Add regular expression reference before running the macro vba - vba

Question

code :
Public Sub CallDeleteAllText(control As IRibbonControl)
Call LeaveNumbers
End Sub
Public Function PullOnly(strSrc As String, CharType As String)
Dim RE As RegExp
Dim regexpPattern As String
Set RE = New RegExp
CharType = LCase(CharType)
Select Case CharType
Case Is = "digits":
regexpPattern = "\D"
Case Is = "letters":
regexpPattern = "\d"
Case Else:
regexpPattern = ""
End Select
RE.Pattern = regexpPattern
RE.Global = True
PullOnly = RE.Replace(strSrc, "")
End Function
Sub LeaveNumbers()
Dim cCell As Range
For Each cCell In Selection
If cCell <> "" Then
cCell.Value = "'" & PullOnly(cCell.Text, "digits")
End If
Next cCell
With Selection
.NumberFormat = "0"
.Value = .Value
End With
End Sub
This code removes all text from the cell and leave all the numbers. But for this code to run, the user has to manually add Microsoft VBScript Regular Expressions reference from Tools > References. Is there a way to add the reference within the code itself so that, first it adds the reference and then removes all the text?

Answer 1

Change these two lines of regex declaration and assignment in the PullOnly function to static late binding.
Dim RE As RegExp
...
Set RE = New RegExp
'becomes,
static RE As object
...
if re is nothing then Set RE = createobject("VBScript.RegExp")
Static vars are 'remembered' by the sub procedure or function where they are declared. Normally, RE would be 'forgotten' (and destructed) when the function was completed and exited. However, with a static RE, the second time (and all subsequent times) the function is entered it 'remembers' that it has already been set to a regex scripting object so it is unnecessary to set it again.
This does not mean that a static var is globally public; it is only available within the function or sub procedure where it was declared.