Programming Excel with VBA

A Practical Real-World Guide

Flavio Morgado

Programming Excel with VBA: A Practical Real-World Guide

Flavio Morgado Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4842-2204-1 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-2205-8DOI 10.1007/978-1-4842-2205-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957877

Copyright © 2016 by Flavio Morgado

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Printed on acid-free paper

To my beloved sons, Georgia and Diego.

You are the light of my life!

v

Contents at a Glance

About the Author .....................................................................................................xv

About the Technical Reviewer ...............................................................................xvii

Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................xix

Introduction ............................................................................................................xxi

■Chapter 1: Understanding Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) ............................. 1

■Chapter 2: Programming the Microsoft Excel Application Object ....................... 81

■Chapter 3: Programming the Microsoft Excel Workbook Object ....................... 149

■Chapter 4: Programming the Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object ...................... 185

■Chapter 5: Programming the Microsoft Excel Range Object ............................. 239

■Chapter 6: Special Range Object Properties and Methods ................................ 333

■Chapter 7: Using Excel as a Database Repository ............................................. 427

■Chapter 8: Creating and Setting a Worksheet Database Class .......................... 495

■Chapter 9: Exchanging Data Between Excel Applications ................................. 603

■Chapter 10: Using the Windows API .................................................................. 711

■Chapter 11: Producing a Personal Ribbon Using RibbonEditor.xlam ................. 761

Afterword .............................................................................................................. 779

Index ..................................................................................................................... 783

vii

Contents

About the Author .....................................................................................................xv

About the Technical Reviewer ...............................................................................xvii

Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................xix

Introduction ............................................................................................................xxi

■Chapter 1: Understanding Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) ............................. 1

What Is Macro Code? ....................................................................................................... 1

The VBA Environment ....................................................................................................... 2

Modules: The VBA Documents .......................................................................................... 3

Standard and Class Modules .................................................................................................................. 6

The VBA Language ........................................................................................................... 7

Procedures: The VBA Code ...................................................................................................................... 7

Using Function and Sub Procedures ....................................................................................................... 7

Variable Declaration ............................................................................................................................. 18

Variable Scope and Lifetime ................................................................................................................. 27

Create a Flow Chart for the Algorithm of Complex Procedures ............................................................ 32

Comment Your Code! ............................................................................................................................ 36

Using Public Code Module Variables .................................................................................................... 38

Public Procedures and Variables Constitute the Module Interface ....................................................... 40

Using Enumerators ............................................................................................................................... 40

Passing Arguments by Reference or by Value ...................................................................................... 42

Using a Naming Convention ........................................................................................... 42

Using Property Procedures ............................................................................................. 46

Property Procedures Allow Greater Control of Private Variables .......................................................... 48

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VBA Statements, Functions, and Instructions................................................................. 48

Using VBA Instructions.......................................................................................................................... 49

Using Event Procedures ................................................................................................. 54

Using Class Modules ...................................................................................................... 57

Declaring and Raising Events on Object Code Modules ....................................................................... 58

Using VBA UserForms ..................................................................................................... 59

The VBA Me Keyword ............................................................................................................................ 64

Evoking a VBA Procedure from an Excel Worksheet ...................................................... 64

Two Special VBA Functions: MsgBox and InputBox ........................................................ 67

Using MsgBox( ) .................................................................................................................................... 67

Using InputBox ...................................................................................................................................... 72

Dealing with VBA Errors ................................................................................................. 75

The On Error Resume Next Instruction ................................................................................................. 76

Setting an Error Trap ............................................................................................................................. 76

Protecting Your VBA Code ............................................................................................... 77

Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 78

Summary ........................................................................................................................ 78

■Chapter 2: Programming the Microsoft Excel Application Object ....................... 81

The Microsoft Excel Object Model .................................................................................. 81

The Application Object.................................................................................................... 82

Using Application Properties to Control the Way the Excel Interface Behaves ..................................... 87

Using Application Methods to Show Excel File Dialogs ........................................................................ 88

Using Application Events to React to User Actions ............................................................................. 125

Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 147

■Chapter 3: Programming the Microsoft Excel Workbook Object ....................... 149

The Workbook Object ................................................................................................... 149

Using Workbook Object Events ........................................................................................................... 151

Setting Workbook Object References ................................................................................................. 164

Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 184

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■Chapter 4: Programming the Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object ...................... 185

The Worksheet Object .................................................................................................. 185Using Worksheet Object Events .......................................................................................................... 188

Referring to Worksheets ..................................................................................................................... 191

Using Worksheet Object Properties and Methods .............................................................................. 197

Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 237

■Chapter 5: Programming the Microsoft Excel Range Object ............................. 239

The Range Object ......................................................................................................... 239

Using the Application.Range Property .......................................................................... 243

Using Range Object Properties and Methods ............................................................... 245Updating the UserForm Interface ....................................................................................................... 247

Resizing the Selected Range .............................................................................................................. 254

Changing the Range Reference .......................................................................................................... 257

Using the Names Collection ......................................................................................... 258Hiding Named Ranges ........................................................................................................................ 260

Resizing Named Ranges ..................................................................................................................... 262

Using Name Object Properties and Methods ................................................................ 265Recovering Name Object Properties ................................................................................................... 269

Adding a New Name Object ................................................................................................................ 278

Selecting Items in the lstNames ListBox ............................................................................................ 290

Editing an Existing Name Object ........................................................................................................ 306

Resizing an Existing Name Object ...................................................................................................... 317

Performing Multiple Name Properties Changes ................................................................................. 322

Changing the Name.RefersTo Property ............................................................................................... 326

Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 332

■Chapter 6: Special Range Object Properties and Methods ................................ 333

Defi ning a Range with VBA ........................................................................................... 333Using the Range.End Property ............................................................................................................ 335

Using the Range.CurrentRegion Property ........................................................................................... 336

Moving Through a Range with VBA ..................................................................................................... 336

Creating the USDA Range Name ......................................................................................................... 339

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Sorting Range Names................................................................................................... 341

Using Cascading Data Validation List Cells .................................................................. 343

The USDA Food Composer.xlsm Worksheet Application ..................................................................... 345

Creating USDA Worksheet Range Names ..................................................................... 347

Finding the Last Worksheet Used Cell .......................................................................... 353

Finding the Last Worksheet Row/Column with Range.End ................................................................. 353

Finding the Last Worksheet Row/Column with Worksheet.UsedRange .............................................. 354

Warning: Range.End Method and Hidden Rows .................................................................................. 356

Finding Range Information ........................................................................................... 358

The Range.Find Method ...................................................................................................................... 359

The Range.AutoFilter Method ............................................................................................................. 379

Finding Food Items with the Range.Sort Method................................................................................ 396

Using frmSearchFoodItems.xlsm ................................................................................. 415

Showing Selected Food Item Common Measures .............................................................................. 417

Returning the Selected Food Item ...................................................................................................... 419

Researching for a Selected Food Item ................................................................................................ 423

Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 425

■Chapter 7: Using Excel as a Database Repository ............................................. 427

The Worksheet Database Storage System ................................................................... 427

The BMI Companion Chart ............................................................................................ 428

The BMI Companion Chart_Database.xlsm Excel Application ...................................... 433

Parameterization of BMI Chart Data ................................................................................................... 438

Changing BMI Chart Data ................................................................................................................... 441

Saving the Last Selected Record ........................................................................................................ 444

Saving BMI Chart Data ........................................................................................................................ 444

Loading BMI Chart Data ...................................................................................................................... 470

Deleting BMI Chart Data ..................................................................................................................... 471

Associating Database Procedures to Worksheet Button Controls ...................................................... 477

Making Copies of the BMI Chart Worksheet ....................................................................................... 478

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The USDA Food Composer_Database.xlsm Excel Application ...................................... 479Changing Database Constant Values .................................................................................................. 483

Saving Recipe Data ............................................................................................................................. 484

Saving Recipe Nutritional Information in My_Recipes Range Name .................................................. 486

Deleting a Recipe Data ....................................................................................................................... 487

Things That Are Worth Being Mentioned ............................................................................................. 488

Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 493

■Chapter 8: Creating and Setting a Worksheet Database Class .......................... 495

Creating a Database Class ........................................................................................... 495Steps 1 and 2: Create the Database Class Module ............................................................................. 496

Step 3: Create an Object Variable to Capture Worksheet Events ........................................................ 497

Steps 4 and 5: Change Constant Names to Variable Declarations ...................................................... 498

Step 6: Save Database Properties as Range Names .......................................................................... 501

Step 7: Use the Class_Initialize( ) Event to Read Database Properties ............................................... 503

Referencing the clsDatabase Class .................................................................................................... 504

Improving the clsDatabase Class Interface .................................................................. 506Improving the Object Model................................................................................................................ 507

Using the SheetDBEngine Class ................................................................................... 532Producing Data Navigation Controls ................................................................................................... 536

Setting the Worksheet Database Class ........................................................................ 540Implementing the Worksheet Database Wizard .................................................................................. 540

Using the SheetDBEngine Class and frmDBProperties ....................................................................... 601

Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 601

Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 601

■Chapter 9: Exchanging Data Between Excel Applications ................................. 603

Updating the USDA Worksheet ..................................................................................... 603

Using the USDA Food List Creator Application .................................................................................... 604

The USDA Worksheet Updating Method .............................................................................................. 606

Using the USDA Food Composer_SheetDBEnginebasUSDA.xlsm Application .................................... 607

Warning About USDA Worksheet Updates .......................................................................................... 620

Using the USDA Food Composer_SheetDBEnginefrmUSDA.xlsm Application .................................... 622

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Managing Worksheet Application Data ......................................................................... 641

The frmManageRecipes_Initialize( ) Event ......................................................................................... 643

Inserting Copies of the My Recipes Sheet Tab .................................................................................... 648

Selecting Desired Recipes .................................................................................................................. 653

Saving Recipe Nutritional Information in the My_Recipes Range Name ............................................ 655

Exporting and Importing Recipe Data ................................................................................................. 667

Deleting Recipes from This Workbook ................................................................................................ 699

Exporting/Importing Recipes with Database Copy/Paste Methods..................................................... 703

Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 709

Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 709

■Chapter 10: Using the Windows API .................................................................. 711

The Microsoft Windows API .......................................................................................... 711

Using Declare Statements ............................................................................................ 712

Constants Declaration ........................................................................................................................ 713

Window Handles ........................................................................................................... 713

Class Instance Handle .................................................................................................. 714

Creating a Timer Class ................................................................................................. 714

The TimerProc( ) Procedure ................................................................................................................ 718

Using the Timer Class ......................................................................................................................... 718

UserForm Handle .......................................................................................................... 720

Setting Bit Values ......................................................................................................... 721

Animating the UserForm Window ................................................................................. 722

The Animate( ) Procedure ................................................................................................................... 724

Manipulating the UserForm Window ............................................................................ 729

The UserForm Title Bar ....................................................................................................................... 730

The Appearance( ) Procedure ............................................................................................................. 732

The UserForm Transparency ............................................................................................................... 737

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Applying a Skin to a UserForm ..................................................................................... 743

Device Contexts .................................................................................................................................. 744

Changing the UserForm Shape Using Windows Regions .................................................................... 745

The Skin( ) Procedure ......................................................................................................................... 748

The frmSkin UserForm........................................................................................................................ 753

The USDA Food Composer_frmAbout.xlsm Application ...................................................................... 755

Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 758

Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 759

■Chapter 11: Producing a Personal Ribbon Using RibbonEditor.xlam ................. 761

How Personal Ribbon Information Is Stored ................................................................. 762

Using RibbonEditor.xlam............................................................................................... 762

Adding Tabs, Groups, and Buttons Using the RibbonX Add-In ............................................................ 767

Removing the CustomUI.xml File from a Workbook Application ......................................................... 775

Producing a Nice Ribbon with RibbonEditor.xlam ............................................................................... 776

Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 777

Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 777

Afterword .............................................................................................................. 779

Index ..................................................................................................................... 783

xv

About the Author

Flavio Morgado is a food engineer with a master’s degree in food science and technology. He is also a VBA professional developer, a technical writer, an English to Brazilian Portuguese technical translator, and a professor at UNIFESO – Centro Universitário Serra dos Órgãos in the city of Teresopolis in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

He has written more than 30 books (and translated an equal number) — all published just in Brazil. Flavio lives in Teresopolis; when he is not teaching, writing, or developing a love of something (or

somebody…), he is running or riding his mountain bike throughout the Teresopolis Mountains, followed by his 11 dogs (2016’s dog count).

xvii

About the Technical Reviewer

Fabio Claudio Ferracchiati is a senior consultant and a senior analyst/developer using Microsoft technologies. He works for BluArancio ( www.bluarancio.com ). He is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer for .NET, a Microsoft Certified Application Developer for .NET, a Microsoft Certified Professional, and a prolific author and technical reviewer. Over the past ten years, he’s written articles for Italian and international magazines and coauthored more than ten books on a variety of computer topics.

xix

Acknowledgments

This book shows how to improve worksheet applications using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). A great part of it was inspired or is based on content and knowledge available for free on the Internet.

So, I like to thank the existence of these VBA Internet sites (in alphabetical order):

• Better Solutions: www.bettersolutions.com/

• Excel Matters: http://excelmatters.com/

• ExcelVBA: http://excelevba.com.br/

• Mr. Excel: www.mrexcel.com

• Microsoft System Development Network (MSDN): https://msdn.microsoft.com/

• Ozgrid: www.ozgrid.com/VBA/find-method.htm

• Pearson Software Consulting: www.cpearson.com/

• Ron de Bruin Excel Automation: www.rondebruin.nl/win/section2.htm

• StackExchange: http://stackexchange.com/

• StackOverflow em Português: http://pt.stackoverflow

• StackOverflow: http://stackoverflow

• VB-fun.de: www.vb-fun.de/

And thanks for the existence of these nutrient Internet sites (in alphabetical order):

• Agricultural Research Serving of United States: www.ars.usda.gov

• EatingWell: www.eatingwell.com/

• Food and Agriculture Organization for the United Nations: www.fao.org

• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute: www.nhlbi.nih.gov

• The Dash Diet Eating Plan: dashdiet.org

• Wikipédia: www.wikipedia.com

I also want to thank Microsoft and all the people on the Microsoft Excel development team for giving us Excel—a superb piece of software that is versatile and powerful. As a professional developer, I know how difficult it is to produce something so good, even though it is not perfect, but what is? Please Microsoft, receive my most profound respect and compliments.

xxi

Introduction

This book was created to teach you how to use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to automate worksheet applications.

It is a code book that was written to teach everyone, including people with zero experience in programming and people with decent programming knowledge, how to use and apply programming techniques to better interact with the users of your Microsoft Excel solutions in a more professional way.

It uses some ready-made worksheet applications as practical examples of how you can produce solid, precise, and reliable worksheet applications based on VBA programming.

First I’ll introduce you to the VBA environment and the language structure and show you some basic examples that will take you on a consistent journey through the Excel object model. All the proposed examples use VBA to teach you how to interact with the Excel object model and its many properties, methods, and events.

As a basic strategy to teaching Excel VBA programming, this book uses the VBA Immediate window to first test each proposed Excel feature before showing how to use it in a code procedure. It is full of programming examples whose complexity grows from the book’s beginning to its end. This means it was written to be read one chapter at a time, with each chapter using the knowledge of previous chapters to provide a jump on your programmer skills.

My teaching strategy is to show a UserForm interface or code procedure step-by-step and to comment on all its instructions, one at a time, to give you a better understanding of how the VBA code can use good programming techniques to produce the desired result, with clear, concise, and reusable code.

What’s in the Book This book is divided into 11 chapters, each one approaching Excel VBA programming with a new complexity. To get a big picture of what you will find inside it, here is a summary of each chapter:

• Chapter 1 , “Understanding Visual Basic for Applications (VBA),” is intended to show you the VBA metaphor, including how to use VBA integrated development environment (IDE) and the VBA language structure. It is a basic chapter to show you a first approach to VBA and a programming language.

• Chapter 2 , “Programming the Microsoft Excel Application Object,” touches on the first programmable object in the Microsoft Excel object model hierarchy: the Application object, which represents the Microsoft Excel application window, with some of its main properties, methods, and events. In this chapter, you will learn about the FileDialog , GetOpenFileName , GetSaveAsFileName , and OnTime methods; when the Application object events fire; and how to use a Class module to watch and/or control whether a worksheet tab name can be changed, as a first approach to producing VBA objects.

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• Chapter 3 , “Programming the Microsoft Excel Workbook Object,” talks about the second layer of the Microsoft Excel object model, which represents the Workbooks collection and contains all the open Workbook objects inside the main Excel window. You will learn about how and when the Workbook object events fire and will see the VBA UserForm and its controls, learning how to use the ListBox control and its interface (properties, methods, and events) to interact with the Workbook object using VBA code.

• Chapter 4 , “Programming the Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object,” touches on the third object level in the Excel object model hierarchy: the Worksheet object , which represents the sheet tab in a Excel workbook file. It also shows how its programmable interface is composed (it properties, methods, and events). In this chapter, you will use again a VBA UserForm to learn how to add, delete, copy, move, rename, sort, and change sheet tab visibility inside a workbook file. You will also learn the many ways (and the preferable one) to reference sheet tabs in the VBA code and how to control the “cascade events” phenomenon that happens with VBA objects.

• Chapter 5 , “Programming the Microsoft Excel Range Object,” talks about the deepest object inside the Excel object model hierarchy: the Range object, which can represent any number of cells inside a Worksheet object . Using another UserForm interface, you will learn how to programmatically define the cell addresses that compose any selected range, how to use VBA to name a range (using the Names collection), how to use the VBA Collection object, and how to produce a similar interface to the Excel Name Manager interface using VBA, improving the Excel interface by allowing you to change the range name visibility inside the workbook file.

• Chapter 6 , “Special Range Object Properties and Methods,” expands your knowledge about the Range object by covering the Cells and CurrentRegion properties and the End , OffSet , Find , AutoFilter , Sort Copy , and PasteSpecial methods, using again the UserForm approach. At the end of this chapter you are presented with the frmFindFoodItems UserForm that uses most of this knowledge to find food items in the USDA food table using different search criteria (by food item name or nutrient content).

• Chapter 7 , “Using Excel as a Database Repository,” presents you with a programmable approach to implementing a database storage system to store worksheet data as database records in unused worksheet rows, based on a data validation list cell and range names. This chapter uses all the knowledge gathered so far to produce a standard code module full of procedures that use module-level constant values to define the database parameters, allowing you to adapt it to any worksheet application design.

• Chapter 8 , “Creating and Setting a Worksheet Database Class,” expands the database code module to a Class module that uses range names to store the database properties inside unused worksheet rows. It defines the SheetDBEngine class interface, showing how to implement its properties, methods, and events. To allow you to easily use the SheetDBEngine class, this chapter also presents the frmDBPRoperties UserForm , which was produced as a database wizard, to help implement the database storage system on any worksheet application.

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• Chapter 9 , “Exchanging Data Between Excel Applications,” answers important questions regarding how to programmatically update worksheet-based tables from where the worksheet application gathers its data. It teaches how to update the USDA worksheet to any version released by the ARS-USDA web page, using either a simple, silent procedural approach or a UserForm that reacts to the updating process, finding food item name inconsistencies between two releases of SRxx.accdb or SRxx.mdb Microsoft Access database nutrient tables. You will be also presented with the frmManage UserForm to allow mass operation on the worksheet database so you can delete and save recipe nutrient data and export and import recipes, using VBA automation.

• Chapter 10 , “Using the Windows API,” takes your VBA knowledge gathered so far in this book to the next level by teaching you how to understand and use the Windows application programmable interface (API), based on dynamic linked libraries (DLLs) and C++ procedures. The API can be declared and called from within a VBA project. In this chapter, you will learn how to implement a Timer class to create programmable timer objects and how to change the UserForm appearance by removing its title bar; adding a resizable border and minimize, restore, and maximize buttons; and adding transparency and creating a fade effect. You’ll also learn how to animate a UserForm when it loads and how to apply a skin effect to change the UserForm shape.

• Chapter 11 , “Producing a Personal Ribbon Using RibbonEditor.xlam,” uses the RibbonX VBA add-in developed by Andy Pope as free software to produce a personalized ribbon with tools that interact with your worksheet application, giving it a professional appearance.

• The afterword is a brief testimony of the path used to write this book, with my insights about how I imagined it and created it step-by-step, with trial-and-error experimentation as I learned the Excel object model.

This Book’s Special Features Programming Excel 2016 with VBA was designed to give you all the information you need to understand how to replicate a behavior, insert a formula, define an interface, and so on, without making you wade through ponderous explanations and interminable background. To make your life easier, this book includes various features and conventions to help you get the most of the book and Excel itself.

• Steps : Throughout the book each Excel task is enumerated in step-by-step procedures.

• Commands : I used the following style for Excel commands: Conditional Formatting button in Styles area on the Home tab of the ribbon (this mean you must click the Conditional Formatting button that you find in the Styles group of the Home tab).

• Menus : To indicate that you click the File menu and then select Save, I use File ➤ Save.

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• Functions : Excel worksheet functions appears in capital letters and are followed by parenthesis: IF( ) . When I list the arguments you can use with a function, they will appear in a bullet list of items, using the same order that they appear inside the function arguments list to explain the meaning of each one.

• Rows, columns, cell address, ranges, and sheet names : Excel rows, columns, cell address, range names, and sheet names appear using an Arial font to detach them from the text.

This book also uses the following box to call attention to important (or merely interesting) information:

■ Attention The Attention box presents asides that give you more information about the topic under discussion. These tidbits provide extra insights that give you a better understanding of the task at hand, offer complementary information about the issue that is being currently discussed, or even talk about an unexpected Excel behavior regarding a given task.

Web Site Extras All the examples presented in this book are available at www.apress.com/9781484222041 as ZIP files for each book chapter. In addition to the example workbooks or worksheet applications, I’ll post any updates, corrections, and other useful information related to this book.

Your Feedback Is (Very) Important! Before you continue reading, I would like to say that your opinion is important to me. I really don’t know how many of you will write to me to give any feedback, but I hope I can answer everyone and, whenever possible, resolve any questions or problems that arise. Since I have many other duties, sometimes it may take a little while so I can answer you, but I promise to do my best. Please feel free to write to me at the following e-mail: flaviomorgado@gmail.com .