos2 = 1

    Do
        pos1 = InStr(pos2, sFormula, s) - 1
        If pos1 < 1 Then Exit Do

        isNamedRangePresent = True

        For i = 65 To 90
            '~~> A-Z before Sid for example XSid
            If UCase(Mid(sFormula, pos1, 1)) = Chr(i) Then
                isNamedRangePresent = False
                Exit For
            End If
        Next i

        '~~> Check for " for example "Sid
        If isNamedRangePresent = True Then _
        If UCase(Mid(sFormula, pos1, 1)) = Chr(34) Then isNamedRangePresent = False
        '~~> Check for underscore for example _Sid
        If isNamedRangePresent = True Then _
        If UCase(Mid(sFormula, pos1, 1)) = Chr(95) Then isNamedRangePresent = False

        pos2 = pos1 + Len(s) + 1

        If pos2 <= sLen Then
            For i = 65 To 90
                '~~> A-Z after Sid for example SidX
                If UCase(Mid(sFormula, pos2, 1)) = Chr(i) Then
                    isNamedRangePresent = False
                    Exit For
                End If
            Next i

            '~~> "Sid
            If isNamedRangePresent = True Then _
            If UCase(Mid(sFormula, pos2, 1)) = Chr(34) Then isNamedRangePresent = False
            '~~> _Sid
            If isNamedRangePresent = True Then _
            If UCase(Mid(sFormula, pos2, 1)) = Chr(95) Then isNamedRangePresent = False
        End If
    Loop
End Function

So in the first and the last case, Debug.Print isNamedRangePresent(Range("D2"), "Sid") will give you True See this

PART 2

Now coming to the .Find. I see that you are searching only once in the worksheet. Since you can have many scenarios of the word Sid being present, you cannot just have one .Find. You will have to use .FindNext. See THIS link on how to use that. I have explained it there so I won't bother explaining that here.

We can make our .Find more efficient by searching only those cells which has formulas. To do that we have to use .SpecialCells(xlCellTypeFormulas). This explains why we had "=" in our example in PART1. :)

Here is an example (PART1 Code added at the bottom)

Sub Sample()
    Dim oRange As Range, aCell As Range, bCell As Range
    Dim oSht As Worksheet
    Dim strSearch As String, FoundAt As String

    Set oSht = Worksheets("Sheet1")

    '~~> Set your range where you need to find - Only Formula Cells
    On Error Resume Next
    Set oRange = oSht.Cells.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeFormulas)
    On Error GoTo 0

    If Not oRange Is Nothing Then
        strSearch = "Sid"

        Set aCell = oRange.Find(What:=strSearch, LookIn:=xlFormulas, _
                    LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, SearchDirection:=xlNext, _
                    MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False)

        If Not aCell Is Nothing Then
            Set bCell = aCell

            '~~> Check if the cell has named range
            If isNamedRangePresent(aCell, strSearch) Then FoundAt = aCell.Address

            Do
                Set aCell = oRange.FindNext(After:=aCell)

                If Not aCell Is Nothing Then
                    If aCell.Address = bCell.Address Then Exit Do

                    '~~> Check if the cell has named range
                    If isNamedRangePresent(aCell, strSearch) Then FoundAt = FoundAt & ", " & aCell.Address
                Else
                    Exit Do
                End If
            Loop
        Else
            MsgBox SearchString & " not Found"
            Exit Sub
        End If

        If FoundAt = "" Then
            MsgBox "The Named Range was not found"
        Else
            MsgBox "The Named Range has been found these locations: " & FoundAt
        End If
    End If
End Sub

Function isNamedRangePresent(rng As Range, s As String) As Boolean
    Dim sFormula As String
    Dim pos1 As Long, pos2 As Long, sLen As Long, i As Long

    sFormula = rng.Formula: sLen = Len(sFormula)

    pos2 = 1

    Do
        pos1 = InStr(pos2, sFormula, s) - 1
        If pos1 < 1 Then Exit Do

        isNamedRangePresent = True

        For i = 65 To 90
            '~~> A-Z before Sid for example XSid
            If UCase(Mid(sFormula, pos1, 1)) = Chr(i) Then
                isNamedRangePresent = False
                Exit For
            End If
        Next i

        '~~> Check for " for example "Sid
        If isNamedRangePresent = True Then _
        If UCase(Mid(sFormula, pos1, 1)) = Chr(34) Then isNamedRangePresent = False
        '~~> Check for underscore for example _Sid
        If isNamedRangePresent = True Then _
        If UCase(Mid(sFormula, pos1, 1)) = Chr(95) Then isNamedRangePresent = False

        pos2 = pos1 + Len(s) + 1

        If pos2 <= sLen Then
            For i = 65 To 90
                '~~> A-Z after Sid for example SidX
                If UCase(Mid(sFormula, pos2, 1)) = Chr(i) Then
                    isNamedRangePresent = False
                    Exit For
                End If
            Next i

            '~~> "Sid
            If isNamedRangePresent = True Then _
            If UCase(Mid(sFormula, pos2, 1)) = Chr(34) Then isNamedRangePresent = False
            '~~> _Sid
            If isNamedRangePresent = True Then _
            If UCase(Mid(sFormula, pos2, 1)) = Chr(95) Then isNamedRangePresent = False
        End If
    Loop
End Function

Output

PHEW!!!