I know its a month later but I finally buckled down and worked on the code and got it to do what I wanted! Thanks to phileight for the starting point and pointers! I will post the code below (its not as neat and organized as the original but it works for me).
Sub dates()
' #'s data starts on line 2 col A-D date is in col F
' comb to look for is in line 1 col J-M this can also be stated as Column 10-13 numbers are usually easier to program
' where is the results going to be displayed. I will choose line 3 starting at col J or 10
' do you want exact match or box match. I am going to assume a box match
Dim tn(10), dn(10) ' these array variables will let me easily check for a box match
Range("l1:rdd5000").Select
Selection.ClearContents ' clear this space
Selection.Interior.ColorIndex = 0 ' remove coloring if any
Range("I1").Select ' moves cursor out of the way
cl = 13 'initial result display location
For b = 2 To 100 'starting point of the look up numbers column
Ln = 2
For y = 8 To 11: a = Cells(b, y): tn(a) = tn(a) + 1: Next y ' target #'s to look for loaded in array tn()
'set up a loop to look thru all of your data
For x = 2 To 5000 ' data starts on line 2 and goes thru 5000 change as appropiate end # is not critical can be well beyond available data lines
For y = 0 To 10: dn(y) = 0: Next y ' this clears the dn() array after every line checked
For y = 1 To 4 ' four data elements
If a = "" Then a = 5000: GoTo done ' terminate loop if out of data
a = Cells(x, y): dn(a) = dn(a) + 1: Next y ' this draw "x" is now in array dn()ready to be compared to tn()
GoSub compare 'a gosub is not an absolute requirement here but in my opinion makes the code less cluttered
done:
Next x
For c = 0 To 10: tn(c) = 0: Next c
cl = cl + 7
Next b
Exit Sub
compare: 'compare the two arrays and display whatever you choose
m = 0 ' will be used to count # of matches. this clears the variable before each use
For v = 0 To 9
If tn(v) = dn(v) Then m = m + 1
Next v ' at this point if all of the numbers are the same m will =10 order does not matter this macro looks for a box match
If m = 10 Then GoSub display 'again convienance
Return
display: ' display whatever we want I have chosen to show all six elements
Cells(Ln, cl) = Cells(x, 1): Cells(Ln, cl + 1) = Cells(x, 2): Cells(Ln, cl + 2) = Cells(x, 3): Cells(Ln, cl + 3) = Cells(x, 4)
Cells(Ln, cl + 4) = Cells(x, 5): Cells(Ln, cl + 5) = Cells(x, 6)
Ln = Ln + 1: cl = cl
Return
End Sub