 <p>The reason I believe this isn't working is you have no comparison try this. Other wise it will return 0 which is True. </p> <pre><code>KeepActive = "no match" For i = 1 To 500 If InStr(catchAll, Sheet4.Cells(i, 1).Value) &gt; 0 Then KeepActive= "match" exit for End If Next i </code></pre>