Excel VBA looping: reshape column into table - vba

Question

I have not used VBA for sometime so am very rusty... What I have is a number of records stored vertically (in a single column) and I want to use VBA to stack them side by side (into a table).
My general thoughts about how this would flow:
Start at first range
Copy data
Paste data in cell B3 of output page (just named Sheet2)
Loop back to previous range and offset by 51 rows
Copy data
Paste data in cell C3 of output page (offset by 1 column each time)
My attempt so far:
Sub Macro1()
FiftyOne = 51 ' Offset by 51 rows for every chunk
StartRange = "L262:L303" ' Start at this range of data to copy, each chunk is identical in size
OutputRange = B3 ' Paste in output at B3, but need to offset by one column each time
Range(StartRange).Offset(FiftyOne, 0).Select
Selection.Copy
Sheets("Sheet2").Select
Range("B3").Offset(0, 1).Select
ActiveSheet.Paste
End Sub
I know this is a rather lame attempt to tackle this flow, but I am really struggling with how to loop through this. I would appreciate some advice on how to do this, or a better approach to the general flow.
Edit after accepting Wolfie's answer:
I want to assign column headings, by getting the values from C258 and looping down (in a similar way to before) 51 rows at a time, to paste into row 2 of sheet2 (B2, C2, ...).
Here is my current attempt:
Sub NameToTable()
' Assign first block to range, using easily changable parameters
' Remember to "Dim" all of your variables, using colon for line continuation
Dim blocksize As Long: blocksize = 51
Dim firstrow As Long: firstrow = 258
Dim rng As Range
Set rng = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1").Range("C" & firstrow & blocksize - 1)
' tablestart is the upper left corner of the "pasted" table
Dim tablestart As Range: Set tablestart = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet2").Range("B2")
Dim i As Long ' Looping variable i
Dim nblocks As Long: nblocks = 10 ' We're going to loop nblocks number of times
For i = 0 To nblocks - 1
' Do the actual value copying, using Resize to set the number of rows
' and using Offset to move down the original values and along the "pasted" columns
tablestart.Offset(0, i).Resize(blocksize, 1).Value = _
rng.Offset(blocksize * i, 0).Value
Next i
End Sub

Answer 1

Your logic seems alright, this code will create a 51 x n table, lining up each vertical block of 51 cells in its own column.
Note, it's much quicker to assign the .Value than copying and pasting, if you need formats too then you could copy/paste or similarly set format properties equal.
Sub ColumnToTable()
' Assign first block to range, using easily changable parameters
' Remember to "Dim" all of your variables, using colon for line continuation
Dim blocksize As Long: blocksize = 51
Dim firstrow As Long: firstrow = 262
Dim rng As Range
Set rng = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1").Range("L" & firstrow & ":L" & firstrow + blocksize - 1)
' tablestart is the upper left corner of the "pasted" table
Dim tablestart As Range: Set tablestart = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet2").Range("B3")
Dim i As Long ' Looping variable i
Dim nblocks As Long: nblocks = 10 ' We're going to loop nblocks number of times
For i = 0 To nblocks - 1
' Do the actual value copying, using Resize to set the number of rows
' and using Offset to move down the original values and along the "pasted" columns
tablestart.Offset(0, i).Resize(blocksize, 1).Value = _
rng.Offset(blocksize * i, 0).Value
Next i
End Sub
Set the nblocks value to suit your needs, this is the number of resulting columns in your output table. You could get it dynamically by knowing the number of rows in the original column. Or you could use some while logic, careful to make sure that it does eventually exit of course!
Dim i As Long: i = 0
Do While rng.Offset(blocksize*i, 0).Cells(1).Value <> ""
tablestart.Offset(0, i).Resize(blocksize, 1).Value = rng.Offset(blocksize * i, 0).Value
i = i + 1
Loop
Edit: to get your column headings, keep in mind that the column headings are only 1 cell, so:
' Change this:
Set rng = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1").Range("C" & firstrow & blocksize - 1)
' To this:
Set rng = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1").Range("C" & firstrow)
Tip: + is used for adding numerical values, whilst & is used for concatenating stings.
Now when you're looping, you don't need the Resize, because you are only assigning 1 cell's value to 1 other cell. Resulting sub:
Sub NameToTable()
Dim blocksize As Long: blocksize = 51
Dim firstrow As Long: firstrow = 258
Dim rng As Range
Set rng = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1").Range("C" & firstrow)
Dim tablestart As Range: Set tablestart = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet2").Range("B2")
Dim i As Long: i = 0
Do While rng.Offset(blocksize*i, 0).Value <> ""
tablestart.Offset(0, i).Value = rng.Offset(blocksize * i, 0).Value
i = i + 1
Loop
End Sub

Answer 2

When dealing with your worksheets in excel, each time you reference them adds overhead and slows down the code, what you want to do is take all of the info off your spreadsheet into an array then use Application.Transpose to transpose it for you.
You can then use 'Resize' to make sure your destination range is the same size and set the values.
Sub CopyAndTransRange(src As Range, dest As Range)
Dim arr As Variant 'Needs to be a variant to take cell values
arr = Application.Transpose(src.Value) 'Set to array of values
On Error GoTo eh1dim 'Capture error from vertical 1D range
dest.Resize( _
UBound(arr, 1) - LBound(arr, 1) + 1, _
UBound(arr, 2) - LBound(arr, 2) + 1 _
) = arr 'Set destination to array
Exit Sub
eh1dim:
dest.Resize( _
1, _
UBound(arr) - LBound(arr) + 1 _
) = arr 'Set row to 1D array
End Sub
Note, Application.Transpose will fall over with some arrays in weird circumstances like if there is more than 255 characters in a string in the given array, for those situations you can write your own Transpose function to flip the array for you.
Edit:
When you feed a vertical 1-dimensional range and transpose it, VBA converts it to a 1-dimensional array, I've rewritten so it captures the error when this happens then adjusts accordingly.

Answer 3

Just made this example which has values 1 through 7 populated on the first 7 rows of column A. This code effectively loops through each of the values, and transposes horizontally so all values are on a single row (1).
Dim rng As Range
Dim crng As Range
Static value As Integer
Set rng = ActiveSheet.Range("A1", Range("A1").End(xlDown))
For Each crng In rng.Cells
ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Offset(0, value).value = crng.value
If value <> 0 Then
crng.value = ""
End If
value = value + 1
Next crng
First we grab the required range and then iterate through each cell. Then using the offset method and an incrementing integer, we can assign their values horizontally to a single row.
It's worth noting that this would work when trying to transpose both vertically and horizontally. The key is the offset(column, row).
Just adjust where you place your incrementing Integer.
Hope this helps.