CFLib.org – Common Function Library Project

Description:
Converts an Excel Column Name (AB) to its numeric column position (i.e. 28). Assumes column numbers are indexed starting from 1 (1=A,2=B,...)

Return Values:
Returns a number.

Example:

excelColumnNametoColumnNumber( "AB" );

excelColumnNametoColumnNumber( "CC" );

excelColumnNametoColumnNumber( "F" );

Parameters:

Full UDF Source:

<!---
 Converts an Excel Column Name to its numeric column position.
 
 @param columnNamePassIn      Column name (as string) to convert. (Required)
 @return Returns a number. 
 @author Nolan Erck (nolan.erck@gmail.com) 
 @version 1, August 22, 2011 
--->
function excelColumnNameToColumnNumber( columnNamePassedIn ) {
    var columnName = UCase( Trim( arguments.columnNamePassedIn ) ); // clean up our data a bit to make some ASCII math easier...
    var colLength  = Len( Trim( columnName ) );
    var cur_Char   = "";
    var index      = colLength;
    var columnNumber = 0;
    var expBase    = 26;
    var digitPlaceHolder = 0;
    var subTotal   = 0;

    while( index gt 0 )
    {
        cur_Char     = Mid( columnName, index, 1 );
        columnNumber = ( ( Asc( cur_Char ) - 64 ) * ( expBase ^ digitPlaceHolder ) );
        subTotal    += columnNumber;

        index--;        
        digitPlaceHolder++;
    }

    return subTotal;
}