Excel vba step by step guide to learn excel vba programming with screenshots and example code by mel

Working with the Visual Basic Editor Objects in Visual Basic for Application Subs and Functions in Visual Basic for Application Macro Recorder tool in Visual Basic for Application Import

EXCEL VBA

Legal Notice

Copyright (c) 2020 Anton Melnyk.

All rights are reserved No portion of this book may be reproduced or duplicated using any form whether mechanical, electronic, or otherwise No portion of this book may be transmitted, stored in a retrieval database, or otherwise made available in any manner whether public or private unless specific permission is granted by the publisher.

This book does not offer advice, but merely provides information The author offers no advice whether medical, financial, legal, or otherwise, nor does the author encourage any person to pursue any specific course of action discussed in this book This book is not a substitute for professional advice The reader accepts complete and sole responsibility for the manner in which this book and its contents are used The publisher and the author will not be held liable for any damages caused.

Excel VBA

Step by Step Guide to Learn Excel VBA Programming

with Screenshots and Example Code

Anton Melnyk

Working with the Visual Basic Editor

Objects in Visual Basic for Application

Subs and Functions in Visual Basic for Application

Macro Recorder tool in Visual Basic for Application

Important Language Elements in Visual Basic for Application

Range objects in Visual Basic for Application

Workbook objects in Visual Basic for Application

Worksheet objects in Visual Basic for Application

OLEObject objects in Visual Basic for Application

Worksheet Functions in Visual Basic for Application

Control Program Flow and Making Decisions in Visual Basic for Application Events in Visual Basic for Application

Error Handling in Visual Basic for Application

Communication with users in Visual Basic for Application

Add-ins in Visual Basic for Application

Tips and Tricks used in Visual Basic for Application

Code examples used in Visual Basic for Application

Excel VBA

VBA stands for Visual Basic for Applications and is the programming language used in all office programs (Excel, Word, Outlook, etc.) This programming language can be used to create all kinds of automation tools and to create relationships between Office programs move data from

one tool to another.

This book will show you how you can harness some of the power of Excel

VBA for yourself

Working with the Visual Basic Editor

Visual Basic Editor is the interface where the code can be written To open Visual Basic Editor, you need to follow this steps:

1 Click on the Developer tab from the top ribbon menu of any Outlook program

If the Developer tab is not visible you have to right click on Home button and click on Customize Quick Access Toolbar Select Customize Ribbon option on the left pane and check Developer checkbox in the right pane

2 Click on the Visual Basic button

OR

Press Alt + F11 buttons from the keyboard on Windows configuration

or Opt + F11 buttons from the keyboard on MAC configuration

After the Visual Basic Editor is open there can be found multiple sections described below:

insert modules, procedures or user forms format your code (align, horizontal or vertical spacing, arrange buttons, etc.)

debug your code by: step into (run the code line by line), step over (skip some lines of code when running), add a variable to the watch window (check the variable value while running the code)

run the code, break the code or stop the code add some references References are very important when the code uses some other applications For example, if you want

to include some Word references you need to add Microsoft Word as a reference.

include some Add-ins change Window view get some help if is needed All the commands described above have also keyboard shortcuts.

Tool Bar

Tool Bar contains most of the useful commands that are used while

codding This toolbar can be customized with most needed commands Edit Toolbar Buttons:

List Properties / Methods (CTRL + J) – When something from the code (Sub, Function, Variable, Method, etc.) is clicked and

this option pressed shows a list of all properties and methods

of that object from the code

List Constants (CTRL + Shift + J) – Displays all the constants available in the code

Quick Info (CTRL + I) - When something from the code (Sub, Function, Variable, Method, etc.) is clicked and this option pressed shows a list of information of that object from the code

Parameter Info (CTRL + Shift + I) – Displays all the

parameter that are needed after click on a Sub/Function name

Toggle Breakpoint (F9) – Inserting a breakpoint in the selected line

Toggle Bookmark – Inserting a bookmark in the selected line Next Bookmark – Move the cursor to the next bookmark in the code

Previous Bookmark – Move the cursor to the previous

bookmark in the code

Clear All Bookmarks – Remove all bookmarks from the code Comment Block – Comment the selected text (used for

commenting multiples lines of code at once)

Uncomment Block – Uncomment the selected text

Standard Toolbar Buttons:

View Microsoft Excel (Alt + F11) – Switch to Microsoft Excel application from Visual Basic Editor

Insert User Form – Allows the user to insert new User Form, Module, Class Module or Procedures

Save (CTRL + S) – Saves the progress (including Excel

Workbook and Visual Basic Macro)

Cut (CTRL + X) – Standard cut functionality

Copy (CTRL + C) – Standard copy functionality

Paste (CTRL + V) – Standard paste functionality

Find (CTRL + F) – Standard find functionality

Undo (CTRL + Z) – Reverse the last action

Redo – Restores the last action

Run (F5) – Runs the current part of the code If the cursor is inside a Sub or Function, it will run the Sub or Function and it stops only if there is a Breakpoint in the code If a User Form

is open in the Visual Basic Editor, then it will run the User Form

Break (CTRL + Break) – Pause the execution of the code and switch to break mode (in this way the code can be run line by line)

Reset / Stop – Stops the execution of the code, resets the

project and clear all variables/clipboard items/objects

Design Mode – Switch to design mode view (edit buttons / labels / text boxes, etc.)

Project Explorer (CTRL + R) – Displays the Project Explorer window on the screen

Properties Window (F4) – Displays the Properties window on the screen

Object Browser (F2) – Displays the Object browser on the screen

Toolbox – Displays toolbox when a User Form is active This toolbox is used to insert new items on the User Form (Text, Dropdowns, Images, Buttons, Tables, etc.)

Help (F1) – Displays the Office assistant window

Debug Toolbar Buttons:

Design Mode – Switch to design mode view (edit buttons / labels / text boxes, etc.)

Run/Continue(F5) – Runs the current part of the code If the cursor is inside a Sub or Function, it will run the Sub or

Function and it stops only if there is a Breakpoint in the code.

If a User Form is open in the Visual Basic Editor, then it will run the User Form

Break (CTRL + Break) – Pause the execution of the code and switch to break mode (in this way the code can be run line by line)

Reset / Stop – Stops the execution of the code, resets the

project and clear all variables/clipboard items/objects

Toggle Breakpoint (F9) – Inserting a breakpoint in the selected line

Step Into (F8) – Runs the next line of code which is

executable and steps into procedures or functions (this is

helpful if some actions are done inside some procedures or functions because the code is run step by step)

Step Over (Shift + F8) – Runs the next line of code which is executable without stepping into procedures or functions

Step Out (CTRL + Shift + F8) – Runs the remaining lines of code from the current procedure and move back to the next line of code where the procedure is called

Locals Window – Displays the locals window where all the local variables are visible

Immediate Window (CTRL + G) – Displays the immediate window to allow the user to run code or query while the code

is in break mode Here are also showed the Debug.Print

messages / values.

Watch Window – Displays Watches window to see the

variables values while the code is in break mode To add a variable to watch window the user needs to right click on a variable and select “Add Watch…” option

Quick Watch (Shift + F9) – Displays the Quick Watch window while the code is in break mode

Call Stack – Displays the call stack dialog box while the code

is in break mode Here can be seen all the procedure that have been used in the project.

Userform Buttons:

Bring to front (CTRL + J) – Option that can be used after an object was selected Moves the selected object in front of all

other objects.

Send to back (CTRL + K) – Option that can be used after an object was selected Moves the selected object behind all other objects.

Group – Option that can be used after some more objects were selected Create a group from the selected objects

Ungroup – Option that can be used after some more objects were selected Ungroup the selected grouped objects

Align – Option that can be used after some more objects were selected Align the selected objects left, center, right or to the grid

Center – Option that can be used after some more objects were selected Center the selected object horizontally or vertically Make Width Same Size – Option that can be used after some more objects were selected Set same width, height or both for the selected items

Zoom Percentage – Set zoom percentage of all controls from a user form (values between 10% and 400%)

Project Explorer Window

The Project Explorer Window can usually be found in the top left side

of VBA editor and it shows a hierarchical list of open projects This list contains Microsoft Excel Objects (Sheets and ThisWorkbook section), Forms (all User Forms created in the project), Modules (all macro modules) and Class Modules.

time and some of them can be set only while running the code in break mode.

Immediate Window

The Immediate window is the window used for debugging or evaluate some expressions, execute some parts of the code without running the entire macro and print some variable values.

Watches Window

The watch window is the window where you can add some variables

to see the value while running the code When a variable is added to the watch window there are options to break/pause the code when the variable value is changed or becomes true.

Objects in Visual Basic for Application

There are multiple types of objects in VBA:

Application Object

-it refers to entire Excel application and it sets properties for all

opened Excel files This type of objects improves the speed and

memory of the code It helps to set Application objects to

false/manual in the beginning of the code and set them back to

true/automatic at the end of the code Examples:

Application.WindowState = xlMaximized / xlMinimized – it maximizes/minimizes the Excel application

Application.DisplayAlerts = False / True – it disables / enables all Excel warning message / pop-ups

Application.ScreenUpdating = False / True – it disables / enables the Excel screen updating (mouse flickering)

Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual / xlCalculationAutomatic – it auto calculates all cells formulas while the code is running

Workbooks Object

-it refers to all workbook objects that are opened in Microsoft Excel application With this type of objects, it can be created workbooks, save workbooks, close workbooks, rename workbooks, etc

Examples:

Worksheets.Add – add a new worksheet to the specified

values/formats/borders/background color from/to a range of cells Examples:

Worksheet(1).Range(“A1:A5”).Select – it set focus to first 5 rows of column A from worksheet 1

Worksheet(3).Range(“B1:C3”).ClearContents – it clears cells values from worksheet 3 from cell B1 to cell C3

Worksheet(2).Range(“A1:A1048576”).Clear – it clears cells values/format/color from entire column A of worksheet 2

Worksheet(1).Range(“A1”).Value = 2 – it sets value of cell A1

to 2

Worksheet(1).Range(“A1:A2,B3:B4,C5:C6”).Value = 2 – it sets value of all three ranges to 2

Worksheet(1).Range(“B1:B2”).Value =

Worksheet(1).Range(“A1:A2”).Value – it copy values from range A1:A2 to B1:B2 inside the worksheet 1

Shape Object

-it refers to the collection of shapes from a worksheet With this type

of objects, it can be moved / delete / insert / copy all types of shape objects (tables, charts, pictures, etc.)

Excel VBA Object Model

-it refers to the hierarchy of all objects used in Microsoft Excel

Example:

One”).Range(“A1”).Select – it selects cell A1 from workbook named Test worksheet named Sheet One

Subs and Functions in Visual Basic for Application

In Excel Visual Basic it can be created a set of commands (lines of code) that needs to be executed one time or multiple times can be grouped in a sub or a function The difference between sub and

function is that sub doesn’t return something, and a function returns a value / result The functions defined in VBA can also runs as a

Worksheet function (define a function in the code and then call it inside a cell).

Examples:

Sub SetValueOfACell()

Worksheets(1).Cells(1,1).Value = 2;

End Sub Function SumOfValues()

SumOfValues = 2 + 3;

End Function Arguments

When subs or procedures needs to receive some data, the data can be passed to the sub or procedure using arguments Arguments needs to

be declared in the body of procedure.

Example:

Sub SetValueOfACell(val as Long)

Worksheets(1).Cells(1,1).Value = val;

End Sub Function SumOfValues(A as Long, B as Long)

SumOfValues = A + B;

End Function Arguments can be passed in two different ways: by value and by

reference

ByVal -the argument is passed by value which means that just the value is passed to the procedure If the value is modified

inside the procedure the new value will be lost when exit the procedure.

ByRef

-the argument is passed by reference which means that th address of the argument is passed to the procedure If the value is modified inside the procedure the new value will

be saved after exit the procedure.

Calling a Sub or Function

MultiplyOfNumbersParameters = A * B;

End Function

Sub Main() Var1 = SumOfNumbers Var2 = SumOfNumbersParameters (2,3) Var2_1 = SumOfNumbersParameters (5,10) Var3 = MultiplyOfNumbers

Var4 = MultiplyOfNumbersParameters(2,3) Var4_1 = MultiplyOfNumbersParameters(5,10) End Sub

User Defined Function (Custom Function) vs Worksheet Function

- Other type of functions are user defined functions that can be used in worksheet cells These types of functions are helpful when it’s needed a custom excel function in the worksheet.

Example 1:

A function that assign value of 5 to a specific cell:

1.Open Visual Basic Editor

2.Choose Insert -> Module

3.Insert the following code

Public Function Assign5Value()

Assign5Value = 5 End Function

4.Save the code

5.Return to Excel sheet and insert text “=Assign5Value()” on a cell.

Example 2:

A function that sum all the odd numbers from a range of cells:

1.Open Visual Basic Editor

2.Choose Insert -> Module

3.Insert the following code

Function SumOddNumbers(rng As Range)

Dim cell As Range

For Each cell In rng

If cell.Value Mod 2 = 1 Then SumOddNumbers = SumOddNumbers + cell.Value End If

Next cell

End Function

4.Save the code

5.Return to Excel sheet and populate a range of cells with values (check picture below)

6.Insert the following text on another cell “= SumOddNumbers ()” on a cell (check picture below)

Macro Recorder tool in Visual Basic for Application

The Macro Recorder is a very useful functionality included in Excel Visual Basic for Application which can records a task that is done manually and convert it into a function in code This helps a lot when a task is done

manually and repetitive because it can automate manual tasks The task needs to be recorded and after that the code can be used to execute the task without doing it manually

Unfortunately there are some things/features that cannot be recorded by the record macro functionality (example : loop through a range of cells) but it helps because it creates a structure for the code which can be edited by the user

Useful information about recording a macro:

When a macro is recorded for performing a set of tasks with a range of cells, the macro will not extend if there are some extensions of the range (adding some more rows or columns)

If the task is big and it has a lot of steps is better to split it into smaller tasks to be easy to follow the macro

Macro recorder can be used in all Office programs (Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, etc.)

Steps that needs to be done to record a macro:

1 Go to Developer tab and click Record Macro button

2 In the Record Macro window can be added Macro name,

Shortcut key to run the code, place where to store the recorded macro and a description for the macro

3 Click OK and the recording will begin automatically

4 Perform all actions that needs to be recorded

' Macro2 Macro

'

ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "1" Range("A2").Select

ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "2" Range("A3").Select

ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "3" Range("A4").Select

ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "4" Range("A5").Select

ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "5" Range("A6").Select

ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "6" Range("A7").Select

ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "7" Range("A8").Select

ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "8" Range("A9").Select

End Sub

As a conclusion, Macro Recorder it helps when a user starts to learn VBA programming, but it also can be complicated sometimes to understand the macro recorded.

A good thing is that after the macro is recorded it can be customized

(change variable name, add more lines of code, extend the functionality of the recorded macro, etc).

Important Language Elements in Visual Basic for Application

❖ Comments

Comments are the simplest type of VBA statement and they are used to give moreinformation about the code, to clarify some functions or simply split some functions.All the comments in the code are ignored by the code (not running the comments lineand statements)

A comment statement starts with apostrophe character ( ‘ ) Multiple lines can becommented using comment block function described in the beginning of the training

or by inserting apostrophe character in the beginning of each line that needs to becommented All the commented lines will be colored in green to be easily identifiedwhen scanning a long code

Comments are very useful to : describe a sub or a function, versioning a sub/

function/ module (keep track of changes in the code), describe variables or describeany workaround created in the code

convention is flexible so the variables can be named as descriptive as possible

As a good practice all the variables needs to be declared in VBA to don’t block tomuch memory if it’s not needed (variables can hold different amount of memorybased on the data type of the variable)

Syntax to declare a variable is:

Dim <<variable_name>> As <<data_type>>

Rules for variable_name:

➢ First character from the name must be a letter and the rest of the characters can

be letters, numbers and some punctuation characters

➢ Space character, punctuation character, “#”, “$”, “%”, “&”, and “!” cannot beused in the name

➢ Visual Basic for Application doesn’t distinguish between uppercase and

lowercase

➢ Variable name cannot be longer than 254 characters

➢ Cannot use any reserved words (keywords) in variable name (ex Sub, With, For,And, Byte, Call, etc.)

Examples:

Dim a As Byte

Dim cond As Boolean

Dim name As String

Dim dateOfBirth As Date

Dim longitude As Double

Dim bigVariable As Variant

Procedure only By using Dim statement in the procedure that uses the

variableModule only By using Dim statement before the first Sub or

Function statement in the moduleAll procedures in all

Syntax to declare a constant is:

Dim <<constant_name>> As <<data_type>> = <<value_of_constant>>

Rules for constant_name:

➢ First character from the name must be a letter and the rest of the characters can

be letters, numbers and some punctuation characters

➢ Space character, punctuation character, “#”, “$”, “%”, “&”, and “!” cannot beused in the name

➢ Visual Basic for Application doesn’t distinguish between uppercase and

lowercase

➢ Constant name cannot be longer than 254 characters

➢ Cannot use any reserved words (keywords) in constant name (ex Sub, With, For,And, Byte, Call, etc.)

Const pi_value As Double = 3.14

Const my_age as Byte = 30

Const country_Name as String = “Romania”

❖ Data Types

Data type is the characteristic of a variable that determines what kind of data can behold by the variable If the variables are not defined as the user wish (ex declare allvariables as Variant when the variable holds only small numbers inside), this willcause slower execution and inefficient memory usage In large applications this will

be a big issue

VBA built-in data types:

Boolean 2 bytes True or False

Byte 1 byte 0 to 255

Currency 8 bytes -922,337,203,685,477.5808 to

922,337,203,685,477.5807Date 8 bytes 1 January 100 to 31 December 9999Double

4.94065645841247E-324 to1.79769313486232E308 for positive valuesInteger 2 bytes -32,768 to 32,767

valuesString 10 bytes + string

length

0 to approximately 2 billion

Variant 16 bytes Any numeric value up to the range of a Double

In VBA there are built in functions to verify data types:

Function Name Returning Value

IsArray (varname) Returns true if the variable is an array, otherwise returns

falseIsDate(expression) Returns true if the expression is a date or is recognized as

a valid date or time, otherwise returns falseIsEmpty(expression) Returns a Boolean value indicating if the variable has

been initialized or notIsError(expression) Returns a Boolean value indicating whether an expression

is an error valueIsMissing(argname) Returns a Boolean value indicating whether an optional

variant argument has been passed or not to a procedureIsNull(expression) Returns a Boolean value indicating whether an expression

contains no valid data (Null value)IsNumeric(expression) Returns a Boolean value indicating whether an expression

can be evaluated as a numberIsObject(identifier) Returns a Boolean indicating whether an identifier

represents an object variable

There are also functions to convert from one data type to another (if it’s possible):

CBool(expression) Returns Boolean of a valid string or numeric expression

argumentCByte(expression) Returns Byte value after conversion of the expression

CCur(expression) Returns Currency value after conversion of the

expressionCDate(expression) Returns Date value after conversion of the expression

CDbl(expression) Returns Double value after conversion of the expression

CDec(expression) Returns Decimal value after conversion of the

expressionCInt(expression) Returns Integer value after conversion of the expression

CLng(expression) Returns Long value after conversion of the expression

CSng(expression) Returns Single value after conversion of the expression

CStr(expression) Returns String value after conversion of the expression

CVar(expression) Returns Variant value after conversion of the expression

To force yourself to declare all the variables used in the code include the followingstatement in the beginning of the code:

Option Explicit – this won’t allow the user to run the code if it contains any

An assignment statement is a VBA statement that assigns the result of an expression

or evaluation of the expression to a variable or an object

An assignment can be used to perform a calculation, manipulate characters,

manipulate set of data, evaluate some expressions or test some data

Assignment statements always contains an equal sign ( = )

Examples:

name = “John” -> assign “john” to the name variable

inputName = InputBox(“What is your name?”) -> show a pop-up/input box andask the user to insert a name and assign that name to the variable

age = 25 -> assign 25 value to the age variable

age = InputBox(“What is your age?”) -> show a pop-up/input box and ask the user

to insert age and assign that number to the variable

❖ Visual Basic Statements

A VB statement is a complete set of instructions

If a statement it needs to be separated to multiple line it can be done by insert “_”character at the end of each line that will be continued to the next line :

Dim longText as String

longText = “qwerty123456qwerty123456” _

& “asdfgh1234567asdfgh1234567” _

& “zxcvb1234zxcvb1234zxcvb”

❖ VBA Operators

Operators are used to create connections / operations between variables or

expressions

There are multiple types of VBA operators : arithmetic, comparison, logical

(relational) and concatenation

Arithmetic Operators : mathematical operators used to execute mathematical

operation

+ Adds two or more operands 2 + 5 (returns 7)

- Subtracts two or more operands 5 – 2 (returns 3)

* Multiplies two or more operands 2 * 5 (returns 10)

/ Divides the numerator by the denominator 5 / 2 (returns 2.5)

% Modulus operator and the reminder after an integer

division 5 % 2 (returns 1)

^ Exponentiation operator 5 ^ 2 (returns 25)

Comparison Operators : mathematical operators used to compare values of twooperands (variables)

=

Checks if two operands are equal or not Ifyes then returns true, otherwise returnsfalse

(10 = 10) returns true(“Name1” = “Name2”)returns false

<>

Checks if two operands are equal or not Ifnot equal returns true, otherwise returnsfalse

(10 <> 10) returns false(“Name1” <> “Name2”)returns true

>=

Checks if the value of the left operand isgreater or equal than the value of the rightoperand If yes, then returns true, otherwisereturns false

(10 >= 10) returns true(“Name2” >= “Name1”)returns true

<

Checks if the value of the left operand isless than the value of the right operand Ifyes, then returns true, otherwise returnsfalse

(10 < 10) returns false(“Name2” < “Name1”)returns false

<= Checks if the value of the left operand is

less or equal than the value of the rightoperand If yes, then returns true, otherwisereturns false

(10 <= 10) returns true(“Name2” <= “Name1”)returns false

Logical Operators : operators used to check some conditions or combine multiplestatements (variables)

AND Checks if two or more conditions are True

then returns True, otherwise returns False

10 = 10 AND 10 = 5returns false

“Name1” = “Name1”AND “Name1” <>

“Name2” returns true

OR

Checks if one of the two or more conditions

is True If any of the conditions is True thenreturns True, otherwise returns False

10 = 10 OR 10 = 5returns true

“Name1” = “Name1” OR

“Name1” <> “Name2”returns true

(10 = 10 XOR 10 = 5)returns true

(“Name1” = “Name1”XOR “Name1” <>

“Name2”) returns false

Concatenation Operators : operators used to concatenate some operands (variables)

+ Concatenates two Values (numeric

concatenation)

10 + 10 returns 20

“Name1” + “Name2”returns Name1Name2

& Concatenates two Values (stringconcatenation)

10 & 10 returns 1010

“Name1” & “Name2”returns Name1Name2

Array that contains a list of names:

Dim nameList(5) as String

Array that contains month numbers:

Dim monthNumber(13) as Byte

Array that contains business card:

Dim businessCard(5) As Variant

businessCard(0) = “John Smith”

Dim numberMatrix (1 To 3, 1 To 3) As Byte

ReDim Preserve <<arrayName>> <<arrayLength>>

Preserve word allow the user to re-dimension an array but keep the existing values of thearray

Lowest and highest index numbers (margins) of an array are known as bounds Arraysize can be identified using LBound and UBound LBound returns the smallest subscript

in a given dimension of an array (long type) UBound returns the largest subscript in agiven dimension of an array (long type)

❖ Keywords / Reserved words

Reserved words are some predefined words that cannot be used to define variables,subroutines or functions These words are part of Visual Basic for Application

programming language itself

Fortunately VBA checks the code while the user type in and give warnings/errors(usually Expected Identifier warning) if a keyword it is not used correctly

Examples of reserved words :

Range objects in Visual Basic for Application

Ranges represents a cell, a row, a column or a selection of cells of Excel worksheet.Ranges can be used to copy values, formats, colors or formulas from one range toanother Defining a range object needs to follow object hierarchy pattern using “.”operator as a separator between hierarchy items

2.Workbooks(“file.xlsm”).Worksheets(1).Range(“A1:A10”).Formula = _ Rand()-fills first 10 cells from first worksheet form file.xlsm workbook with somerandom numbers

3.ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(1).Range(“A1:A3”).Borders.LineStyle = _ xlThick-sets the border line style for the specified range of cells