Question: I have a string (for example: `"Hello there. My name is John. I work very hard. Hello there!"`) and I am trying to find the number of occurrences of the string `"hello there"`. So far, this is the code I have:

```vb.net
Dim input as String = "Hello there. My name is John. I work very hard. Hello there!"
Dim phrase as String = "hello there"
Dim Occurrences As Integer = 0

If input.toLower.Contains(phrase) = True Then
    Occurrences = input.Split(phrase).Length      
    'REM: Do stuff
End If

```

Unfortunately, what this line of code seems to do is split the string every time it sees the first letter of `phrase`, in this case, `h`. So instead of the result `Occurrences = 2` that I would hope for, I actually get a much larger number. I know that counting the number of splits in a string is a horrible way to go about doing this, even if I did get the correct answer, so could someone please help me out and provide some assistance?

Answer: 
Yet another idea:

```
Dim input As String = "Hello there. My name is John. I work very hard. Hello there!"
Dim phrase As String = "Hello there"
Dim Occurrences As Integer = (input.Length - input.Replace(phrase, String.Empty).Length) / phrase.Length

```

You just need to make sure that `phrase.Length > 0`.
You can create a Do Until loop that stops once an integer variable equals the length of the string you're checking. If the phrase exists, increment your occurences and add the length of the phrase plus the position in which it is found to the cursor variable. If the phrase can not be found, you are done searching (no more results), so set it to the length of the target string. To not count the same occurance more than once, check only from the cursor to the length of the target string in the Loop (strCheckThisString).

```
    Dim input As String = "hello there. this is a test. hello there hello there!"
    Dim phrase As String = "hello there"
    Dim Occurrences As Integer = 0

    Dim intCursor As Integer = 0
    Do Until intCursor >= input.Length

        Dim strCheckThisString As String = Mid(LCase(input), intCursor + 1, (Len(input) - intCursor))

        Dim intPlaceOfPhrase As Integer = InStr(strCheckThisString, phrase)
        If intPlaceOfPhrase > 0 Then

            Occurrences += 1
            intCursor += (intPlaceOfPhrase + Len(phrase) - 1)

        Else

            intCursor = input.Length

        End If

    Loop

```