I'm trying to provide on the save button a validation error saying a certain field can't be left blank.
I'm honestly not sure what to try.
If txtGEMFeeWBS.Text = "" Or lblGEMFeeWBS.Text = "" Then
MsgBox("Error Gem Fee WBS Code must be provided before you can save")
End If
Save_Validation()
If blnValidation = True Then
If Me.lblInvoiceShipmentID.Text = "" Then
Save(1)
Else
SaveAllKitUnits()
Save(2)
End If
End If
After where the message box is thrown I want to close out and not hit save data information
I'm not sure about having understood the question but...
It depends on a lot of things. Do you want to completely close the program? Are you inside a method?, etc...
If you want to close the entire program (I don't think so) just try
Application.Exit()
If you are on a method you can just use the instruction return nothing
And in other cases use the GoTo: Anywhere on the code (almost
anywhere) you can put SampleGoToLine: (don't forget the ':')
and then call the instruction GoTo SampleGoToLine anywhere you
want or, in your case, after showing the messagebox.
(The name SampleGoToLine is invented, you can put any not reserved VB keyword)
Finally what I would personally do is to reestructure the code. Maybe split validation and save into two different methods or something similar so you can always control what method do you go to depending on certain conditions. (With a simple if-else structure)
Related
Hi i have a Sub that has multiple if statements in it.
Each if statement has a large loop that searches for specific files and text inside files.
I tried various ways to use a text box in order to get the information which if is currently proccessing at the time and i see that for some reason the ui is not refreshed until the sub finishes and so i see everytime in the textbox the last proceesed if message.
What do you think is the best way to handle it?
I hope that this has nothing to do with threads because threads are something that i am not familiar with !
I think using Application.DoEvents() is an easy choice. But I don't know if that would be the desired behavior.
If the use of Application.DoEvents() fails, another thread should handle it.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.windows.forms.application.doevents?view=netframework-3.5
I use this:
Public Sub logWithCrLf(tx As TextBox, s As String)
tx.AppendText(s & vbCrLf)
tx.Select(tx.TextLength - 1, 0)
tx.ScrollToCaret()
tx.Refresh()
End Sub
I see that it scrolls a bit smoother using tx.AppendText(s) than tx.Text &= s, which scrolls up to 0 then down to caret again.
(I write this as an answer to contribute with the tx.AppendText() recommendation)
folks. I am new to programming, but I am writing some macros to help manage a shared Excel workbook for my job.
I am implementing a few different user roles for people who need to access this workbook. The security is not very critical, just to prevent people from accidentally making (and saving) changes to things they shouldn't be. I am just having a UserForm prompt for the password and, based on what's entered, grant the proper access.
I have it written so that the user's entry into textbox on the UserForm is referenced directly as Me.textboxPasswordEntry.Value for any comparisons. It occurs to me that this may not be best practice, but I can't put my finger on why. Maybe I'm just over thinking? At the same time, it seems silly and wasteful to declare a variable, pass the value to the variable, and then analyze that.
The Sub below is from the UserForm, and I've included it to show you what I mean. This is a very straight-forward scenario, I know, but am I courting trouble if I continue this practice through more complex ones? If so, what kind of problems might I run into?
Thanks.
Private Sub buttonOK_adminPW_Click()
'The subs SetUserType_[level] are in the ChangeUserType module
'AdminPass and DesignPass are module-level variables set on UserForm initialization
'Default user type is User. Read-only access.
'Admins can edit the workbook, but must save via a macro to ensure
' things are reset properly for Users (some sheets hidden, etc.)
'Designers can edit the workbook, but also have full ability to save using
' the regular file menu/ctrl+s/etc.
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Select Case Me.textboxPasswordEntry.Value
Case AdminPass
'Shows right control buttons and unlocks the wkbk for admin access
SetUserType_admin
Unload Me
Case DesignPass
'Shows all control buttons and unlocks the wkbk for designer access
SetUserType_design
Unload Me
Case Else
MsgBox ("Password incorrect. Please retry.")
With Me.textboxPasswordEntry
.Value = ""
.SetFocus
End With
End Select
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
Yeah I've also pondered over "best practise" with userforms over the years... I guess it's just through experience that I use approach below most often:
Use as little code as possible in the userform itself (thinking
is, the form is more "reusable" if it does as little as possible
back to its parent... its reason for existance is just to get input)
Do use code on the "activate" event of the form to clear all the
fields on the form (this makes sense to be in the form because then
you don't need to remember every control on the form to clear at
every point you use it)
Either directly reference objects from
the form in your calling code (i.e. stPassword =
userform1.tbPassword.value) or...
Use "public" variables in the
userform ... i.e. before all code in userform declare "public stPasswordInput as string" then you can reference in your calling code with e.g. stPassword = userform1.stPasswordInput
I'm keen to see what other people suggest though!
This is probably the dumbest question I've ever asked here, but it's hard to find answers to things like this.
I have a program with a bunch of modules/subs that each calculate a different variable. They're pretty complex, so I like to keep them separate. Now I want an earlier module to skip to another module based on user input. I thought I could use the call (sub name) method for this, but then the program returns to where the call line was and continues on that module from where it left off.
Example:
Module 1:
Sub NewPracticeSub()
Call otherpracticesub
MsgBox ("We've gone back to this sub... :(")
End Sub
Module 2:
Sub otherpracticesub()
MsgBox ("We're in the other practice sub!")
End Sub
I don't want it to return to Module 1. What can I do to have it switch control to Module 2 without it then returning to complete Module 1 upon completion of Module 2?
I feel like I just used the most confusing language possible to explain all of this, but thank you for your help anyways!!
Edit: I know I used the words module and sub interchangeably, and I know they're different. I like to keep each sub (which are each very large in my program) in their own modules because it's easier to keep track of them, and easier to explain/demonstrate the application flow to other people.
I think all you're looking for is the command Exit Sub which will make the program leave the subroutine without continuing any further, But the way you usually want to do this is, rather than calling a Sub, rather call a Function that returns a boolean value.
So, for example:
Public Function MyFunc() as Boolean
....
If [good] MyFunc = True
Else MyFunc = False
End Function
Then you could do something along the lines of:
Sub MyCallingSub()
...
If MyFunc = True then Exit Sub
Else ...
End Sub
It just adds in A LOT more felxibility and ability to choose whether you want to continue further in your sub or not.
Hope that makes sense.
Other than using the ugly End statement which I will describe below (and strongly recommend you to avoid), I'm not aware of any way to circumvent the call stack. Even John's response necessarily returns to the calling procedure, and evaluates another statement to determine whether to proceed or end.
This may yield undesirable outcomes, which is why I hesitate to recommend it, in favor of properly structuring your code, loops, etc., with respect to the call stack.
In any case, here is how you can use the End statement within your child subroutines, without needing any sort of public/global variables. This still allows you the flexibility to decide when & where to invoke the End statement, so it need not always be invoked.
Sub NewPracticeSub()
Call otherpracticesub, True
MsgBox ("We've gone back to this sub... :(")
End Sub
Sub otherpracticesub(Optional endAll as Boolean=False)
MsgBox ("We're in the other practice sub!")
If endAll then End '## Only invoke End when True is passed to this subroutine
End Sub
Why I say this method should be avoided, via MSDN:
"Note The End statement stops code execution abruptly, without
invoking the Unload, QueryUnload, or Terminate event, or any other
Visual Basic code. Code you have placed in the Unload, QueryUnload,
and Terminate events of forms and class modules is not executed.
Objects created from class modules are destroyed, files opened using
the Open statement are closed, and memory used by your program is
freed. Object references held by other programs are invalidated.
The End statement provides a way to force your program to halt. For
normal termination of a Visual Basic program, you should unload all
forms. Your program closes as soon as there are no other programs
holding references to objects created from your public class modules
and no code executing."
It will always return but that doesn't mean its a problem. I suggest you use Exit Sub as follows:
Sub NewPracticeSub()
Call otherpracticesub
**Exit Sub**
'Nothing more can execute here so its no longer a worry
End Sub
Module 2:
Sub otherpracticesub()
MsgBox ("We're in the other practice sub!")
End Sub
For this question, I refer to the post below to clarify myself:
Why is my conditional format offset when added by VBA?
In many, many posts I see these days, OP's are silently allowed to use .Activate, .Select, .Offset, etc... while they are an open door to potential bugs (most often caused by the end users).
The code is sometimes even supported.
My question: Is there one valid situation where you would use any of these statements without direct alternatives being available that catch typical bugs resulting from these stmts?
I'm referring to dynamic solutions that in my opinion are a must when developing for Excel.
Personally, in more than 6 years I can't remember a single case where I needed it; it seems always to be one of the the worst options available. In my previous company, it was a silent rule never to use it and it only made my VBA life (and that of the end user) better.
Why I create this question is because I think that it is worthful to make newcomers into VBA aware of the risks they take when using these statements (by experience proven risks when the End Users do something unexpected - in the end they don't have any affection with VBA) and to propose direct alternatives (I won't state I always did that before myself, but I feel in my gut that there is something wrong with just offering quick solutions on already bug monsters).
I believe that when silently allowed (which it automatically enhances in this case), starting VBA developers will create a growing amount of tools the wrong way (and thus also newcomers will inherit the behaviour - which they will also learn from Stack Overflow since Google returns the results they look for (!)).
If the developer is not aware why he "can" use a "select" and in which situations it is a potential bug, (s)he should never use it imho. Personally I might use the select stmt in the immediate window to do some quick checks on dynamic range definition (bug mode), but not in written code.
The result makes VBA in the end even more unpopular than it is already; the language will be made the victim in case trouble appear (yet it is imho still the "best" programming support available for the Excel and Access applications). I've seen this happen too many times in a large company where VBA is always "shit".
This is only my own honest experience.
It is not a question of being right or wrong; I am interested in hearing your point of view on the question.
I agree about Select and Activate, but not ActiveWorkbook, ActiveSheet, and ActiveCell (I agree that they are abused, but not that they should be avoided, per se). There are definitely legitimate uses for those. I have a program that automates a "fill series" that does so from the ActiveCell. My program can't predict what cells will be used; it's up the user to select it. That's part of the user interface.
However, there are three situations where I have had to use Select (now four that I read about zoom, but I don't ever use it).
Conditional Formatting. There is a work around using Application.ConvertFormula, but it's worse than just storing the selection, selecting the right cell, doing the deed, and reselecting the previous selection.
Data Validation. Same reason.
Shapes. I wish I could remember the details, but it's been too long since I've worked with Shapes. There was something I couldn't do without selecting the shape first.
Ridding code of Select and Activate is a noble fight.
There are a few methods in Excel that require Activate or ActiveSheet/ActiveWorkbook etc as I've been caught with a gotchas on occasion. The only one I can remember at the moment is the zoom property. Zoom affects only the sheet that's currently active in the window so to zoom all sheets you would need something like
Sub SetZoom()
Dim ws As Worksheet
Application.screenupdating = false
For Each ws In Worksheets
ws.Select
ActiveWindow.Zoom = 80
Next ws
Application.screenupdating = true
End Sub
You can use .Select to determine what a user's view is after running code - for example if you create a new workbook in your code, without using Activate or Select your user may not know this happens.
I frequently end a long operation creating a new workbook or other largescale data manipulations with
FinalViewWorkbook.FinalViewSheet.Range("A1").Select
Just to inform the end user about something - "oh, this created a new workbook of reports!" etc.
I think it is important in this matter to distinguish some:
Active-something: Only use this if it is absolutely necessary to know what the user is handling right now. In my experience, this is usually Data Validation or Active Sheet Detection (e.g. "Update the Sheet where the user just pressed a button").
Selection: Somewhat the same as Active, only use readingly. Userful either for Data Validation, or for gimmicks like "Interpret the cell value as path and open it in a new Explorer Window".
Select, Activate: Imho different from Selection, as it actually changes the selected Cell, Sheet etc. Never ever use this to read or write data, since it enables a user to mess up your program by just clicking. Users love to click. Only use this to Zoom (see answer by #user3357963) or clean up a view after your code has finished working (see answer by #enderland). (I'm not sure, but I think handling the PageView also requires ActiveSheet).
Select, Activate the 2nd: If you are new to VBA and are learning via Macro Recorder, you will find a lot of code generated like this:
First Range("A5").Select, then Selection.Value="NewValue". Join this to Range("A5").Value="NewValue".
Offset: Personally, I don't have a problem using .Offset() - I never encountered problems with this command. Instead, I think it's a handy way of saying "The cell next to this" without having to go through "This cell's sheet at this cell's row and column+1" every time.
In many, many posts I see these days, OP's are silently allowed to use .Activate, .Select, .Offset, etc...
I agree with this. Even though it's easier to just give the necessary answer to make a piece of code work, the use of ActiveCell.Value and the like should be discouraged. This will be much easier if there's a well explained Thread to link to, as this here is hopefully becoming :-)
From my perspective, with few exceptions, the only time you should use Select is as a user input, and only then after careful consideration of alternative design/UI requirements.
For example, I'd say it's generally not advisable to rely on Selection to let user define a Range object when this method keeps execution within the code:
Dim myRange as Range
Set myRange = Application.InputBox("Select your range", Type:=8)
However, if you need to prompt users to select a particular shape or object on the worksheet, then maybe it's better to let them make a Selection (however, this can open up a Pandora's Box of problems without good error-handling and logic to prevent undesired user actions...).
Here is an example of one such exception that I have in PowerPoint. I have some RibbonUI XML and VBA that adds buttons to the Shapes right-click context menu in PowerPoint, and adds similar buttons to the Ribbon itself. These are seamless UI that give the end-user a more "native" experience with the application -- users want to be able to right-click the chart and then run some macro procedures against that selected chart or table, etc. They don't want to press a button to open up a user form and scroll through a listbox of generic shape names or GUIDs.
The procedure code needs to examine the Selection in order to handle it properly so I can use something like below, where
Sub UpdateOrEditSelection(update As Boolean)
'This procedure invoked when user edits/updates a chart.
Dim uid As Variant
Dim sel As Selection
Dim s As Integer
Dim chartsToUpdate As Object
Dim multipleShapes As Boolean
Dim sld As Slide
Set sel = ppPres.Windows(1).Selection
If update Then
Set chartsToUpdate = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
Select Case sel.Type
Case ppSelectionShapes
For s = 1 To sel.ShapeRange.count
uid = sel.ShapeRange(s).Name
'....
'...
'..
'.
Next
Case ppSelectionSlides
For Each sld In sel.SlideRange
For s = 1 To sld.Shapes.count
uid = sld.Shapes(s).Name
'....
'...
'..
'.
Next
Next
Case ppSelectionText
s = 1
If sel.ShapeRange(s).HasTable Or sel.ShapeRange(s).HasChart Then
uid = sel.ShapeRange(s).Name
'....
'...
'..
'.
End If
End Select
'....
'...
'..
'.
Where does it come from?
The Macro Recorder. Essentially, this feature records every literal user input: scrolling, selecting, viewing, activating, default properties, etc., to the point of overkill. While this is sometimes helpful, it does encourage bad code written by people who don't know that it's bad, but I will not belabor that point which has been made here:
How to avoid using Select in Excel VBA macros
What is better, conceptually?
Program to the objects directly. If you're merely using VBA to mimic keystrokes and mouseclicks, you're doing it wrong.
Exceptions:
I've found when applying formatting to series data in charts, where Select is occasionally necessary. This seems IMO to be a bug with Excel and not a design feature.
Other applications (because VBA is not only Excel):
Word is a different animal, which relies a lot more on Selection object
In PowerPoint there are some sort of operations that can only be performed when the application and slide/shape are visible or otherwise in view. While you don't usually need to "select" anything, it does require more cumbersome code.
I found this snippet in my App:
Set tb = cht.Shapes.AddTextbox(msoTextOrientationHorizontal, ptLeft, tBoxTop, ptWidth, ptHeight)
tb.Select '<--- KEEP THIS LINE OTHERWISE TEXTBOX ALIGNMENT WILL NOT WORK ## ## ##
And this:
'PPT requires selecting the slide in order to export an image preview/jpg
sld.Select
ppPres.Windows(1).View.GotoSlide sld.SlideIndex
sld.Shapes(1).Chart.Export imgPath, ppShapeFormatJPG
And this, dealing with individual Point objects:
pt.Select
pt.format.Line.Visible = msoTrue
pt.format.Line.Visible = msoFalse
pt.MarkerSize = pt.MarkerSize + 2
This is not an exhaustive list, just some examples of exceptions that I found. While these were from PowerPoint, the charts in PowerPoint use the same object model as Excel so I would not be surprised if some of these also need to be hacked in Excel, and Word, too.
Outlook: I don't do much with Outlook, it is a lot like Word and actually uses the Word object model in the Inspector, but what little I do with Outlook does rely on things like ActiveInspector, etc.
Neither Word or PowerPoint have a "macro recorder" anymore (actually, I think Word might but it's so damn impotent as to be useless) and by the time most people do any development in other applications, they've figured most of this out already.
I am supporting an application which was running for the past 3 years. It was developed completely in MS Access and written in VBA.
Suddenly the application is facing the mentioned error at the following lines:
DoCmd.OpenForm FormName:="frmNewPeerGroup", View:=acNormal, windowmode:=acWindowNormal, OpenArgs:=5
FrmNewPeerGroup code
Private Sub Form_Open(Cancel As Integer)
Dim lDept As Long, lDiv As Long
lType = OpenArgs 'Supplied by caller
lAssmtVer = 1 'Current
sName = ""
sDescription = ""
dtCreatedDate = Format(Now(), "dd/mm/yyyy")
sCreatedBy = UCase(userPerms.NTLoginName)
lSupervisorID = userPerms.userID
lTeam = 0
With cmbBxType
.RowSourceType = "Value List"
.RowSource = GetValueListDict(pgType)
.Value = lType
.Enabled = (OpenArgs = 1)
End With
With cmbBxVersion
.RowSourceType = "Value List"
.RowSource = GetValueListDict(pgAssmtType)
.Value = lAssmtVer
End With
mgLogoDesc.Visible = False
txtBxCreatedDate.Value = dtCreatedDate
txtBxCreatedBy.Value = sCreatedBy
If OpenArgs = 5 Then
lTeam = oActiveAssmt.TeamID
lDept = GetParentID(aTeams(), CInt(lTeam))
lDiv = GetParentID(aDepts(), CInt(lDept))
With cmbBxDivision
.RowSourceType = "Value List"
.RowSource = GetValueListArray(aDivs())
.Value = lDiv
.Enabled = False
End With
With cmbBxDepartment
.RowSourceType = "Value List"
.RowSource = GetValueListArray(aDepts())
.Value = lDept
.Enabled = False
End With
With cmbBxTeam
.RowSourceType = "Value List"
.RowSource = GetValueListArray(aTeams())
.Value = lTeam
.Enabled = False
End With
Else
With cmbBxDivision
.RowSourceType = "Value List"
.RowSource = GetValueListArray(aDivs())
.Enabled = False
End With
cmbBxDepartment.Enabled = False
cmbBxTeam.Enabled = False
End If
End Sub
Many instances of the DoCmd.OpenForm command are giving the error in a message box saying:
The expression On Click you entered as the event property setting
produced the following error: The OpenForm action was canceled.
- The expression may not result in the name of macro, the name of
a user-defined function, or [Event procedure].
- There may have been an error evaluating the function, event, or macro.
This is the error message I am receiving.
My problem is, the same code was running around 3 years, but suddenly some updates to Microsoft or Office might be giving trouble to this code.
Did anyone come across this error in the past weeks? Please let me know what else we can do to make this work again.
This thread is very old but I came across the same error and spent a few hours looking for an answer. I was able to find the cause after some time and thought of posting my answer as it may help someone in a similar situation. Creating a application using Access Forms is new to me, so the error message was not directly intuitive.
My forms were Master table data entry forms and configured to be Pop-up and Modal with Me.Form.Name sent as parameter in the DoCmd.OpenForm command using a button (OnClick event) placed next to the Combo controls on a transaction form to allow user to quickly add new records. This parameter value was picked up in the Form_Open(Cancel As Integer) event and used later to refresh the combo box (Forms!<formname>.Controls!<controlname>.Requery) once data was submitted to the master table using the pop-up form.
It appears that the Open event doesn't occur when you activate a form that's already open (ref: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/aa211439(v=office.11).aspx). Each time I received the error, my data entry form was open in Design view in Access. So I closed the form in design mode, and repeated the steps. And Voila! no error!
Since I will have more than one forms open, I now need to test and try to use Form_Activate() as recommended in the above MSDN reference link.
I don't know if this qualifies as an answer, but the code in that OnOpen event is dependent on a lot of outside functions. Specifically, the code is assigning value lists for the RowSources of a bunch of combo boxes. The immediate red flag that occurs to me is that non-SQL Rowsources have a finite length, and in Access 97, that limit was 2048 characters (in Access 2003, it's 32,750 -- don't ask me why it's that number!).
So, the immediate thing I see is that perhaps what ever data drives the functions that create those value lists has begun to exceed 2048 characters in length.
If that's the actual answer, then you can write a callback function that will return the values in the arrays, and it won't have the limitation on the returned length. You'd set the RowsourceType to the name of your callback function and leave the Rowsource property blank.
An example of the callback function is found in the A97 help (though I can't find the same example in the A2K3 help). In A97 help, you get there by searching for RowsourceType, and then in the help window, click on the link in the sentence reading "You can also set the RowSourceType property with a ____user-defined function____."
To check this out, you just need to find out the length of the string returned from GetValueListArray() by each of the arrays referenced in the OnOpen event.
It also might be helpful to add an error handler to the OnOpen event, particularly given that there are so many outside dependencies in the code in that particular sub.
And last of all, let me say that it looks like horrible programming. Most of this ought to be settable with default properties, seems to me. I also question that kind of dependency on OpenArgs with such an undocumented input value. What does "5" mean? And what does "1" mean? Is that documented somewhere? It's just terrible, terrible code, in my opinion.
I'd likely do this with a standalone class module instead, because that will be self-documenting in terms of what does what. You'd set a particular named property to 5 and that would control what the form gets from the class module methods for populating the combo boxes. It would all be in one place, and you could use a meaningful property name to make it clear what the values 5 and 1 represent. It's particularly helpful to do this if you have the same kind of code in the OnOpen event of multiple forms. In that case, it's a no-brainer to move it out of the form modules, and the only question is whether you put it in a regular module or in a standalone class module (as I'm suggesting).
Anyway, perhaps none of this is on point, but it might give you some ideas.
Could it be the security settings is Access? All recent versions of Access has a security settings dialog where you can enable (or disable) macros in the application. I think you will get this error if macros are disabled.
Are you sure one of the required references (VBA IDE > Option > References) isn't missing?
If you're referencing Excel/Word or external objects, are you sure that the references to the type libraries are the right ones (if you're using specific versions instead of doing late binding)
Are you building the MDE on a 64 bit machine by any chance?
What is the code on the form frmNewPeerGroup? What version of Access are you using? If it is 2003, sp3 causes problems for which there is a hotfix. Have you tried decompile and / or compact and repair?
If you have an original mdb, check the references to make sure that none of them are marked MISSING. This is quite a likely reason for problem in that it has suddenly occurred.
To check the references, look at Tools->References on the menu for a code window.
If no references are missing, you could try stepping through the form code to get a more exact idea of where the error is occurring.