How to retrieve the Custom Text (Assignment) Field value based on a Custom Number value in MS Project VBA? - vba

Question

I can get to the values I am after by hardcoding, for example assignment.Text8 but can't get it to work when I create a variable and try to include it like: "if i = 8 then show me what is in assignment.Texti"
Could be a syntax thing but can't figure it out.
Sub TransferAsgnTextX_to_AsgnTCC_viaNumberedMeans()
Dim t As Task
Dim a As Assignment
Dim nr, i As Integer
i = 1
For Each t In ActiveProject.Tasks
nr = ActiveProject.Tasks(i).Number1
If nr > 0 Then
For Each a In t.Assignments
Select Case a.ResourceName
Case "Productivity"
a.Units = "a.Text" & nr
End Select
Next a
End If
i = i + 1
Next t
End Sub
Above code gives a run-time error 1101, but if I hardcoded say a.Units = a.Text8 then the code runs. But I want to find the custom text field based on the (separate) custom number.

Answer 1

The MS Project API doesn't have a good way to do what you are trying to do for Assignments (it does for Tasks and Resources), so I would recommend creating a function that you can call whenever you want to get the data:
Public Function GetAssignmentTextInfo(a As Assignment, fieldNumber As Integer) As String
If fieldNumber = 1 Then
GetAssignmentTextInfo = a.Text1
End If
If fieldNumber = 2 Then
GetAssignmentTextInfo = a.Text2
End If
If fieldNumber = 3 Then
GetAssignmentTextInfo = a.Text3
End If
If fieldNumber = 4 Then
GetAssignmentTextInfo = a.Text4
End If
'... so on through 30 (for the 30 text fields)
Now you could just call this in your code block:
Sub TransferAsgnTextX_to_AsgnTCC_viaNumberedMeans()
Dim t As Task
Dim a As Assignment
Dim nr, i As Integer
i = 1
For Each t In ActiveProject.Tasks
nr = ActiveProject.Tasks(i).Number1
If nr > 0 Then
For Each a In t.Assignments
Select Case a.ResourceName
Case "Productivity"
'call our function instead of hard coding
a.Units = GetAssignmentTextInfo(a, i) & nr
End Select
Next a
End If
i = i + 1
Next t
End Sub
As an added bonus to enhance the method, you could create an Enum called "FieldType" or something like that and include that as an argument in the GetAssignmentTextInfo function so it could retrieve data from other fields aside from just Text1-30.
Public Enum FieldType
Text = 1
Number = 2
Flag = 3
OutlineCode = 4
'etc...
End Enum
Public Function GetAssignmentInfo(a As Assignment, fieldNumber As Integer, fType As FieldType) As String
If fType = FieldType.Text Then
If fieldNumber = 1 Then
GetAssignmentTextInfo = a.Text1
End If
If fieldNumber = 2 Then
GetAssignmentTextInfo = a.Text2
End If
'... so on through 30 (for the 30 text fields)
End If
If fType = FieldType.Number Then
If fieldNumber = 1 Then
GetAssignmentTextInfo = CStr(a.Number1)
End If
If fieldNumber = 2 Then
GetAssignmentTextInfo = CStr(a.Number2)
End If
'... so on through 20 (for the 20 number fields)
End If

Answer 2

Stephen, if I follow what you are trying to do, you want to change the assignment units for the "Productivity" resource to whatever value is in the Task Number1 field. If so then just do that, i.e.
a.Units = nr

Answer 3

For the Assignment object, there is no way around getting properties other than accessing them directly. So the solution is to use a Select Case statement.
FWIW this would be much simpler if the values were stored at the task level as the Task object offers the GetField method that takes a field ID parameter and returns the variable field value. See I can't access columns in MS Project VSTO Add-In and Can FieldNameToFieldConstant be used with the TaskDependency Object for examples.