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All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners Contents About ................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Getting started with Excel VBA ....................................................................................................... 2 Section 1.1: Opening the Visual Basic Editor (VBE) ..................................................................................................... 3 Section 1.2: Declaring Variables ................................................................................................................................... 5 Section 1.3: Adding a new Object Library Reference ................................................................................................. 6 Section 1.4: Hello World .............................................................................................................................................. 10 Section 1.5: Getting Started with the Excel Object Model ........................................................................................ 12 Chapter 2: Arrays ........................................................................................................................................................ 16 Section 2.1: Dynamic Arrays (Array Resizing and Dynamic Handling) ................................................................. 16 Section 2.2: Populating arrays (adding values) ....................................................................................................... 16 Section 2.3: Jagged Arrays (Arrays of Arrays) ........................................................................................................ 17 Section 2.4: Check if Array is Initialized (If it contains elements or not) ................................................................ 17 Section 2.5: Dynamic Arrays [Array Declaration, Resizing] ................................................................................... 17 Chapter 3: Conditional statements ................................................................................................................... 19 Section 3.1: The If statement ...................................................................................................................................... 19 Chapter 4: Ranges and Cells ................................................................................................................................ 21 Section 4.1: Ways to refer to a single cell ................................................................................................................. 21 Section 4.2: Creating a Range ................................................................................................................................... 21 Section 4.3: Oset Property ....................................................................................................................................... 23 Section 4.4: Saving a reference to a cell in a variable ............................................................................................ 23 Section 4.5: How to Transpose Ranges (Horizontal to Vertical & vice versa) ...................................................... 23 Chapter 5: Named Ranges ..................................................................................................................................... 25 Section 5.1: Define A Named Range .......................................................................................................................... 25 Section 5.2: Using Named Ranges in VBA ................................................................................................................ 25 Section 5.3: Manage Named Range(s) using Name Manager ............................................................................... 26 Section 5.4: Named Range Arrays ............................................................................................................................ 28 Chapter 6: Merged Cells / Ranges ..................................................................................................................... 29 Section 6.1: Think twice before using Merged Cells/Ranges .................................................................................. 29 Chapter 7: Locating duplicate values in a range ....................................................................................... 30 Section 7.1: Find duplicates in a range ...................................................................................................................... 30 Chapter 8: User Defined Functions (UDFs) .................................................................................................... 32 Section 8.1: Allow full column references without penalty ...................................................................................... 32 Section 8.2: Count Unique values in Range .............................................................................................................. 33 Section 8.3: UDF - Hello World ................................................................................................................................... 33 Chapter 9: Conditional formatting using VBA ............................................................................................. 36 Section 9.1: FormatConditions.Add ............................................................................................................................ 36 Section 9.2: Remove conditional format .................................................................................................................. 37 Section 9.3: FormatConditions.AddUniqueValues .................................................................................................... 37 Section 9.4: FormatConditions.AddTop10 ................................................................................................................. 38 Section 9.5: FormatConditions.AddAboveAverage .................................................................................................. 38 Section 9.6: FormatConditions.AddIconSetCondition .............................................................................................. 38 Chapter 10: Workbooks ........................................................................................................................................... 41 Section 10.1: When To Use ActiveWorkbook and ThisWorkbook ........................................................................... 41 Section 10.2: Changing The Default Number of Worksheets In A New Workbook .............................................. 41 Section 10.3: Application Workbooks ........................................................................................................................ 41 Section 10.4: Opening A (New) Workbook, Even If It's Already Open .................................................................... 42 Section 10.5: Saving A Workbook Without Asking The User ................................................................................... 43 Chapter 11: Working with Excel Tables in VBA .............................................................................................. 44 Section 11.1: Instantiating a ListObject ....................................................................................................................... 44 Section 11.2: Working with ListRows / ListColumns .................................................................................................. 44 Section 11.3: Converting an Excel Table to a normal range .................................................................................... 44 Chapter 12: Loop through all Sheets in Active Workbook ..................................................................... 45 Section 12.1: Retrieve all Worksheets Names in Active Workbook ......................................................................... 45 Section 12.2: Loop Through all Sheets in all Files in a Folder .................................................................................. 45 Chapter 13: Use Worksheet object and not Sheet object ...................................................................... 47 Section 13.1: Print the name of the first object .......................................................................................................... 47 Chapter 14: Methods for Finding the Last Used Row or Column in a Worksheet ..................... 48 Section 14.1: Find the Last Non-Empty Cell in a Column ......................................................................................... 48 Section 14.2: Find the Last Non-Empty Row in Worksheet ..................................................................................... 48 Section 14.3: Find the Last Non-Empty Column in Worksheet ................................................................................ 49 Section 14.4: Find the Last Non-Empty Cell in a Row .............................................................................................. 50 Section 14.5: Get the row of the last cell in a range ................................................................................................. 50 Section 14.6: Find Last Row Using Named Range ................................................................................................... 50 Section 14.7: Last cell in Range.CurrentRegion ........................................................................................................ 51 Section 14.8: Find the Last Non-Empty Cell in Worksheet - Performance (Array) ............................................... 51 Chapter 15: Creating a drop-down menu in the Active Worksheet with a Combo Box .......... 54 Section 15.1: Example 2: Options Not Included ......................................................................................................... 54 Section 15.2: Jimi Hendrix Menu ................................................................................................................................. 55 Chapter 16: File System Object ............................................................................................................................ 57 Section 16.1: File, folder, drive exists ........................................................................................................................... 57 Section 16.2: Basic file operations .............................................................................................................................. 57 Section 16.3: Basic folder operations ......................................................................................................................... 58 Section 16.4: Other operations ................................................................................................................................... 58 Chapter 17: Pivot Tables .......................................................................................................................................... 60 Section 17.1: Adding Fields to a Pivot Table .............................................................................................................. 60 Section 17.2: Creating a Pivot Table .......................................................................................................................... 60 Section 17.3: Pivot Table Ranges ............................................................................................................................... 63 Section 17.4: Formatting the Pivot Table Data ......................................................................................................... 63 Chapter 18: Binding .................................................................................................................................................... 64 Section 18.1: Early Binding vs Late Binding ............................................................................................................... 64 Chapter 19: autofilter ; Uses and best practices ........................................................................................ 66 Section 19.1: Smartfilter! .............................................................................................................................................. 66 Chapter 20: Application object ............................................................................................................................ 70 Section 20.1: Simple Application Object example: Display Excel and VBE Version .............................................. 70 Section 20.2: Simple Application Object example: Minimize the Excel window .................................................... 70 Chapter 21: Charts and Charting ......................................................................................................................... 71 Section 21.1: Creating a Chart with Ranges and a Fixed Name .............................................................................. 71 Section 21.2: Creating an empty Chart ..................................................................................................................... 72 Section 21.3: Create a Chart by Modifying the SERIES formula ............................................................................. 73 Section 21.4: Arranging Charts into a Grid ................................................................................................................ 75 Chapter 22: CustomDocumentProperties in practice .............................................................................. 79 Section 22.1: Organizing new invoice numbers ........................................................................................................ 79 Chapter 23: PowerPoint Integration Through VBA .................................................................................... 82 Section 23.1: The Basics: Launching PowerPoint from VBA .................................................................................... 82 Chapter 24: How to record a Macro ................................................................................................................. 83 Section 24.1: How to record a Macro ......................................................................................................................... 83 Chapter 25: SQL in Excel VBA - Best Practices ............................................................................................ 85 Section 25.1: How to use ADODB.Connection in VBA? ............................................................................................. 85 Chapter 26: Excel-VBA Optimization ................................................................................................................. 87 Section 26.1: Optimizing Error Search by Extended Debugging ............................................................................. 87 Section 26.2: Disabling Worksheet Updating ........................................................................................................... 88 Section 26.3: Row Deletion - Performance ............................................................................................................... 88 Section 26.4: Disabling All Excel Functionality Before executing large macros ................................................... 89 Section 26.5: Checking time of execution ................................................................................................................. 90 Section 26.6: Using With blocks ................................................................................................................................. 91 Chapter 27: VBA Security ....................................................................................................................................... 93 Section 27.1: Password Protect your VBA ................................................................................................................. 93 Chapter 28: Debugging and Troubleshooting ............................................................................................. 94 Section 28.1: Immediate Window ............................................................................................................................... 94 Section 28.2: Use Timer to Find Bottlenecks in Performance ................................................................................ 95 Section 28.3: Debugger Locals Window ................................................................................................................... 95 Section 28.4: Debug.Print ............................................................................................................................................ 96 Section 28.5: Stop ........................................................................................................................................................ 97 Section 28.6: Adding a Breakpoint to your code ..................................................................................................... 97 Chapter 29: VBA Best Practices ........................................................................................................................... 98 Section 29.1: ALWAYS Use "Option Explicit" .............................................................................................................. 98 Section 29.2: Work with Arrays, Not With Ranges ................................................................................................. 100 Section 29.3: Switch o properties during macro execution ................................................................................ 101 Section 29.4: Use VB constants when available .................................................................................................... 102 Section 29.5: Avoid using SELECT or ACTIVATE .................................................................................................... 103 Section 29.6: Always define and set references to all Workbooks and Sheets .................................................. 105 Section 29.7: Use descriptive variable naming ...................................................................................................... 105 Section 29.8: Document Your Work ........................................................................................................................ 106 Section 29.9: Error Handling .................................................................................................................................... 107 Section 29.10: Never Assume The Worksheet ........................................................................................................ 109 Section 29.11: Avoid re-purposing the names of Properties or Methods as your variables .............................. 109 Section 29.12: Avoid using ActiveCell or ActiveSheet in Excel ............................................................................... 110 Section 29.13: WorksheetFunction object executes faster than a UDF equivalent ............................................ 111 Chapter 30: Excel VBA Tips and Tricks .......................................................................................................... 113 Section 30.1: Using xlVeryHidden Sheets ................................................................................................................ 113 Section 30.2: Using Strings with Delimiters in Place of Dynamic Arrays ............................................................. 114 Section 30.3: Worksheet .Name, .Index or .CodeName ......................................................................................... 114 Section 30.4: Double Click Event for Excel Shapes ................................................................................................ 116 Section 30.5: Open File Dialog - Multiple Files ....................................................................................................... 117 Chapter 31: Common Mistakes ........................................................................................................................... 118 Section 31.1: Qualifying References ......................................................................................................................... 118 Section 31.2: Deleting rows or columns in a loop ................................................................................................... 119 Section 31.3: ActiveWorkbook vs. ThisWorkbook ................................................................................................... 119 Section 31.4: Single Document Interface Versus Multiple Document Interfaces ................................................ 120 Credits ............................................................................................................................................................................ 122 You may also like ...................................................................................................................................................... 124 About Please feel free to share this PDF with anyone for free, latest version of this book can be downloaded from: https://goalkicker.com/ExcelVBABook This Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals book is compiled from Stack Overflow Documentation, the content is written by the beautiful people at Stack Overflow. Text content is released under Creative Commons BY-SA, see credits at the end of this book whom contributed to the various chapters. Images may be copyright of their respective owners unless otherwise specified This is an unofficial free book created for educational purposes and is not affiliated with official Excel® VBA group(s) or company(s) nor Stack Overflow. All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective company owners The information presented in this book is not guaranteed to be correct nor accurate, use at your own risk Please send feedback and corrections to web@petercv.com GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 1 Chapter 1: Getting started with Excel VBA Microsoft Excel includes a comprehensive macro programming language called VBA. This programming language provides you with at least three additional resources: 1. Automatically drive Excel from code using Macros. For the most part, anything that the user can do by manipulating Excel from the user interface can be done by writing code in Excel VBA. 2. Create new, custom worksheet functions. 3. Interact Excel with other applications such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, Notepad, etc. VBA stands for Visual Basic for Applications. It is a custom version of the venerable Visual Basic programming language that has powered Microsoft Excel's macros since the mid-1990s. IMPORTANT Please ensure any examples or topics created within the excel-vba tag are specific and relevant to the use of VBA with Microsoft Excel. Any suggested topics or examples provided that are generic to the VBA language should be declined in order to prevent duplication of efforts. on-topic examples: ✓ Creating and interacting with worksheet objects ✓ The WorksheetFunction class and respective methods ✓ Using the xlDirection enumeration to navigate a range off-topic examples: ✗ How to create a 'for each' loop ✗ MsgBox class and how to display a message ✗ Using WinAPI in VBA VB Version Release Date VB6 1998-10-01 VB7 2001-06-06 WIN32 1998-10-01 WIN64 2001-06-06 MAC 1998-10-01 Excel Version Release Date 16 2016-01-01 15 2013-01-01 14 2010-01-01 12 2007-01-01 11 2003-01-01 10 2001-01-01 9 1999-01-01 GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 2 8 1997-01-01 7 1995-01-01 5 1993-01-01 2 1987-01-01 Section 1.1: Opening the Visual Basic Editor (VBE) Step 1: Open a Workbook Alt F11 Step 2 Option A: Press + This is the standard shortcut to open the VBE. Step 2 Option B: Developer Tab --> View Code First, the Developer Tab must be added to the ribbon. Go to File -> Options -> Customize Ribbon, then check the box for developer. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 3 Then, go to the developer tab and click "View Code" or "Visual Basic" Step 2 Option C: View tab > Macros > Click Edit button to open an Existing Macro All three of these options will open the Visual Basic Editor (VBE): GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 4 Section 1.2: Declaring Variables To explicitly declare variables in VBA, use the Dim statement, followed by the variable name and type. If a variable is used without being declared, or if no type is specified, it will be assigned the type Variant. Use the Option Explicit statement on first line of a module to force all variables to be declared before usage (see ALWAYS Use "Option Explicit" ). Always using Option Explicit is highly recommended because it helps prevent typo/spelling errors and ensures variables/objects will stay their intended type. Option Explicit Sub Example() Dim a As Integer a = 2 Debug.Print a 'Outputs: 2 Dim b As Long b = a + 2 Debug.Print b 'Outputs: 4 Dim c As String c = "Hello, world!" Debug.Print c 'Outputs: Hello, world! End Sub Multiple variables can be declared on a single line using commas as delimiters, but each type must be declared individually, or they will default to the Variant type. Dim Str As String, IntOne, IntTwo As Integer, Lng As Long GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 5 Debug.Print TypeName(Str) 'Output: String Debug.Print TypeName(IntOne) 'Output: Variant <--- !!! Debug.Print TypeName(IntTwo) 'Output: Integer Debug.Print TypeName(Lng) 'Output: Long Variables can also be declared using Data Type Character suffixes ($ % & ! # @), however using these are increasingly discouraged. Dim this$ 'String Dim this% 'Integer Dim this& 'Long Dim this! 'Single Dim this# 'Double Dim this@ 'Currency Other ways of declaring variables are: Static like: Static CounterVariable as Integer When you use the Static statement instead of a Dim statement, the declared variable will retain its value between calls. Public like: Public CounterVariable as Integer Public variables can be used in any procedures in the project. If a public variable is declared in a standard module or a class module, it can also be used in any projects that reference the project where the public variable is declared. Private like: Private CounterVariable as Integer Private variables can be used only by procedures in the same module. Source and more info: MSDN-Declaring Variables Type Characters (Visual Basic) Section 1.3: Adding a new Object Library Reference The procedure describes how to add an Object library reference, and afterwards how to declare new variables with reference to the new library class objects. The example below shows how to add the PowerPoint library to the existing VB Project. As can be seen, currently the PowerPoint Object library is not available. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 6 Step 1: Select Menu Tools --> References… Step 2: Select the Reference you want to add. This example we scroll down to find “Microsoft PowerPoint 14.0 Object Library”, and then press “OK”. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 7 Note: PowerPoint 14.0 means that Office 2010 version is installed on the PC. Step 3: in the VB Editor, once you press Ctrl+Space together, you get the autocomplete option of PowerPoint. After selecting PowerPoint and pressing ., another menu appears with all objects options related to the PowerPoint Object Library. This example shows how to select the PowerPoint's object Application. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 8 Step 4: Now the user can declare more variables using the PowerPoint object library. Declare a variable that is referencing the Presentation object of the PowerPoint object library. Declare another variable that is referencing the Slide object of the PowerPoint object library. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 9 Now the variables declaration section looks like in the screen-shot below, and the user can start using these variables in his code. Code version of this tutorial: Option Explicit Sub Export_toPPT() Dim ppApp As PowerPoint.Application Dim ppPres As PowerPoint.Presentation Dim ppSlide As PowerPoint.Slide ' here write down everything you want to do with the PowerPoint Class and objects End Sub Section 1.4: Hello World 1. Open the Visual Basic Editor ( see Opening the Visual Basic Editor ) 2. Click Insert --> Module to add a new Module : GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 10 3. Copy and Paste the following code in the new module : Sub hello() MsgBox "Hello World !" End Sub To obtain : 4. Click on the green “play” arrow (or press F5) in the Visual Basic toolbar to run the program: 5. Select the new created sub "hello" and click Run : GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 11 6. Done, your should see the following window: Section 1.5: Getting Started with the Excel Object Model This example intend to be a gentle introduction to the Excel Object Model for beginners. 1. Open the Visual Basic Editor (VBE) ctrl G 2. Click View --> Immediate Window to open the Immediate Window (or + ): 3. You should see the following Immediate Window at the bottom on VBE: GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 12 This window allow you to directly test some VBA code. So let's start, type in this console : ?Worksheets. VBE has intellisense and then it should open a tooltip as in the following figure : Select .Count in the list or directly type .Cout to obtain : ?Worksheets.Count 4. Then press Enter. The expression is evaluated and it should returns 1. This indicates the number of Worksheet currently present in the workbook. The question mark (?) is an alias for Debug.Print. Worksheets is an Object and Count is a Method. Excel has several Object (Workbook, Worksheet, Range, Chart ..) and each of one contains specific methods and properties. You can find the complete list of Object in the Excel VBA reference. Worksheets Object is presented here . This Excel VBA reference should become your primary source of information regarding the Excel Object Model. 5. Now let's try another expression, type (without the ? character): Worksheets.Add().Name = "StackOveflow" 6. Press Enter. This should create a new worksheet called StackOverflow.: To understand this expression you need to read the Add function in the aforementioned Excel reference. You will find the following: Add: Creates a new worksheet, chart, or macro sheet. The new worksheet becomes the active sheet. Return Value: An Object value that represents the new worksheet, chart, GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 13 or macro sheet. So the Worksheets.Add() create a new worksheet and return it. Worksheet(without s) is itself a Object that can be found in the documentation and Name is one of its property (see here). It is defined as : Worksheet.Name Property: Returns or sets a String value that represents the object name. So, by investigating the different objects definitions we are able to understand this code Worksheets.Add().Name = "StackOveflow". Add() creates and add a new worksheet and return a reference to it, then we set its Name property to "StackOverflow" Now let's be more formal, Excel contains several Objects. These Objects may be composed of one or several collection(s) of Excel objects of the same class. It is the case for WorkSheets which is a collection of Worksheet object. Each Object has some properties and methods that the programmer can interact with. The Excel Object model refers to the Excel object hierarchy At the top of all objects is the Application object, it represents the Excel instance itself. Programming in VBA requires a good understanding of this hierarchy because we always need a reference to an object to be able to call a Method or to Set/Get a property. The (very simplified) Excel Object Model can be represented as, Application Workbooks Workbook Worksheets Worksheet Range A more detail version for the Worksheet Object (as it is in Excel 2007) is shown below, GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 14 The full Excel Object Model can be found here. Finally some objects may have events (ex: Workbook.WindowActivate) that are also part of the Excel Object Model. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 15 Chapter 2: Arrays Section 2.1: Dynamic Arrays (Array Resizing and Dynamic Handling) Due to not being Excel-VBA exclusive contents this Example has been moved to VBA documentation. Link: Dynamic Arrays (Array Resizing and Dynamic Handling) Section 2.2: Populating arrays (adding values) There are multiple ways to populate an array. Directly 'one-dimensional Dim arrayDirect1D(2) As String arrayDirect(0) = "A" arrayDirect(1) = "B" arrayDirect(2) = "C" 'multi-dimensional (in this case 3D) Dim arrayDirectMulti(1, 1, 2) arrayDirectMulti(0, 0, 0) = "A" arrayDirectMulti(0, 0, 1) = "B" arrayDirectMulti(0, 0, 2) = "C" arrayDirectMulti(0, 1, 0) = "D" '... Using Array() function 'one-dimensional only Dim array1D As Variant 'has to be type variant array1D = Array(1, 2, "A") '-> array1D(0) = 1, array1D(1) = 2, array1D(2) = "A" From range Dim arrayRange As Variant 'has to be type variant 'putting ranges in an array always creates a 2D array (even if only 1 row or column) 'starting at 1 and not 0, first dimension is the row and the second the column arrayRange = Range("A1:C10").Value '-> arrayRange(1,1) = value in A1 '-> arrayRange(1,2) = value in B1 '-> arrayRange(5,3) = value in C5 '... 'Yoo can get an one-dimensional array from a range (row or column) 'by using the worksheet functions index and transpose: 'one row from range into 1D-Array: arrayRange = Application.WorksheetFunction.Index(Range("A1:C10").Value, 3, 0) '-> row 3 of range into 1D-Array '-> arrayRange(1) = value in A3, arrayRange(2) = value in B3, arrayRange(3) = value in C3 'one column into 1D-Array: 'limited to 65536 rows in the column, reason: limit of .Transpose GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 16 arrayRange = Application.WorksheetFunction.Index( _ Application.WorksheetFunction.Transpose(Range("A1:C10").Value), 2, 0) '-> column 2 of range into 1D-Array '-> arrayRange(1) = value in B1, arrayRange(2) = value in B2, arrayRange(3) = value in B3 '... 'By using Evaluate() - shorthand [] - you can transfer the 'range to an array and change the values at the same time. 'This is equivalent to an array formula in the sheet: arrayRange = [(A1:C10*3)] arrayRange = [(A1:C10&"_test")] arrayRange = [(A1:B10*C1:C10)] '... 2D with Evaluate() Dim array2D As Variant '[] ist a shorthand for evaluate() 'Arrays defined with evaluate start at 1 not 0 array2D = [{"1A","1B","1C";"2A","2B","3B"}] '-> array2D(1,1) = "1A", array2D(1,2) = "1B", array2D(2,1) = "2A" ... 'if you want to use a string to fill the 2D-Array: Dim strValues As String strValues = "{""1A"",""1B"",""1C"";""2A"",""2B"",""2C""}" array2D = Evaluate(strValues) Using Split() function Dim arraySplit As Variant 'has to be type variant arraySplit = Split("a,b,c", ",") '-> arraySplit(0) = "a", arraySplit(1) = "b", arraySplit(2) = "c" Section 2.3: Jagged Arrays (Arrays of Arrays) Due to not being Excel-VBA exclusive contents this Example has been moved to VBA documentation. Link: Jagged Arrays (Arrays of Arrays) Section 2.4: Check if Array is Initialized (If it contains elements or not) A common problem might be trying to iterate over Array which has no values in it. For example: Dim myArray() As Integer For i = 0 To UBound(myArray) 'Will result in a "Subscript Out of Range" error To avoid this issue, and to check if an Array contains elements, use this oneliner: If Not Not myArray Then MsgBox UBound(myArray) Else MsgBox "myArray not initialised" Section 2.5: Dynamic Arrays [Array Declaration, Resizing] Sub Array_clarity() Dim arr() As Variant 'creates an empty array Dim x As Long Dim y As Long GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 17 x = Range("A1", Range("A1").End(xlDown)).Cells.Count y = Range("A1", Range("A1").End(xlToRight)).Cells.Count ReDim arr(0 To x, 0 To y) 'fixing the size of the array For x = LBound(arr, 1) To UBound(arr, 1) For y = LBound(arr, 2) To UBound(arr, 2) arr(x, y) = Range("A1").Offset(x, y) 'storing the value of Range("A1:E10") from activesheet in x and y variables Next Next 'Put it on the same sheet according to the declaration: Range("A14").Resize(UBound(arr, 1), UBound(arr, 2)).Value = arr End Sub GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 18 Chapter 3: Conditional statements Section 3.1: The If statement The If control statement allows different code to be executed depending upon the evaluation of a conditional (Boolean) statement. A conditional statement is one that evaluates to either True or False, e.g. x > 2. There are three patterns that can be used when implementing an If statement, which are described below. Note that an If conditional evaluation is always followed by a Then. 1. Evaluating one If conditional statement and doing something if it is True Single line If statement This is the shortest way to use an If and it is useful when only one statement needs to be carried out upon a True evaluation. When using this syntax, all of the code must be on a single line. Do not include an End If at the end of the line. If [Some condition is True] Then [Do something] If block If multiple lines of code need to be executed upon a True evaluation, an If block may be used. If [Some condition is True] Then [Do some things] End If Note that, if a multi-line If block is used, a corresponding End If is required. 2. Evaluating one conditional If statement, doing one thing if it is True and doing something else if it is False Single line If, Else statement This may be used if one statement is to be carried out upon a True evaluation and a different statement is to be carried out on a False evaluation. Be careful using this syntax, as it is often less clear to readers that there is an Else statement. When using this syntax, all of the code must be on a single line. Do not include an End If at the end of the line. If [Some condition is True] Then [Do something] Else [Do something else] If, Else block Use an If, Else block to add clarity to your code, or if multiple lines of code need to be executed under either a True or a False evaluation. If [Some condition is True] Then [Do some things] Else [Do some other things] End If Note that, if a multi-line If block is used, a corresponding End If is required. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 19 3. Evaluating many conditional statements, when preceding statements are all False, and doing something different for each one This pattern is the most general use of If and would be used when there are many non-overlapping conditions that require different treatment. Unlike the first two patterns, this case requires the use of an If block, even if only one line of code will be executed for each condition. If, ElseIf, ..., Else block Instead of having to create many If blocks one below another, an ElseIf may be used evaluate an extra condition. The ElseIf is only evaluated if any preceding If evaluation is False. If [Some condition is True] Then [Do some thing(s)] ElseIf [Some other condition is True] Then [Do some different thing(s)] Else 'Everything above has evaluated to False [Do some other thing(s)] End If As many ElseIf control statements may be included between an If and an End If as required. An Else control statement is not required when using ElseIf (although it is recommended), but if it is included, it must be the final control statement before the End If. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 20 Chapter 4: Ranges and Cells Section 4.1: Ways to refer to a single cell The simplest way to refer to a single cell on the current Excel worksheet is simply to enclose the A1 form of its reference in square brackets: [a3] = "Hello!" Note that square brackets are just convenient syntactic sugar for the Evaluate method of the Application object, so technically, this is identical to the following code: Application.Evaluate("a3") = "Hello!" You could also call the Cells method which takes a row and a column and returns a cell reference. Cells(3, 1).Formula = "=A1+A2" Remember that whenever you pass a row and a column to Excel from VBA, the row is always first, followed by the column, which is confusing because it is the opposite of the common A1 notation where the column appears first. In both of these examples, we did not specify a worksheet, so Excel will use the active sheet (the sheet that is in front in the user interface). You can specify the active sheet explicitly: ActiveSheet.Cells(3, 1).Formula = "=SUM(A1:A2)" Or you can provide the name of a particular sheet: Sheets("Sheet2").Cells(3, 1).Formula = "=SUM(A1:A2)" There are a wide variety of methods that can be used to get from one range to another. For example, the Rows method can be used to get to the individual rows of any range, and the Cells method can be used to get to individual cells of a row or column, so the following code refers to cell C1: ActiveSheet.Rows(1).Cells(3).Formula = "hi!" Section 4.2: Creating a Range A Range cannot be created or populated the same way a string would: Sub RangeTest() Dim s As String Dim r As Range 'Specific Type of Object, with members like Address, WrapText, AutoFill, etc. ' This is how we fill a String: s = "Hello World!" ' But we cannot do this for a Range: r = Range("A1") '//Run. Err.: 91 Object variable or With block variable not set// ' We have to use the Object approach, using keyword Set: Set r = Range("A1") End Sub GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 21 It is considered best practice to qualify your references, so from now on we will use the same approach here. More about Creating Object Variables (e.g. Range) on MSDN . More about Set Statement on MSDN. There are different ways to create the same Range: Sub SetRangeVariable() Dim ws As Worksheet Dim r As Range Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(1) ' The first Worksheet in Workbook with this code in it ' These are all equivalent: Set r = ws.Range("A2") Set r = ws.Range("A" & 2) Set r = ws.Cells(2, 1) ' The cell in row number 2, column number 1 Set r = ws.[A2] 'Shorthand notation of Range. Set r = Range("NamedRangeInA2") 'If the cell A2 is named NamedRangeInA2. Note, that this is Sheet independent. Set r = ws.Range("A1").Offset(1, 0) ' The cell that is 1 row and 0 columns away from A1 Set r = ws.Range("A1").Cells(2,1) ' Similar to Offset. You can "go outside" the original Range. Set r = ws.Range("A1:A5").Cells(2) 'Second cell in bigger Range. Set r = ws.Range("A1:A5").Item(2) 'Second cell in bigger Range. Set r = ws.Range("A1:A5")(2) 'Second cell in bigger Range. End Sub Note in the example that Cells(2, 1) is equivalent to Range("A2"). This is because Cells returns a Range object. Some sources: Chip Pearson-Cells Within Ranges; MSDN-Range Object; John Walkenback-Referring To Ranges In Your VBA Code. Also note that in any instance where a number is used in the declaration of the range, and the number itself is outside of quotation marks, such as Range("A" & 2), you can swap that number for a variable that contains an integer/long. For example: Sub RangeIteration() Dim wb As Workbook, ws As Worksheet Dim r As Range Set wb = ThisWorkbook Set ws = wb.Worksheets(1) For i = 1 To 10 Set r = ws.Range("A" & i) ' When i = 1, the result will be Range("A1") ' When i = 2, the result will be Range("A2") ' etc. ' Proof: Debug.Print r.Address Next i End Sub If you are using double loops, Cells is better: Sub RangeIteration2() Dim wb As Workbook, ws As Worksheet Dim r As Range Set wb = ThisWorkbook Set ws = wb.Worksheets(1) GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 22 For i = 1 To 10 For j = 1 To 10 Set r = ws.Cells(i, j) ' When i = 1 and j = 1, the result will be Range("A1") ' When i = 2 and j = 1, the result will be Range("A2") ' When i = 1 and j = 2, the result will be Range("B1") ' etc. ' Proof: Debug.Print r.Address Next j Next i End Sub Section 4.3: Oset Property Offset(Rows, Columns) - The operator used to statically reference another point from the current cell. Often used in loops. It should be understood that positive numbers in the rows section moves right, wheres as negatives move left. With the columns section positives move down and negatives move up. i.e Private Sub this() ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1").Range("A1").Offset(1, 1).Select ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1").Range("A1").Offset(1, 1).Value = "New Value" ActiveCell.Offset(-1, -1).Value = ActiveCell.Value ActiveCell.Value = vbNullString End Sub This code selects B2, puts a new string there, then moves that string back to A1 afterwards clearing out B2. Section 4.4: Saving a reference to a cell in a variable To save a reference to a cell in a variable, you must use the Set syntax, for example: Dim R as Range Set R = ActiveSheet.Cells(3, 1) later... R.Font.Color = RGB(255, 0, 0) Why is the Set keyword required? Set tells Visual Basic that the value on the right hand side of the = is meant to be an object. Section 4.5: How to Transpose Ranges (Horizontal to Vertical & vice versa) Sub TransposeRangeValues() Dim TmpArray() As Variant, FromRange as Range, ToRange as Range set FromRange = Sheets("Sheet1").Range("a1:a12") 'Worksheets(1).Range("a1:p1") set ToRange = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1").Range("a1") 'ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1").Range("a1") TmpArray = Application.Transpose(FromRange.Value) FromRange.Clear GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 23 ToRange.Resize(FromRange.Columns.Count,FromRange.Rows.Count).Value2 = TmpArray End Sub Note: Copy/PasteSpecial also has a Paste Transpose option which updates the transposed cells' formulas as well. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 24 Chapter 5: Named Ranges Topic should include information specifically related to named ranges in Excel including methods for creating, modifying, deleting, and accessing defined named ranges. Section 5.1: Define A Named Range Using named ranges allows you to describe the meaning of a cell(s) contents and use this defined name in place of an actual cell address. For example, formula =A5*B5 can be replaced with =Width*Height to make the formula much easier to read and understand. To define a new named range, select cell or cells to name and then type new name into the Name Box next to the formula bar. Note: Named Ranges default to global scope meaning that they can be accessed from anywhere within the workbook. Older versions of Excel allow for duplicate names so care must be taken to prevent duplicate names of global scope otherwise results will be unpredictable. Use Name Manager from Formulas tab to change scope. Section 5.2: Using Named Ranges in VBA Create new named range called ‘MyRange’ assigned to cell A1 ThisWorkbook.Names.Add Name:="MyRange", _ RefersTo:=Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("A1") Delete defined named range by name ThisWorkbook.Names("MyRange").Delete Access Named Range by name Dim rng As Range Set rng = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("MyRange") Call MsgBox("Width = " & rng.Value) GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 25 Access a Named Range with a Shortcut Just like any other range, named ranges can be accessed directly with through a shortcut notation that does not require a Range object to be created. The three lines from the code excerpt above can be replaced by a single line: Call MsgBox("Width = " & [MyRange]) Note: The default property for a Range is its Value, so [MyRange] is the same as [MyRange].Value You can also call methods on the range. The following selects MyRange: [MyRange].Select Note: One caveat is that the shortcut notation does not work with words that are used elsewhere in the VBA library. For example, a range named Width would not be accessible as [Width] but would work as expected if accessed through ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("Width") Section 5.3: Manage Named Range(s) using Name Manager Formulas tab > Defined Names group > Name Manager button Named Manager allows you to: 1. Create or change name 2. Create or change cell reference 3. Create or change scope 4. Delete existing named range GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 26 Named Manager provides a useful quick look for broken links. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 27 Section 5.4: Named Range Arrays Example sheet Code Sub Example() Dim wks As Worksheet Set wks = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1") Dim units As Range Set units = ThisWorkbook.Names("Units").RefersToRange Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("Year_Max").Value = WorksheetFunction.Max(units) Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("Year_Min").Value = WorksheetFunction.Min(units) End Sub Result GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 28 Chapter 6: Merged Cells / Ranges Section 6.1: Think twice before using Merged Cells/Ranges First of all, Merged Cells are there only to improve the look of your sheets. So it is literally the last thing that you should do, once your sheet and workbook are totally functional! Where is the data in a Merged Range? When you merge a Range, you'll only display one block. The data will be in the very first cell of that Range, and the others will be empty cells! One good point about it : no need to fill all the cells or the range once merged, just fill the first cell! ;) The other aspects of this merged ranged are globally negative : If you use a method for finding last row or column, you'll risk some errors If you loop through rows and you have merged some ranges for a better readability, you'll encounter empty cells and not the value displayed by the merged range GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 29 Chapter 7: Locating duplicate values in a range At certain points, you will be evaluating a range of data and you will need to locate the duplicates in it. For bigger data sets, there are a number of approaches you can take that use either VBA code or conditional functions. This example uses a simple if-then condition within two nested for-next loops to test whether each cell in the range is equal in value to any other cell in the range. Section 7.1: Find duplicates in a range The following tests range A2 to A7 for duplicate values. Remark: This example illustrates a possible solution as a first approach to a solution. It's faster to use an array than a range and one could use collections or dictionaries or xml methods to check for duplicates. Sub find_duplicates() ' Declare variables Dim ws As Worksheet ' worksheet Dim cell As Range ' cell within worksheet range Dim n As Integer ' highest row number Dim bFound As Boolean ' boolean flag, if duplicate is found Dim sFound As String: sFound = "|" ' found duplicates Dim s As String ' message string Dim s2 As String ' partial message string ' Set Sheet to memory Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Duplicates") ' loop thru FULLY QUALIFIED REFERENCE For Each cell In ws.Range("A2:A7") bFound = False: s2 = "" ' start each cell with empty values ' Check if first occurrence of this value as duplicate to avoid further searches If InStr(sFound, "|" & cell & "|") = 0 Then For n = cell.Row + 1 To 7 ' iterate starting point to avoid REDUNDANT SEARCH If cell = ws.Range("A" & n).Value Then If cell.Row <> n Then ' only other cells, as same cell cannot be a duplicate bFound = True ' boolean flag ' found duplicates in cell A{n} s2 = s2 & vbNewLine & " -> duplicate in A" & n End If End If Next End If ' notice all found duplicates If bFound Then ' add value to list of all found duplicate values ' (could be easily split to an array for further analyze) sFound = sFound & cell & "|" s = s & cell.Address & " (value=" & cell & ")" & s2 & vbNewLine & vbNewLine End If Next ' Messagebox with final result MsgBox "Duplicate values are " & sFound & vbNewLine & vbNewLine & s, vbInformation, "Found duplicates" End Sub Depending on your needs, the example can be modified - for instance, the upper limit of n can be the row value of last cell with data in the range, or the action in case of a True If condition can be edited to extract the duplicate GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 30 value somewhere else. However, the mechanics of the routine would not change. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 31 Chapter 8: User Defined Functions (UDFs) Section 8.1: Allow full column references without penalty It's easier to implement some UDFs on the worksheet if full column references can be passed in as parameters. However, due to the explicit nature of coding, any loop involving these ranges may be processing hundreds of thousands of cells that are completely empty. This reduces your VBA project (and workbook) to a frozen mess while unnecessary non-values are processed. Looping through a worksheet's cells is one of the slowest methods of accomplishing a task but sometimes it is unavoidable. Cutting the work performed down to what is actually required makes perfect sense. The solution is to truncate the full column or full row references to the Worksheet.UsedRange property with the Intersect method. The following sample will loosely replicate a worksheet's native SUMIF function so the criteria_range will also be resized to suit the sum_range since each value in the sum_range must be accompanied by a value in the criteria_range. The Application.Caller for a UDF used on a worksheet is the cell in which it resides. The cell's .Parent property is the worksheet. This will be used to define the .UsedRange. In a Module code sheet: Option Explicit Function udfMySumIf(rngA As Range, rngB As Range, _ Optional crit As Variant = "yes") Dim c As Long, ttl As Double With Application.Caller.Parent Set rngA = Intersect(rngA, .UsedRange) Set rngB = rngB.Resize(rngA.Rows.Count, rngA.Columns.Count) End With For c = 1 To rngA.Cells.Count If IsNumeric(rngA.Cells(c).Value2) Then If LCase(rngB(c).Value2) = LCase(crit) Then ttl = ttl + rngA.Cells(c).Value2 End If End If Next c udfMySumIf = ttl End Function Syntax: =udfMySumIf(*sum_range*, *criteria_range*, [*criteria*]) GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 32 While this is a fairly simplistic example, it adequately demonstrates passing in two full column references (1,048,576 rows each) but only processing 15 rows of data and criteria. Linked official MSDN documentation of individual methods and properties courtesy of Microsoft™. Section 8.2: Count Unique values in Range Function countUnique(r As range) As Long 'Application.Volatile False ' optional Set r = Intersect(r, r.Worksheet.UsedRange) ' optional if you pass entire rows or columns to the function Dim c As New Collection, v On Error Resume Next ' to ignore the Run-time error 457: "This key is already associated with an element of this collection". For Each v In r.Value ' remove .Value for ranges with more than one Areas c.Add 0, v & "" Next c.Remove "" ' optional to exclude blank values from the count countUnique = c.Count End Function Collections Section 8.3: UDF - Hello World 1. Open Excel 2. Open the Visual Basic Editor ( see Opening the Visual Basic Editor ) 3. Add a new module by clicking Insert --> Module : GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 33 4. Copy and Paste the following code in the new module : Public Function Hello() As String 'Note: the output of the function is simply the function's name Hello = "Hello, World !" End Function To obtain : 5. Go back to your workbook and type "=Hello()" into a cell to see the "Hello World". GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 34 GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 35 Chapter 9: Conditional formatting using VBA Section 9.1: FormatConditions.Add Syntax: FormatConditions.Add(Type, Operator, Formula1, Formula2) Parameters: Name Required / Optional Data Type Type Required XlFormatConditionType Operator Optional Variant Formula1 Optional Variant Formula2 Optional Variant XlFormatConditionType enumaration: Name Description xlAboveAverageCondition Above average condition xlBlanksCondition Blanks condition xlCellValue Cell value xlColorScale Color scale xlDatabar Databar xlErrorsCondition Errors condition xlExpression Expression XlIconSet Icon set xlNoBlanksCondition No blanks condition xlNoErrorsCondition No errors condition xlTextString Text string xlTimePeriod Time period xlTop10 Top 10 values xlUniqueValues Unique values Formatting by cell value: With Range("A1").FormatConditions.Add(xlCellValue, xlGreater, "=100") With .Font .Bold = True .ColorIndex = 3 End With End With Operators: Name xlBetween xlEqual xlGreater xlGreaterEqual xlLess xlLessEqual xlNotBetween xlNotEqual GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 36 If Type is xlExpression, the Operator argument is ignored. Formatting by text contains: With Range("a1:a10").FormatConditions.Add(xlTextString, TextOperator:=xlContains, String:="egg") With .Font .Bold = True .ColorIndex = 3 End With End With Operators: Name Description xlBeginsWith Begins with a specified value. xlContains Contains a specified value. xlDoesNotContain Does not contain the specified value. xlEndsWith Endswith the specified value Formatting by time period With Range("a1:a10").FormatConditions.Add(xlTimePeriod, DateOperator:=xlToday) With .Font .Bold = True .ColorIndex = 3 End With End With Operators: Name xlYesterday xlTomorrow xlLast7Days xlLastWeek xlThisWeek xlNextWeek xlLastMonth xlThisMonth xlNextMonth Section 9.2: Remove conditional format Remove all conditional format in range: Range("A1:A10").FormatConditions.Delete Remove all conditional format in worksheet: Cells.FormatConditions.Delete Section 9.3: FormatConditions.AddUniqueValues Highlighting Duplicate Values With Range("E1:E100").FormatConditions.AddUniqueValues .DupeUnique = xlDuplicate With .Font .Bold = True GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 37 .ColorIndex = 3 End With End With Highlighting Unique Values With Range("E1:E100").FormatConditions.AddUniqueValues With .Font .Bold = True .ColorIndex = 3 End With End With Section 9.4: FormatConditions.AddTop10 Highlighting Top 5 Values With Range("E1:E100").FormatConditions.AddTop10 .TopBottom = xlTop10Top .Rank = 5 .Percent = False With .Font .Bold = True .ColorIndex = 3 End With End With Section 9.5: FormatConditions.AddAboveAverage With Range("E1:E100").FormatConditions.AddAboveAverage .AboveBelow = xlAboveAverage With .Font .Bold = True .ColorIndex = 3 End With End With Operators: Name Description XlAboveAverage Above average XlAboveStdDev Above standard deviation XlBelowAverage Below average XlBelowStdDev Below standard deviation XlEqualAboveAverage Equal above average XlEqualBelowAverage Equal below average Section 9.6: FormatConditions.AddIconSetCondition GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 38 Range("a1:a10").FormatConditions.AddIconSetCondition With Selection.FormatConditions(1) .ReverseOrder = False .ShowIconOnly = False .IconSet = ActiveWorkbook.IconSets(xl3Arrows) End With With Selection.FormatConditions(1).IconCriteria(2) .Type = xlConditionValuePercent .Value = 33 .Operator = 7 End With With Selection.FormatConditions(1).IconCriteria(3) .Type = xlConditionValuePercent .Value = 67 .Operator = 7 End With IconSet: Name xl3Arrows xl3ArrowsGray xl3Flags xl3Signs xl3Stars xl3Symbols xl3Symbols2 xl3TrafficLights1 xl3TrafficLights2 xl3Triangles xl4Arrows xl4ArrowsGray xl4CRV xl4RedToBlack xl4TrafficLights xl5Arrows GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 39 xl5ArrowsGray xl5Boxes xl5CRV xl5Quarters Type: Name xlConditionValuePercent xlConditionValueNumber xlConditionValuePercentile xlConditionValueFormula Operator: Name Value xlGreater 5 xlGreaterEqual 7 Value: Returns or sets the threshold value for an icon in a conditional format. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 40 Chapter 10: Workbooks Section 10.1: When To Use ActiveWorkbook and ThisWorkbook It's a VBA Best Practice to always specify which workbook your VBA code refers. If this specification is omitted, then VBA assumes the code is directed at the currently active workbook (ActiveWorkbook). '--- the currently active workbook (and worksheet) is implied Range("A1").value = 3.1415 Cells(1, 1).value = 3.1415 However, when several workbooks are open at the same time -- particularly and especially when VBA code is running from an Excel Add-In -- references to the ActiveWorkbook may be confused or misdirected. For example, an add-in with a UDF that checks the time of day and compares it to a value stored on one of the add-in's worksheets (that are typically not readily visible to the user) will have to explicitly identify which workbook is being referenced. In our example, our open (and active) workbook has a formula in cell A1 =EarlyOrLate() and does NOT have any VBA written for that active workbook. In our add-in, we have the following User Defined Function (UDF): Public Function EarlyOrLate() As String If Hour(Now) > ThisWorkbook.Sheets("WatchTime").Range("A1") Then EarlyOrLate = "It's Late!" Else EarlyOrLate = "It's Early!" End If End Function The code for the UDF is written and stored in the installed Excel add-in. It uses data stored on a worksheet in the add-in called "WatchTime". If the UDF had used ActiveWorkbook instead of ThisWorkbook, then it would never be able to guarantee which workbook was intended. Section 10.2: Changing The Default Number of Worksheets In A New Workbook The "factory default" number of worksheets created in a new Excel workbook is generally set to three. Your VBA code can explicitly set the number of worksheets in a new workbook. '--- save the current Excel global setting With Application Dim oldSheetsCount As Integer oldSheetsCount = .SheetsInNewWorkbook Dim myNewWB As Workbook .SheetsInNewWorkbook = 1 Set myNewWB = .Workbooks.Add '--- restore the previous setting .SheetsInNewWorkbook = oldsheetcount End With Section 10.3: Application Workbooks In many Excel applications, the VBA code takes actions directed at the workbook in which it's contained. You save that workbook with a ".xlsm" extension and the VBA macros only focus on the worksheets and data within. However, there are often times when you need to combine or merge data from other workbooks, or write some of your data to a separate workbook. Opening, closing, saving, creating, and deleting other workbooks is a common need for many VBA applications. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 41 At any time in the VBA Editor, you can view and access any and all workbooks currently open by that instance of Excel by using the Workbooks property of the Application object. The MSDN Documentation explains it with references. Section 10.4: Opening A (New) Workbook, Even If It's Already Open If you want to access a workbook that's already open, then getting the assignment from the Workbooks collection is straightforward: dim myWB as Workbook Set myWB = Workbooks("UsuallyFullPathnameOfWorkbook.xlsx") If you want to create a new workbook, then use the Workbooks collection object to Add a new entry. Dim myNewWB as Workbook Set myNewWB = Workbooks.Add There are times when you may not or (or care) if the workbook you need is open already or not, or possible does not exist. The example function shows how to always return a valid workbook object. Option Explicit Function GetWorkbook(ByVal wbFilename As String) As Workbook '--- returns a workbook object for the given filename, including checks ' for when the workbook is already open, exists but not open, or ' does not yet exist (and must be created) ' *** wbFilename must be a fully specified pathname Dim folderFile As String Dim returnedWB As Workbook '--- check if the file exists in the directory location folderFile = File(wbFilename) If folderFile = "" Then '--- the workbook doesn't exist, so create it Dim pos1 As Integer Dim fileExt As String Dim fileFormatNum As Long '--- in order to save the workbook correctly, we need to infer which workbook ' type the user intended from the file extension pos1 = InStrRev(sFullName, ".", , vbTextCompare) fileExt = Right(sFullName, Len(sFullName) - pos1) Select Case fileExt Case "xlsx" fileFormatNum = 51 Case "xlsm" fileFormatNum = 52 Case "xls" fileFormatNum = 56 Case "xlsb" fileFormatNum = 50 Case Else Err.Raise vbObjectError + 1000, "GetWorkbook function", _ "The file type you've requested (file extension) is not recognized. " & _ "Please use a known extension: xlsx, xlsm, xls, or xlsb." End Select Set returnedWB = Workbooks.Add Application.DisplayAlerts = False returnedWB.SaveAs filename:=wbFilename, FileFormat:=fileFormatNum GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 42 Application.DisplayAlerts = True Set GetWorkbook = returnedWB Else '--- the workbook exists in the directory, so check to see if ' it's already open or not On Error Resume Next Set returnedWB = Workbooks(sFile) If returnedWB Is Nothing Then Set returnedWB = Workbooks.Open(sFullName) End If End If End Function Section 10.5: Saving A Workbook Without Asking The User Often saving new data in an existing workbook using VBA will cause a pop-up question noting that the file already exists. To prevent this pop-up question, you have to suppress these types of alerts. Application.DisplayAlerts = False 'disable user prompt to overwrite file myWB.SaveAs FileName:="NewOrExistingFilename.xlsx" Application.DisplayAlerts = True 're-enable user prompt to overwrite file GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 43 Chapter 11: Working with Excel Tables in VBA This topic is about working with tables in VBA, and assumes knowledge of Excel Tables. In VBA, or rather the Excel Object Model, tables are known as ListObjects. The most frequently used properties of a ListObject are ListRow(s), ListColumn(s), DataBodyRange, Range and HeaderRowRange. Section 11.1: Instantiating a ListObject Dim lo as ListObject Dim MyRange as Range Set lo = Sheet1.ListObjects(1) 'or Set lo = Sheet1.ListObjects("Table1") 'or Set lo = MyRange.ListObject Section 11.2: Working with ListRows / ListColumns Dim lo as ListObject Dim lr as ListRow Dim lc as ListColumn Set lr = lo.ListRows.Add Set lr = lo.ListRows(5) For Each lr in lo.ListRows lr.Range.ClearContents lr.Range(1, lo.ListColumns("Some Column").Index).Value = 8 Next Set lc = lo.ListColumns.Add Set lc = lo.ListColumns(4) Set lc = lo.ListColumns("Header 3") For Each lc in lo.ListColumns lc.DataBodyRange.ClearContents 'DataBodyRange excludes the header row lc.Range(1,1).Value = "New Header Name" 'Range includes the header row Next Section 11.3: Converting an Excel Table to a normal range Dim lo as ListObject Set lo = Sheet1.ListObjects("Table1") lo.Unlist GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 44 Chapter 12: Loop through all Sheets in Active Workbook Section 12.1: Retrieve all Worksheets Names in Active Workbook Option Explicit Sub LoopAllSheets() Dim sht As Excel.Worksheet ' declare an array of type String without committing to maximum number of members Dim sht_Name() As String Dim i As Integer ' get the number of worksheets in Active Workbook , and put it as the maximum number of members in the array ReDim sht_Name(1 To ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets.count) i = 1 ' loop through all worksheets in Active Workbook For Each sht In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets sht_Name(i) = sht.Name ' get the name of each worksheet and save it in the array i = i + 1 Next sht End Sub Section 12.2: Loop Through all Sheets in all Files in a Folder Sub Theloopofloops() Dim wbk As Workbook Dim Filename As String Dim path As String Dim rCell As Range Dim rRng As Range Dim wsO As Worksheet Dim sheet As Worksheet path = "pathtofile(s)" & "\" Filename = Dir(path & "*.xl??") Set wsO = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1") 'included in case you need to differentiate_ between workbooks i.e currently opened workbook vs workbook containing code Do While Len(Filename) > 0 DoEvents Set wbk = Workbooks.Open(path & Filename, True, True) For Each sheet In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets 'this needs to be adjusted for specifiying sheets. Repeat loop for each sheet so thats on a per sheet basis Set rRng = sheet.Range("a1:a1000") 'OBV needs to be changed For Each rCell In rRng.Cells If rCell <> "" And rCell.Value <> vbNullString And rCell.Value <> 0 Then 'code that does stuff GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 45 End If Next rCell Next sheet wbk.Close False Filename = Dir Loop End Sub GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 46 Chapter 13: Use Worksheet object and not Sheet object Plenty of VBA users consider Worksheets and Sheets objects synonyms. They are not. Sheets object consists of both Worksheets and Charts. Thus, if we have charts in our Excel Workbook, we should be careful, not to use Sheets and Worksheets as synonyms. Section 13.1: Print the name of the first object Option Explicit Sub CheckWorksheetsDiagram() Debug.Print Worksheets(1).Name Debug.Print Charts(1).Name Debug.Print Sheets(1).Name End Sub The result: Sheet1 Chart1 Chart1 GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 47 Chapter 14: Methods for Finding the Last Used Row or Column in a Worksheet Section 14.1: Find the Last Non-Empty Cell in a Column In this example, we will look at a method for returning the last non-empty row in a column for a data set. This method will work regardless of empty regions within the data set. However caution should be used if merged cells are involved, as the End method will be "stopped" against a merged region, returning the first cell of the merged region. In addition non-empty cells in hidden rows will not be taken into account. Sub FindingLastRow() Dim wS As Worksheet, LastRow As Long Set wS = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1") 'Here we look in Column A LastRow = wS.Cells(wS.Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row Debug.Print LastRow End Sub To address the limitations indicated above, the line: LastRow = wS.Cells(wS.Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row may be replaced with: 1. for last used row of "Sheet1": LastRow = wS.UsedRange.Row - 1 + wS.UsedRange.Rows.Count. 2. for last non-empty cell of Column "A" in "Sheet1": Dim i As Long For i = LastRow To 1 Step -1 If Not (IsEmpty(Cells(i, 1))) Then Exit For Next i LastRow = i Section 14.2: Find the Last Non-Empty Row in Worksheet Private Sub Get_Last_Used_Row_Index() Dim wS As Worksheet Set wS = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1") Debug.Print LastRow_1(wS) Debug.Print LastRow_0(wS) End Sub You can choose between 2 options, regarding if you want to know if there is no data in the worksheet : NO : Use LastRow_1 : You can use it directly within wS.Cells(LastRow_1(wS),...) YES : Use LastRow_0 : You need to test if the result you get from the function is 0 or not before using it GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 48 Public Function LastRow_1(wS As Worksheet) As Double With wS If Application.WorksheetFunction.CountA(.Cells) <> 0 Then LastRow_1 = .Cells.Find(What:="*", _ After:=.Range("A1"), _ Lookat:=xlPart, _ LookIn:=xlFormulas, _ SearchOrder:=xlByRows, _ SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, _ MatchCase:=False).Row Else LastRow_1 = 1 End If End With End Function Public Function LastRow_0(wS As Worksheet) As Double On Error Resume Next LastRow_0 = wS.Cells.Find(What:="*", _ After:=ws.Range("A1"), _ Lookat:=xlPart, _ LookIn:=xlFormulas, _ SearchOrder:=xlByRows, _ SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, _ MatchCase:=False).Row End Function Section 14.3: Find the Last Non-Empty Column in Worksheet Private Sub Get_Last_Used_Row_Index() Dim wS As Worksheet Set wS = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1") Debug.Print LastCol_1(wS) Debug.Print LastCol_0(wS) End Sub You can choose between 2 options, regarding if you want to know if there is no data in the worksheet : NO : Use LastCol_1 : You can use it directly within wS.Cells(...,LastCol_1(wS)) YES : Use LastCol_0 : You need to test if the result you get from the function is 0 or not before using it Public Function LastCol_1(wS As Worksheet) As Double With wS If Application.WorksheetFunction.CountA(.Cells) <> 0 Then LastCol_1 = .Cells.Find(What:="*", _ After:=.Range("A1"), _ Lookat:=xlPart, _ LookIn:=xlFormulas, _ SearchOrder:=xlByColumns, _ SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, _ MatchCase:=False).Column Else LastCol_1 = 1 End If End With End Function The Err object's properties are automatically reset to zero upon function exit. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 49 Public Function LastCol_0(wS As Worksheet) As Double On Error Resume Next LastCol_0 = wS.Cells.Find(What:="*", _ After:=ws.Range("A1"), _ Lookat:=xlPart, _ LookIn:=xlFormulas, _ SearchOrder:=xlByColumns, _ SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, _ MatchCase:=False).Column End Function Section 14.4: Find the Last Non-Empty Cell in a Row In this example, we will look at a method for returning the last non-empty column in a row. This method will work regardless of empty regions within the data set. However caution should be used if merged cells are involved, as the End method will be "stopped" against a merged region, returning the first cell of the merged region. In addition non-empty cells in hidden columns will not be taken into account. Sub FindingLastCol() Dim wS As Worksheet, LastCol As Long Set wS = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1") 'Here we look in Row 1 LastCol = wS.Cells(1, wS.Columns.Count).End(xlToLeft).Column Debug.Print LastCol End Sub Section 14.5: Get the row of the last cell in a range 'if only one area (not multiple areas): With Range("A3:D20") Debug.Print .Cells(.Cells.CountLarge).Row Debug.Print .Item(.Cells.CountLarge).Row 'using .item is also possible End With 'Debug prints: 20 'with multiple areas (also works if only one area): Dim rngArea As Range, LastRow As Long With Range("A3:D20, E5:I50, H20:R35") For Each rngArea In .Areas If rngArea(rngArea.Cells.CountLarge).Row > LastRow Then LastRow = rngArea(rngArea.Cells.CountLarge).Row End If Next Debug.Print LastRow 'Debug prints: 50 End With Section 14.6: Find Last Row Using Named Range In case you have a Named Range in your Sheet, and you want to dynamically get the last row of that Dynamic Named Range. Also covers cases where the Named Range doesn't start from the first Row. Sub FindingLastRow() GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 50 Dim sht As Worksheet Dim LastRow As Long Dim FirstRow As Long Set sht = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("form") 'Using Named Range "MyNameRange" FirstRow = sht.Range("MyNameRange").Row ' in case "MyNameRange" doesn't start at Row 1 LastRow = sht.Range("MyNameRange").Rows.count + FirstRow - 1 End Sub Update: A potential loophole was pointed out by @Jeeped for a a named range with non-contiguous rows as it generates unexpected result. To addresses that issue, the code is revised as below. Asumptions: targes sheet = form, named range = MyNameRange Sub FindingLastRow() Dim rw As Range, rwMax As Long For Each rw In Sheets("form").Range("MyNameRange").Rows If rw.Row > rwMax Then rwMax = rw.Row Next MsgBox "Last row of 'MyNameRange' under Sheets 'form': " & rwMax End Sub Section 14.7: Last cell in Range.CurrentRegion Range.CurrentRegion is a rectangular range area surrounded by empty cells. Blank cells with formulas such as ="" or ' are not considered blank (even by the ISBLANK Excel function). Dim rng As Range, lastCell As Range Set rng = Range("C3").CurrentRegion ' or Set rng = Sheet1.UsedRange.CurrentRegion Set lastCell = rng(rng.Rows.Count, rng.Columns.Count) Section 14.8: Find the Last Non-Empty Cell in Worksheet - Performance (Array) The first function, using an array, is much faster If called without the optional parameter, will default to .ThisWorkbook.ActiveSheet If the range is empty will returns Cell( 1, 1 ) as default, instead of Nothing Speed: GetMaxCell (Array): Duration: 0.0000790063 seconds GetMaxCell (Find ): Duration: 0.0002903480 seconds .Measured with MicroTimer Public Function GetLastCell(Optional ByVal ws As Worksheet = Nothing) As Range Dim uRng As Range, uArr As Variant, r As Long, c As Long Dim ubR As Long, ubC As Long, lRow As Long GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 51 If ws Is Nothing Then Set ws = Application.ThisWorkbook.ActiveSheet Set uRng = ws.UsedRange uArr = uRng If IsEmpty(uArr) Then Set GetLastCell = ws.Cells(1, 1): Exit Function End If If Not IsArray(uArr) Then Set GetLastCell = ws.Cells(uRng.Row, uRng.Column): Exit Function End If ubR = UBound(uArr, 1): ubC = UBound(uArr, 2) For r = ubR To 1 Step -1 '----------------------------------------------- last row For c = ubC To 1 Step -1 If Not IsError(uArr(r, c)) Then If Len(Trim$(uArr(r, c))) > 0 Then lRow = r: Exit For End If End If Next If lRow > 0 Then Exit For Next If lRow = 0 Then lRow = ubR For c = ubC To 1 Step -1 '----------------------------------------------- last col For r = lRow To 1 Step -1 If Not IsError(uArr(r, c)) Then If Len(Trim$(uArr(r, c))) > 0 Then Set GetLastCell = ws.Cells(lRow + uRng.Row - 1, c + uRng.Column - 1) Exit Function End If End If Next Next End Function 'Returns last cell (max row & max col) using Find Public Function GetMaxCell2(Optional ByRef rng As Range = Nothing) As Range 'Using Find Const NONEMPTY As String = "*" Dim lRow As Range, lCol As Range If rng Is Nothing Then Set rng = Application.ThisWorkbook.ActiveSheet.UsedRange If WorksheetFunction.CountA(rng) = 0 Then Set GetMaxCell2 = rng.Parent.Cells(1, 1) Else With rng Set lRow = .Cells.Find(What:=NONEMPTY, LookIn:=xlFormulas, _ After:=.Cells(1, 1), _ SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, _ SearchOrder:=xlByRows) If Not lRow Is Nothing Then Set lCol = .Cells.Find(What:=NONEMPTY, LookIn:=xlFormulas, _ After:=.Cells(1, 1), _ SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, _ SearchOrder:=xlByColumns) Set GetMaxCell2 = .Parent.Cells(lRow.Row, lCol.Column) End If End With End If GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 52 End Function . MicroTimer: Private Declare PtrSafe Function getFrequency Lib "Kernel32" Alias "QueryPerformanceFrequency" (cyFrequency As Currency) As Long Private Declare PtrSafe Function getTickCount Lib "Kernel32" Alias "QueryPerformanceCounter" (cyTickCount As Currency) As Long Function MicroTimer() As Double Dim cyTicks1 As Currency Static cyFrequency As Currency MicroTimer = 0 If cyFrequency = 0 Then getFrequency cyFrequency 'Get frequency getTickCount cyTicks1 'Get ticks If cyFrequency Then MicroTimer = cyTicks1 / cyFrequency 'Returns Seconds End Function GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 53 Chapter 15: Creating a drop-down menu in the Active Worksheet with a Combo Box This is a simple example demonstrating how to create a drop down menu in the Active Sheet of your workbook by inserting a Combo Box Activex object in the sheet. You'll be able to insert one of five Jimi Hendrix songs in any activated cell of the sheet and be able to clear it, accordingly. Section 15.1: Example 2: Options Not Included This example is used in specifying options that might not be included in a database of available housing and its attendant amenities. It builds on the previous example, with some differences: 1. Two procedures are no longer necessary for a single combo box, done by combining the code into a single procedure. 2. The use of the LinkedCell property to allow for the correct input of the user selection every time 3. The inclusion of a backup feature for ensuring the active cell is in the correct column and an error prevention code, based on previous experience, where numeric values would formatted as strings when populated to the active cell. Private Sub cboNotIncl_Change() Dim n As Long Dim notincl_array(1 To 9) As String n = myTarget.Row If n >= 3 And n < 10000 Then If myTarget.Address = "$G$" & n Then 'set up the array elements for the not included services notincl_array(1) = "Central Air" notincl_array(2) = "Hot Water" notincl_array(3) = "Heater Rental" notincl_array(4) = "Utilities" notincl_array(5) = "Parking" notincl_array(6) = "Internet" notincl_array(7) = "Hydro" notincl_array(8) = "Hydro/Hot Water/Heater Rental" notincl_array(9) = "Hydro and Utilities" cboNotIncl.List = notincl_array() Else Exit Sub End If With cboNotIncl 'make sure the combo box moves to the target cell .Left = myTarget.Left .Top = myTarget.Top GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 54 'adjust the size of the cell to fit the combo box myTarget.ColumnWidth = .Width * 0.18 'make it look nice by editing some of the font attributes .Font.Size = 11 .Font.Bold = False 'populate the cell with the user choice, with a backup guarantee that it's in column G If myTarget.Address = "$G$" & n Then .LinkedCell = myTarget.Address 'prevent an error where a numerical value is formatted as text myTarget.EntireColumn.TextToColumns End If End With End If 'ensure that the active cell is only between rows 3 and 1000 End Sub The above macro is initiated every time a cell is activated with the SelectionChange event in the worksheet module: Public myTarget As Range Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range) Set myTarget = Target 'switch for Not Included If Target.Column = 7 And Target.Cells.Count = 1 Then Application.Run "Module1.cboNotIncl_Change" End If End Sub Section 15.2: Jimi Hendrix Menu In general, the code is placed in the module of a sheet. This is the Worksheet_SelectionChange event, which fires each time a different cell is selected in the active sheet. You can select "Worksheet" from the first drop-down menu above the code window, and "Selection_Change" from the drop down menu next to it. In this case, every time you activate a cell, the code is redirected to the Combo Box's code. Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range) ComboBox1_Change End Sub Here, the routine dedicated to the ComboBox is coded to the Change event by default. In it, there is a fixed array, populated with all the options. Not the CLEAR option in the last position, which will be used to clear the contents of a cell. The array then is handed to to the Combo Box and passed to the routine that does the work. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 55 Private Sub ComboBox1_Change() Dim myarray(0 To 5) myarray(0) = "Hey Joe" myarray(1) = "Little Wing" myarray(2) = "Voodoo Child" myarray(3) = "Purple Haze" myarray(4) = "The Wind Cries Mary" myarray(5) = "CLEAR" With ComboBox1 .List = myarray() End With FillACell myarray() End Sub The array is passed to the routine that fills the cells with the song name or null value to empty them. First, an integer variable is given the value of the position of the choice that the user makes. Then, the Combo Box is moved to the TOP LEFT corner of the cell the user activates and its dimensions adjusted to make the experience more fluid. The active cell is then assigned the value in the position in the integer variable, which tracks the user choice. In case the user selects CLEAR from the options, the cell is emptied. The entire routine repeats for each selected cell. Sub FillACell(MyArray As Variant) Dim n As Integer n = ComboBox1.ListIndex ComboBox1.Left = ActiveCell.Left ComboBox1.Top = ActiveCell.Top Columns(ActiveCell.Column).ColumnWidth = ComboBox1.Width * 0.18 ActiveCell = MyArray(n) If ComboBox1 = "CLEAR" Then Range(ActiveCell.Address) = "" End If End Sub GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 56 Chapter 16: File System Object Section 16.1: File, folder, drive exists File exists: Sub FileExists() Dim fso as Scripting.FileSystemObject Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") If fso.FileExists("D:\test.txt") = True Then MsgBox "The file is exists." Else MsgBox "The file isn't exists." End If End Sub Folder exists: Sub FolderExists() Dim fso as Scripting.FileSystemObject Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") If fso.FolderExists("D:\testFolder") = True Then MsgBox "The folder is exists." Else MsgBox "The folder isn't exists." End If End Sub Drive exists: Sub DriveExists() Dim fso as Scripting.FileSystemObject Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") If fso.DriveExists("D:\") = True Then MsgBox "The drive is exists." Else MsgBox "The drive isn't exists." End If End Sub Section 16.2: Basic file operations Copy: Sub CopyFile() Dim fso as Scripting.FileSystemObject Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") fso.CopyFile "c:\Documents and Settings\Makro.txt", "c:\Documents and Settings\Macros\" End Sub Move: Sub MoveFile() Dim fso as Scripting.FileSystemObject Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") fso.MoveFile "c:\*.txt", "c:\Documents and Settings\" End Sub Delete: Sub DeleteFile() Dim fso Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") fso.DeleteFile "c:\Documents and Settings\Macros\Makro.txt" GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 57 End Sub Section 16.3: Basic folder operations Create: Sub CreateFolder() Dim fso as Scripting.FileSystemObject Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") fso.CreateFolder "c:\Documents and Settings\NewFolder" End Sub Copy: Sub CopyFolder() Dim fso as Scripting.FileSystemObject Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") fso.CopyFolder "C:\Documents and Settings\NewFolder", "C:\" End Sub Move: Sub MoveFolder() Dim fso as Scripting.FileSystemObject Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") fso.MoveFolder "C:\Documents and Settings\NewFolder", "C:\" End Sub Delete: Sub DeleteFolder() Dim fso as Scripting.FileSystemObject Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") fso.DeleteFolder "C:\Documents and Settings\NewFolder" End Sub Section 16.4: Other operations Get file name: Sub GetFileName() Dim fso as Scripting.FileSystemObject Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") MsgBox fso.GetFileName("c:\Documents and Settings\Makro.txt") End Sub Result: Makro.txt Get base name: Sub GetBaseName() Dim fso as Scripting.FileSystemObject Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") MsgBox fso.GetBaseName("c:\Documents and Settings\Makro.txt") End Sub Result: Makro Get extension name: Sub GetExtensionName() Dim fso as Scripting.FileSystemObject Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") MsgBox fso.GetExtensionName("c:\Documents and Settings\Makro.txt") GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 58 End Sub Result: txt Get drive name: Sub GetDriveName() Dim fso as Scripting.FileSystemObject Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") MsgBox fso.GetDriveName("c:\Documents and Settings\Makro.txt") End Sub Result: c: GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 59 Chapter 17: Pivot Tables Section 17.1: Adding Fields to a Pivot Table Two important things to note when adding fields to a Pivot Table are Orientation and Position. Sometimes a developer may assume where a field is placed, so it's always clearer to explicitly define these parameters. These actions only affect the given Pivot Table, not the Pivot Cache. Dim thisPivot As PivotTable Dim ptSheet As Worksheet Dim ptField As PivotField Set ptSheet = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("SheetNameWithPivotTable") Set thisPivot = ptSheet.PivotTables(1) With thisPivot Set ptField = .PivotFields("Gender") ptField.Orientation = xlRowField ptField.Position = 1 Set ptField = .PivotFields("LastName") ptField.Orientation = xlRowField ptField.Position = 2 Set ptField = .PivotFields("ShirtSize") ptField.Orientation = xlColumnField ptField.Position = 1 Set ptField = .AddDataField(.PivotFields("Cost"), "Sum of Cost", xlSum) .InGridDropZones = True .RowAxisLayout xlTabularRow End With Section 17.2: Creating a Pivot Table One of the most powerful capabilities in Excel is the use of Pivot Tables to sort and analyze data. Using VBA to create and manipulate the Pivots is easier if you understand the relationship of Pivot Tables to Pivot Caches and how to reference and use the different parts of the Tables. At its most basic, your source data is a Range area of data on a Worksheet. This data area MUST identify the data columns with a header row as the first row in the range. Once the Pivot Table is created, the user may view and change the source data at any time. However, changes may not be automatically or immediately reflected in the Pivot Table itself because there is an intermediate data storage structure called the Pivot Cache that is directly connected to the Pivot Table itself. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 60 If multiple Pivot Tables are needed, based on the same source data, the Pivot Cache may be re-used as the internal data store for each of the Pivot Tables. This is a good practice because it saves memory and reduces the size of the Excel file for storage. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 61 As an example, to create a Pivot Table based on the source data shown in the Figures above: Sub test() Dim pt As PivotTable Set pt = CreatePivotTable(ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1").Range("A1:E15")) End Sub Function CreatePivotTable(ByRef srcData As Range) As PivotTable '--- creates a Pivot Table from the given source data and ' assumes that the first row contains valid header data ' for the columns Dim thisPivot As PivotTable Dim dataSheet As Worksheet Dim ptSheet As Worksheet Dim ptCache As PivotCache '--- the Pivot Cache must be created first... Set ptCache = ThisWorkbook.PivotCaches.Create(SourceType:=xlDatabase, _ SourceData:=srcData) '--- ... then use the Pivot Cache to create the Table Set ptSheet = ThisWorkbook.Sheets.Add Set thisPivot = ptCache.CreatePivotTable(TableDestination:=ptSheet.Range("A3")) Set CreatePivotTable = thisPivot End Function GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 62 References MSDN Pivot Table Object Section 17.3: Pivot Table Ranges These excellent reference sources provide descriptions and illustrations of the various ranges in Pivot Tables. References Referencing Pivot Table Ranges in VBA - from Jon Peltier's Tech Blog Referencing an Excel Pivot Table Range using VBA - from globaliconnect Excel VBA Section 17.4: Formatting the Pivot Table Data This example changes/sets several formats in the data range area (DataBodyRange) of the given Pivot Table. All formattable parameters in a standard Range are available. Formatting the data only affects the Pivot Table itself, not the Pivot Cache. NOTE: the property is named TableStyle2 because the TableStyle property is not a member of the PivotTable's object properties. Dim thisPivot As PivotTable Dim ptSheet As Worksheet Dim ptField As PivotField Set ptSheet = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("SheetNameWithPivotTable") Set thisPivot = ptSheet.PivotTables(1) With thisPivot .DataBodyRange.NumberFormat = "_($* #,##0.00_);_($* (#,##0.00);_($* "-"??_);_(@_)" .DataBodyRange.HorizontalAlignment = xlRight .ColumnRange.HorizontalAlignment = xlCenter .TableStyle2 = "PivotStyleMedium9" End With GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 63 Chapter 18: Binding Section 18.1: Early Binding vs Late Binding Binding is the process of assigning an object to an identifier or variable name. Early binding (also known as static binding) is when an object declared in Excel is of a specific object type, such as a Worksheet or Workbook. Late binding occurs when general object associations are made, such as the Object and Variant declaration types. Early binding of references some advantages over late binding. Early binding is operationally faster than late binding during run-time. Creating the object with late binding in run-time takes time that early binding accomplishes when the VBA project is initially loaded. Early binding offers additional functionality through the identification of Key/Item pairs by their ordinal position. Depending on code structure, early binding may offer an additional level of type checking and reduce errors. The VBE's capitalization correction when typing a bound object's properties and methods is active with early binding but unavailable with late binding. Note: You must add the appropriate reference to the VBA project through the VBE's Tools → References command in order to implement early binding. This library reference is then carried with the project; it does not have to be re-referenced when the VBA project is distributed and run on another computer. 'Looping through a dictionary that was created with late binding¹ Sub iterateDictionaryLate() Dim k As Variant, dict As Object Set dict = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary") dict.comparemode = vbTextCompare 'non-case sensitive compare model 'populate the dictionary dict.Add Key:="Red", Item:="Balloon" dict.Add Key:="Green", Item:="Balloon" dict.Add Key:="Blue", Item:="Balloon" 'iterate through the keys For Each k In dict.Keys Debug.Print k & " - " & dict.Item(k) Next k dict.Remove "blue" 'remove individual key/item pair by key dict.RemoveAll 'remove all remaining key/item pairs End Sub 'Looping through a dictionary that was created with early binding¹ Sub iterateDictionaryEarly() Dim d As Long, k As Variant Dim dict As New Scripting.Dictionary dict.CompareMode = vbTextCompare 'non-case sensitive compare model 'populate the dictionary dict.Add Key:="Red", Item:="Balloon" dict.Add Key:="Green", Item:="Balloon" GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 64 dict.Add Key:="Blue", Item:="Balloon" dict.Add Key:="White", Item:="Balloon" 'iterate through the keys For Each k In dict.Keys Debug.Print k & " - " & dict.Item(k) Next k 'iterate through the keys by the count For d = 0 To dict.Count - 1 Debug.Print dict.Keys(d) & " - " & dict.Items(d) Next d 'iterate through the keys by the boundaries of the keys collection For d = LBound(dict.Keys) To UBound(dict.Keys) Debug.Print dict.Keys(d) & " - " & dict.Items(d) Next d dict.Remove "blue" 'remove individual key/item pair by key dict.Remove dict.Keys(0) 'remove first key/item by index position dict.Remove dict.Keys(UBound(dict.Keys)) 'remove last key/item by index position dict.RemoveAll 'remove all remaining key/item pairs End Sub However, if you are using early binding and the document is run on a system that lacks one of the libraries you have referenced, you will encounter problems. Not only will the routines that utilize the missing library not function properly, but the behavior of all code within the document will become erratic. It is likely that none of the document's code will function on that computer. This is where late binding is advantageous. When using late binding you do not have to add the reference in the Tools>References menu. On machines that have the appropriate library, the code will still work. On machines without that library, the commands that reference the library will not work, but all the other code in your document will continue to function. If you are not thoroughly familiar with the library you are referencing, it may be useful to use early binding while writing the code, then switch to late binding before deployment. That way you can take advantage of the VBE's IntelliSense and Object Browser during development. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 65 Chapter 19: autofilter ; Uses and best practices Autofilter ultimate goal is to provide in the quickest way possible data mining from hundreds or thousands of rows data in order to get the attention in the items we want to focus on. It can receive parameters such as "text/values/colors" and they can be stacked among columns. You may connect up to 2 criteria per column based in logical connectors and sets of rules. Remark: Autofilter works by filtering rows, there is no Autofilter to filter columns (at least not natively). Section 19.1: Smartfilter! Problem situation Warehouse administrator has a sheet ("Record") where every logistics movement performed by the facility is stored, he may filter as needed, although, this is very time consuming and he would like to improve the process in order to calculate inquiries faster, for example: How many "pulp" do we have now (in all racks)? How many pulp do we have now (in rack #5)? Filters are a great tool but, they are somewhat limited to answer these kind of question in matter of seconds. Macro solution: The coder knows that autofilters are the best, fast and most reliable solution in these kind of scenarios since the data exists already in the worksheet and the input for them can be obtained easily -in this case, by user input-. The approach used is to create a sheet called "SmartFilter" where administrator can easily filter multiple data as needed and calculation will be performed instantly as well. He uses 2 modules and the Worksheet_Change event for this matter GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 66 Code For SmartFilter Worksheet: Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range) Dim ItemInRange As Range Const CellsFilters As String = "C2,E2,G2" Call ExcelBusy For Each ItemInRange In Target If Not Intersect(ItemInRange, Range(CellsFilters)) Is Nothing Then Call Inventory_Filter Next ItemInRange Call ExcelNormal End Sub Code for module 1, called "General_Functions" Sub ExcelNormal() With Excel.Application .EnableEvents = True .Cursor = xlDefault .ScreenUpdating = True .DisplayAlerts = True .StatusBar = False .CopyObjectsWithCells = True End With End Sub Sub ExcelBusy() With Excel.Application .EnableEvents = False .Cursor = xlWait .ScreenUpdating = False .DisplayAlerts = False .StatusBar = False .CopyObjectsWithCells = True End With End Sub Sub Select_Sheet(NameSheet As String, Optional VerifyExistanceOnly As Boolean) On Error GoTo Err01Select_Sheet Sheets(NameSheet).Visible = True If VerifyExistanceOnly = False Then ' 1. If VerifyExistanceOnly = False Sheets(NameSheet).Select Sheets(NameSheet).AutoFilterMode = False Sheets(NameSheet).Cells.EntireRow.Hidden = False Sheets(NameSheet).Cells.EntireColumn.Hidden = False End If ' 1. If VerifyExistanceOnly = False If 1 = 2 Then '99. If error Err01Select_Sheet: MsgBox "Err01Select_Sheet: Sheet " & NameSheet & " doesn't exist!", vbCritical: Call ExcelNormal: On Error GoTo -1: End End If '99. If error End Sub Function General_Functions_Find_Title(InSheet As String, TitleToFind As String, Optional InRange As Range, Optional IsNeededToExist As Boolean, Optional IsWhole As Boolean) As Range Dim DummyRange As Range On Error GoTo Err01General_Functions_Find_Title If InRange Is Nothing Then ' 1. If InRange Is Nothing Set DummyRange = IIf(IsWhole = True, Sheets(InSheet).Cells.Find(TitleToFind, LookAt:=xlWhole), Sheets(InSheet).Cells.Find(TitleToFind, LookAt:=xlPart)) Else ' 1. If InRange Is Nothing Set DummyRange = IIf(IsWhole = True, Sheets(InSheet).Range(InRange.Address).Find(TitleToFind, LookAt:=xlWhole), Sheets(InSheet).Range(InRange.Address).Find(TitleToFind, LookAt:=xlPart)) End If ' 1. If InRange Is Nothing Set General_Functions_Find_Title = DummyRange GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 67 If 1 = 2 Or DummyRange Is Nothing Then '99. If error Err01General_Functions_Find_Title: If IsNeededToExist = True Then MsgBox "Err01General_Functions_Find_Title: Ttile '" & TitleToFind & "' was not found in sheet '" & InSheet & "'", vbCritical: Call ExcelNormal: On Error GoTo -1: End End If '99. If error End Function Code for module 2, called "Inventory_Handling" Const TitleDesc As String = "DESCRIPTION" Const TitleLocation As String = "LOCATION" Const TitleActn As String = "ACTION" Const TitleQty As String = "QUANTITY" Const SheetRecords As String = "Record" Const SheetSmartFilter As String = "SmartFilter" Const RowFilter As Long = 2 Const ColDataToPaste As Long = 2 Const RowDataToPaste As Long = 7 Const RangeInResult As String = "K1" Const RangeOutResult As String = "K2" Sub Inventory_Filter() Dim ColDesc As Long: ColDesc = General_Functions_Find_Title(SheetSmartFilter, TitleDesc, IsNeededToExist:=True, IsWhole:=True).Column Dim ColLocation As Long: ColLocation = General_Functions_Find_Title(SheetSmartFilter, TitleLocation, IsNeededToExist:=True, IsWhole:=True).Column Dim ColActn As Long: ColActn = General_Functions_Find_Title(SheetSmartFilter, TitleActn, IsNeededToExist:=True, IsWhole:=True).Column Dim ColQty As Long: ColQty = General_Functions_Find_Title(SheetSmartFilter, TitleQty, IsNeededToExist:=True, IsWhole:=True).Column Dim CounterQty As Long Dim TotalQty As Long Dim TotalIn As Long Dim TotalOut As Long Dim RangeFiltered As Range Call Select_Sheet(SheetSmartFilter) If Cells(Rows.Count, ColDataToPaste).End(xlUp).Row > RowDataToPaste - 1 Then Rows(RowDataToPaste & ":" & Cells(Rows.Count, "B").End(xlUp).Row).Delete Sheets(SheetRecords).AutoFilterMode = False If Cells(RowFilter, ColDesc).Value <> "" Or Cells(RowFilter, ColLocation).Value <> "" Or Cells(RowFilter, ColActn).Value <> "" Then ' 1. If Cells(RowFilter, ColDesc).Value <> "" Or Cells(RowFilter, ColLocation).Value <> "" Or Cells(RowFilter, ColActn).Value <> "" With Sheets(SheetRecords).UsedRange If Sheets(SheetSmartFilter).Cells(RowFilter, ColDesc).Value <> "" Then .AutoFilter Field:=General_Functions_Find_Title(SheetRecords, TitleDesc, IsNeededToExist:=True, IsWhole:=True).Column, Criteria1:=Sheets(SheetSmartFilter).Cells(RowFilter, ColDesc).Value If Sheets(SheetSmartFilter).Cells(RowFilter, ColLocation).Value <> "" Then .AutoFilter Field:=General_Functions_Find_Title(SheetRecords, TitleLocation, IsNeededToExist:=True, IsWhole:=True).Column, Criteria1:=Sheets(SheetSmartFilter).Cells(RowFilter, ColLocation).Value If Sheets(SheetSmartFilter).Cells(RowFilter, ColActn).Value <> "" Then .AutoFilter Field:=General_Functions_Find_Title(SheetRecords, TitleActn, IsNeededToExist:=True, IsWhole:=True).Column, Criteria1:=Sheets(SheetSmartFilter).Cells(RowFilter, ColActn).Value 'If we don't use a filter we would need to use a cycle For/to or For/Each Cell in range 'to determine whether or not the row meets the criteria that we are looking and then 'save it on an array, collection, dictionary, etc 'IG: For CounterRow = 2 To TotalRows 'If Sheets(SheetSmartFilter).Cells(RowFilter, ColDesc).Value <> "" and Sheets(SheetRecords).cells(CounterRow,ColDescInRecords).Value= Sheets(SheetSmartFilter).Cells(RowFilter, ColDesc).Value then 'Redim Preserve MyUnecessaryArray(UnecessaryNumber) ''Save to array: (UnecessaryNumber)=MyUnecessaryArray. Or in a dictionary, etc. At the end, we would transpose this GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 68 values into the sheet, at the end 'both are the same, but, just try to see the time invested on each logic. If .Cells(1, 1).End(xlDown).Value <> "" Then Set RangeFiltered = .Rows("2:" & Sheets(SheetRecords).Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row).SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible) 'If it is not <>"" means that there was not filtered data! If RangeFiltered Is Nothing Then MsgBox "Err01Inventory_Filter: No data was found with the given criteria!", vbCritical: Call ExcelNormal: End RangeFiltered.Copy Destination:=Cells(RowDataToPaste, ColDataToPaste) TotalQty = Cells(Rows.Count, ColQty).End(xlUp).Row For CounterQty = RowDataToPaste + 1 To TotalQty If Cells(CounterQty, ColActn).Value = "In" Then ' 2. If Cells(CounterQty, ColActn).Value = "In" TotalIn = Cells(CounterQty, ColQty).Value + TotalIn ElseIf Cells(CounterQty, ColActn).Value = "Out" Then ' 2. If Cells(CounterQty, ColActn).Value = "In" TotalOut = Cells(CounterQty, ColQty).Value + TotalOut End If ' 2. If Cells(CounterQty, ColActn).Value = "In" Next CounterQty Range(RangeInResult).Value = TotalIn Range(RangeOutResult).Value = -(TotalOut) End With End If ' 1. If Cells(RowFilter, ColDesc).Value <> "" Or Cells(RowFilter, ColLocation).Value <> "" Or Cells(RowFilter, ColActn).Value <> "" End Sub Testing and results: As we saw in the previous image, this task has been achieved easily. By using autofilters a solution was provided that just takes seconds to compute, is easy to explain to the user -since s/he is familiar with this command- and took a few lines to the coder. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 69 Chapter 20: Application object Section 20.1: Simple Application Object example: Display Excel and VBE Version Sub DisplayExcelVersions() MsgBox "The version of Excel is " & Application.Version MsgBox "The version of the VBE is " & Application.VBE.Version End Sub The use of the Application.Version property is useful for ensuring code only operates on a compatible version of Excel. Section 20.2: Simple Application Object example: Minimize the Excel window This code uses the top level Application object to minimize the main Excel window. Sub MinimizeExcel() Application.WindowState = xlMinimized End Sub GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 70 Chapter 21: Charts and Charting Section 21.1: Creating a Chart with Ranges and a Fixed Name Charts can be created by working directly with the Series object that defines the chart data. In order to get to the Series without an exisitng chart, you create a ChartObject on a given Worksheet and then get the Chart object from it. The upside of working with the Series object is that you can set the Values and XValues by referring to Range objects. These data properties will properly define the Series with references to those ranges. The downside to this approach is that the same conversion is not handled when setting the Name; it is a fixed value. It will not adjust with the underlying data in the original Range. Checking the SERIES formula and it is obvious that the name is fixed. This must be handled by creating the SERIES formula directly. Code used to create chart Note that this code contains extra variable declarations for the Chart and Worksheet. These can be omitted if they're not used. They can be useful however if you are modifying the style or any other chart properties. Sub CreateChartWithRangesAndFixedName() Dim xData As Range Dim yData As Range Dim serName As Range 'set the ranges to get the data and y value label Set xData = Range("B3:B12") Set yData = Range("C3:C12") Set serName = Range("C2") 'get reference to ActiveSheet Dim sht As Worksheet Set sht = ActiveSheet 'create a new ChartObject at position (48, 195) with width 400 and height 300 Dim chtObj As ChartObject Set chtObj = sht.ChartObjects.Add(48, 195, 400, 300) 'get reference to chart object Dim cht As Chart Set cht = chtObj.Chart 'create the new series Dim ser As Series Set ser = cht.SeriesCollection.NewSeries ser.Values = yData ser.XValues = xData ser.Name = serName ser.ChartType = xlXYScatterLines End Sub Original data/ranges and resulting Chart after code runs Note that the SERIES formula includes a "B" for the series name instead of a reference to the Range that created it. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 71 Section 21.2: Creating an empty Chart The starting point for the vast majority of charting code is to create an empty Chart. Note that this Chart is subject to the default chart template that is active and may not actually be empty (if the template has been modified). The key to the ChartObject is determining its location. The syntax for the call is ChartObjects.Add(Left, Top, Width, Height). Once the ChartObject is created, you can use its Chart object to actually modify the chart. The ChartObject behaves more like a Shape to position the chart on the sheet. Code to create an empty chart Sub CreateEmptyChart() 'get reference to ActiveSheet GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 72 Dim sht As Worksheet Set sht = ActiveSheet 'create a new ChartObject at position (0, 0) with width 400 and height 300 Dim chtObj As ChartObject Set chtObj = sht.ChartObjects.Add(0, 0, 400, 300) 'get refernce to chart object Dim cht As Chart Set cht = chtObj.Chart 'additional code to modify the empty chart '... End Sub Resulting Chart Section 21.3: Create a Chart by Modifying the SERIES formula For complete control over a new Chart and Series object (especially for a dynamic Series name), you must resort to modifying the SERIES formula directly. The process to set up the Range objects is straightforward and the main hurdle is simply the string building for the SERIES formula. The SERIES formula takes the following syntax: =SERIES(Name,XValues,Values,Order) These contents can be supplied as references or as array values for the data items. Order represents the series position within the chart. Note that the references to the data will not work unless they are fully qualified with the sheet name. For an example of a working formula, click any existing series and check the formula bar. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 73 Code to create a chart and set up data using the SERIES formula Note that the string building to create the SERIES formula uses .Address(,,,True). This ensures that the external Range reference is used so that a fully qualified address with the sheet name is included. You will get an error if the sheet name is excluded. Sub CreateChartUsingSeriesFormula() Dim xData As Range Dim yData As Range Dim serName As Range 'set the ranges to get the data and y value label Set xData = Range("B3:B12") Set yData = Range("C3:C12") Set serName = Range("C2") 'get reference to ActiveSheet Dim sht As Worksheet Set sht = ActiveSheet 'create a new ChartObject at position (48, 195) with width 400 and height 300 Dim chtObj As ChartObject Set chtObj = sht.ChartObjects.Add(48, 195, 400, 300) 'get refernce to chart object Dim cht As Chart Set cht = chtObj.Chart 'create the new series Dim ser As Series Set ser = cht.SeriesCollection.NewSeries 'set the SERIES formula '=SERIES(name, xData, yData, plotOrder) Dim formulaValue As String formulaValue = "=SERIES(" & _ serName.Address(, , , True) & "," & _ xData.Address(, , , True) & "," & _ yData.Address(, , , True) & ",1)" ser.Formula = formulaValue ser.ChartType = xlXYScatterLines End Sub Original data and resulting chart Note that for this chart, the series name is properly set with a range to the desired cell. This means that updates will propagate to the Chart. GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 74 Section 21.4: Arranging Charts into a Grid A common chore with charts in Excel is standardizing the size and layout of multiple charts on a single sheet. If ALT done manually, you can hold down while resizing or moving the chart to "stick" to cell boundaries. This works for a couple charts, but a VBA approach is much simpler. Code to create a grid This code will create a grid of charts starting at a given (Top, Left) position, with a defined number of columns, and a defined common chart size. The charts will be placed in the order they were created and wrap around the edge to form a new row. Sub CreateGridOfCharts() GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 75 Dim int_cols As Integer int_cols = 3 Dim cht_width As Double cht_width = 250 Dim cht_height As Double cht_height = 200 Dim offset_vertical As Double offset_vertical = 195 Dim offset_horz As Double offset_horz = 40 Dim sht As Worksheet Set sht = ActiveSheet Dim count As Integer count = 0 'iterate through ChartObjects on current sheet Dim cht_obj As ChartObject For Each cht_obj In sht.ChartObjects 'use integer division and Mod to get position in grid cht_obj.Top = (count \ int_cols) * cht_height + offset_vertical cht_obj.Left = (count Mod int_cols) * cht_width + offset_horz cht_obj.Width = cht_width cht_obj.Height = cht_height count = count + 1 Next cht_obj End Sub Result with several charts These pictures show the original random layout of charts and the resulting grid from running the code above. Before GoalKicker.com – Excel® VBA Notes for Professionals 76 """