Looping VBA ranges and offsetting to specific table column and other values - arrays

Question

the VBA code below scans two different datasets/tables in excel against possible matches in Worksheet 2 (aka SecondaryTable) and Worksheet 1 (aka MainTable). Both “Main” and “Secondary” Tables are Table Objects in Excel:
Sub looping()
Dim lRow As Long
Dim lCol As Long
Dim lRow2 As Long
Dim lCol2 As Long
Dim wordsArray() As Variant
wordsArray = Worksheets("SecondaryTable").Range("A2:A" & lRow2).Value
Dim word As Variant
Dim cell As Range
Set sht = Worksheets("MainTable")
Set sht2 = Worksheets("SecondaryTable")
lRow = sht.Range("A1").CurrentRegion.Rows.Count
lCol = sht.Range("A1").CurrentRegion.Columns.Count
lRow2 = sht2.Range("A1").CurrentRegion.Rows.Count
lCol2 = sht2.Range("A1").CurrentRegion.Columns.Count
For Each cell In Worksheets("MainTable").Range("I2:I" & lRow)
For Each word In wordsArray
If InStr(cell.Value, word) > 0 Then
cell.Offset(0, -2).Value = cell.Offset(0, -2).Value & " " & word
End If
Next word
Next cell
End Sub
I wanted to ask if there is any good way (after several failed attempts and errors via VBA in the last couple of days) of doing the following:
Is there any way of offsetting the value identified into a specific Table column instead of counting columns to determine exactly where the data will be populated / should be offset to? I tried replacing cell.Offset(0, -2).Value with a Table reference to the column name such as “Results” however I kept getting errors.
Would there any specific way after the code finds a match from wordsArray = Worksheets("SecondaryTable").Range("A2:A" & lRow2).Value to return a different value from an adjacent cell located in Range("B2:B" & lrow2).Value? The secondary table contains partial keywords in one column via which the loop is executed and a second adjacent column that contains the full name. I tried offsetting the variable word e.g., word.offset(0,1).Value in an effort to pull the name from Column 2 but only got errors.
Secondary Table example
Column A (keywords) Column B(full string)
Dog big dog
Cat small cat

Answer 1

Since you say Tables are Table Objects in Excel: utilise that fact. These are called ListObject's in VBA.
Replace the various NameOf... strings with your actual names
Sub looping()
Dim wordsArray() As Variant
Dim FullWordsArray() As Variant
Dim wb As Workbook
Dim sht As Worksheet
Dim sht2 As Worksheet
Dim loSecondary As ListObject
Dim loMain As ListObject
Set wb = ThisWorkbook ' or specify a workbook
Set sht = wb.Worksheets("MainTable")
Set sht2 = ws.Worksheets("SecondaryTable")
Set loMain = sht.ListObjects(1) ' or by name: Set loMain = sht.ListObjects("YourTableName')
Set loSecondary = sht2.ListObjects(1)
' get two arrays, one for lookup, and the other for replacements
wordsArray = loSecondary.ListColumns("NameOfWordColumn").DataBodyRange.Value2
FullWordsArray = loSecondary.ListColumns("NameOfFullWordColumn").DataBodyRange.Value2
Dim WordIdx As Long
Dim SearchCol As Long
Dim UpdateCol As Long
Dim rw As Long
Dim lr As ListRow
SearchCol = loMain.ListColumns("NameOfColumnToSearch").Index
UpdateCol = loMain.ListColumns("NameOfColumnToUpdate").Index
For Each lr In loMain.ListRows
With lr.Range
For WordIdx = 1 To UBound(wordsArray, 1)
If InStr(.Cells(1, SearchCol).Value2, wordsArray(WordIdx, 1)) > 0 Then
With .Cells(1, UpdateCol)
.Value2 = .Value2 & " " & FullWordsArray(WordIdx, 1)
End With
End If
Next
End With
Next
End Sub