VBA Excel - run string variable as a line of code - vba

Question

In the aim to allow users from different countries to use my application, I would like to initialize a translation of each object in each existing userform (labels,commandbuttons,msgbox,frames, etc...) at the start of the application.
I'll write all the translation in my Languages sheet:
I've already made a first userform where the user types his login, password and selects his language.
After this step, the main userform called "Menu" will be launched.
I've already tried to type a piece of code (here below) to find the line of code, in a msgbox that I want to run (example : menu.commandbutton1.caption="Envoyer email")
Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
' Definition of language selected during login
Set langue = Sheets("Languages").Cells.Find("chosen",
lookat:=xlWhole).Offset(-1, 0)
' Initialisation of the texts in the selected language
Dim cel As Range
Dim action As String
For Each cel In Sheets("Languages").Range("d3:d999")
If cel <> "" Then
action = cel & "=" & """" & cel.Offset(0, -2) & """"
MsgBox (action)
End If
Next cel
End Sub
I've already read some topics about this subject but those does not correspond exactly to what i would like to do.
If you have a solution, or a work around, it would be very helpful.

Answer 1

If you simply want different MsgBox, based on a coutry, this is probably the easiest way to achieve it. Imagine your file is like this:
Then something as easy as this would allow you to use different strings, based on the country:
Public Sub TestMe()
Dim country As String
Dim language As Long
country = "Bulgaria" 'or write "England" to see the difference
language = WorksheetFunction.Match(country, Range("A1:B1"), 0)
MsgBox (Cells(2, language))
MsgBox "The capital of " & country & " is " & (Cells(3, language))
End Sub
The idea of the whole trick is simply to pass the correct column, which is done through WorksheetFunction.Match.

Answer 2

Taken from an old CR post I have here, this solution pretty much mimicks .NET .resx resource files, and you can easily see how to extend it to other languages, and if I were to write it today I'd probably use Index+Match lookups instead of that rather inefficient loop - but anyway it works nicely:
Resources standard module
Option Explicit
Public Enum Culture
EN_US = 1033
EN_UK = 2057
EN_CA = 4105
FR_FR = 1036
FR_CA = 3084
End Enum
Private resourceSheet As Worksheet
Public Sub Initialize()
Dim languageCode As String
Select Case Application.LanguageSettings.LanguageID(msoLanguageIDUI)
Case Culture.EN_CA, Culture.EN_UK, Culture.EN_US:
languageCode = "EN"
Case Culture.FR_CA, Culture.FR_FR:
languageCode = "FR"
Case Else:
languageCode = "EN"
End Select
Set resourceSheet = Worksheets("Resources." & languageCode)
End Sub
Public Function GetResourceString(ByVal resourceName As String) As String
Dim resxTable As ListObject
If resourceSheet Is Nothing Then Initialize
Set resxTable = resourceSheet.ListObjects(1)
Dim i As Long
For i = 1 To resxTable.ListRows.Count
Dim lookup As String
lookup = resxTable.Range(i + 1, 1)
If lookup = resourceName Then
GetResourceString = resxTable.Range(i + 1, 2)
Exit Function
End If
Next
End Function
The idea is, similar to .NET .resx files, to have one worksheet per language, named e.g. Resources.EN and Resources.FR.
Each sheet contains a single ListObject / "table", and can (should) be hidden. The columns are basically Key and Value, so your data would look like this on sheet Resources.EN:
Key Value
menu.caption Menu
menu.commandbutton1.caption Send email
menu.commandbutton1.controltiptext Click to send the document
And the Resources.FR sheet would have a similar table, with identical keys and language-specific values.
I'd warmly recommend to use more descriptive names though; e.g. instead of menu.commandbutton1.caption, I'd call it SendMailButtonText, and instead of menu.commandbutton1.controltiptext, I'd call it SendMailButtonTooltip. And if your button is actually named CommandButton1, go ahead and name it SendMailButton - and thank yourself later.
Your code can then "localize" your UI like this:
SendMailButton.Caption = GetResourceString("SendMailButtonText")
The Resources.Initialize procedure takes care of knowing which resource sheet to use, based on Application.LanguageSettings.LanguageID(msoLanguageIDUI) - and falls back to EN, so if a user has an unsupported language, you're still showing something.