I am trying to assign a named range's reference from VBA. I generate a string that I want to be the named range's reference.
Ultimately my code is much more complicated than what I will show here but this boils out the gist of my problem. I can assign the reference no problem, however, when I look at the named range in the names manager I notice that all of my quotes have been doubled. For instance I have a named range called "exampleName" and so I run the following:
Sub Example()
Dim exampleStr As String
exampleStr = "EVALUATE("" = "" &ADDRESS(5,8))"
ThisWorkbook.Names("exampleName").RefersTo = exampleStr
End Sub
The code executes alright, but if I check under Name Manager I see:
As you can see, under Refers To I've 'earned' an extra set of quotes around the equals sign. For my actual sub this becomes problematic as I have to iterate, augmenting Refers To on each iteration. Each time I iterate, all of my quotes are replicated. Within only a few turns I have way more quotes than intended.
Any input on where I'm going wrong?
Related
Can anyone tell me how to use RefersToRange in vba? and what and when is the need of it.
Please provide with simple example first.
Thanks in advance.
In Excel, there is the concept of a named range, that is a range of cells which has a name attached to it. This is represented by the Name object.
The RefersToRange method:
Returns the Range object referred to by a Name object.
For example, let's say I want to read the values only in the print area of the current worksheet. I need the Name object in order to access the print area, but I can't do anything useful with it; if I want to do something useful I have to access the range of cells referred to by that name:
Dim n As Name
Set n = ActiveWorkbook.Names("Print_Area")
Dim rng As Range
Set rng = n.RefersToRange
Dim values() As Variant
values = rng 'I can't read values with a Name object, but I can with a Range object
One thing I have discovered is that sometimes referring to a named range in this fashion:
ThisWorkbook.Range("DownloadPictures").Value = "yes"
results in:
Run-time error '1004':
Method 'Range' of object '_Worksheet' failed
But referring to the named range in this fashion:
ThisWorkbook.Names("DownloadPictures").RefersToRange = "yes"
works fine. My particular circumstance is that the named range ("DownloadPictures") is scoped to the entire workbook, which has several worksheets. I am referring to the name in one of the worksheet's Worksheet_Calculate subroutines. I don't understand why the first method causes an error and the second does not but apparently this is one reason to use the RefersToRange property.
RefersToRange is, one of many ways, to 'point' a range. For example,
ThisWorkbook.Names("DownloadPictures").RefersToRange = "yes"
the above code, points to the range, which can be a cell, named "DownloadPictures" and sets it value to "yes". As a matter of fact, I'd rather use,
ThisWorkbook.range("DownloadPictures").Value = "yes"
The 'Name' in MS Excel is similar to the Variant variable type, but unlike the variables you 'Dim' in the VB code, the 'Name' only be used (or you can consider it is only be used) in the Workbook. The 'Name' and variables are not interfered with each other.
If you open the 'Name Manager', the concept becomes easier to understand. The Name can be created to refer to a cell, a range of cell (a range), some value (so called constant), or a formula.
Each Name object represents a defined name for a range of cells. Names can be either built-in names—such as Database, Print_Area, and Auto_Open—or custom names. ---MSDN
As a Name can refer to range, constant or a formula .RefersToRange specifically refer to a range. And return false if not so.
I've been looking around stack overflow for an answer to this for longer than I care to admit now.
Here's what I have: In a worksheet I have a bunch of discontinuous cells which I need to check for the existence of specific text. I've created a simple function to do this and can do this easily when I define that range manually (in code).
However, when I procedurally create a named range (while doing other stuff) and then try passing in the named range, the function never executes.
I know that the named range is being properly created because I have auto-formatting on it and also I can reference the range with excel formula which accept discontinuous ranges (SUM and whatnot).
Here's the pertinent portions of my code:
Function customProcess1(NamedRange As Range) As Long
For Each c in NamedRange.Cells
...
Next c
End Function
In Excel when I type the formula as "=customProcess1(A1:A2)" I get my number back after the function runs. When I type in "=customProcess1(NamedRange)" my function never even executes.
Again, I'm using the named range as defined already in the document. I can observe the name in the name manager, it references the appropriate cells, i can use the range in formula which accept non-continuous ranges, etc. I can't figure out how to get my working named range into my function.
When I put the formula as "=customProcess1("NamedRange")" the function executes, but since the named range is not ""NamedRange"" but is "NamedRange" it fails to set the object as Range (the object is not found). I've tried taking the named range as a string, but again, if I don't put the quotes around the name, it won't even run the function. So then I've tried passing in a string with the quotes and taking the quotes off inside the function, but this isn't exactly working well either.
In short, I just want to get my non-continuous named range in my custom function. Once I do that, everything is golden.
Anyone have any ideas? I'm not sure why this has been such a chore.
I'm not sure why what you're trying doesn't work and don't really have time to research that part of it, but you could do the following:
Function customProcess1(NamedRange As String) As Long
Dim TheRange As Range
Set TheRange = Range(NamedRange)
For Each c in TheRange.Cells
...
Next c
End Function
Hope this helps.
Adapting your UDF(), I coded:
Function customProcess1(NamedRange As Range) As Long
For Each c In NamedRange.Cells
customProcess1 = customProcess1 + c.Value
Next c
End Function
I then assigned the name Mike to the cells B6,C8,D10 and placed values in these cells. I then placed the formula:
=customProcess1(Mike)
in a cell and got the following:
NOTE:
I did not use =customProcess("Mike")
I am currently creating a macro that needs to save Word.Range instances to an array.
I want those range objects to be anywhere in the document. For the regular content stuff this works just fine, but when I am trying to save a range in the header, I cannot get it to work.
The sub definition:
Function GetSelectionRanges(rRng As Object, sFind As String) As Variant
rRng is a StoryRange
The code for the regular conntent ranges is as follows:
Set tmpSelections(i) = WdDoc.Range(Start:=rRng.Start, End:=rRng.End)
This one works absolutely fine and I can work with it.
I tried to extend it so it can store header objects as well:
Set tmpSelections(i) = WdDoc.StoryRanges(rRng.storytype).Range(Start:=rRng.Start, End:=rRng.End)
This, however, does not work. It says object does not support this attribute/method.
My problem at the moment is that the start and end are obtained correctly but if I use the WdDoc.Range method it uses the text stored in the regular content and thus not working as I want it to.
Definitions:
WdDoc As Object
tmpSelections() As Object
Later on I want to work with the single ranges and eventually replace values but that is a later step that cannot be incorporated in that routine.
The StoryRanges property returns a collection of Range objects, so you don't need to call .Range.
If you want to select a range within the StoryRange, use SetRange:
Set tmpSelections(i) = wdDoc.StoryRanges(rRng.StoryType)
tmpSelections(i).SetRange Start:=rRng.Start, End:=rRng.End
Hi I'm using VBA in Excel and need to pass in the values from two ranges into a custom function from within a cell's formula. The function looks like this:
Public Function multByElement(range1 As String, range2 As String) As Variant
Dim arr1() As Variant, arr2() As Variant
arr1 = Range(range1).value
arr2 = Range(range2).value
If UBound(arr1) = UBound(arr2) Then
Dim arrayA() As Variant
ReDim arrayA(LBound(arr1) To UBound(arr1))
For i = LBound(arr1) To UBound(arr1)
arrayA(i) = arr1(i) * arr2(i)
Next i
multByElement = arrayA
End If
End Function
As you can see, I'm trying to pass the string representation of the ranges. In the debugger I can see that they are properly passed in and the first visible problem occurs when it tries to read arr1(i) and shows as "subscript out of range". I have also tried passing in the range itself (ie range1 as Range...) but with no success.
My best suspicion was that it has to do with the Active Sheet since it was called from a different sheet from the one with the formula (the sheet name is part of the string) but that was dispelled since I tried it both from within the same sheet and by specifying the sheet in the code.
BTW, the formula in the cell looks like this:
=AVERAGE(multByElement("A1:A3","B1:B3"))
or
=AVERAGE(multByElement("My Sheet1!A1:A3","My Sheet1!B1:B3"))
for when I call it from a different sheet.
First, see the comment Remou left, since that's really what you should be doing here. You shouldn't need VBA at all to get an element-wise multiplication of two arrays.
Second, if you want to work with Ranges, you can do that by declaring your function arguments to be of type Range. So you could have
Public Function multByElement(range1 As Range, range2 As Range)
and not need to resolve strings to range references yourself. Using strings prevents Excel from updating references as things get moved around in your worksheet.
Finally, the reason why your function fails the way it does is because the array you get from taking the 'Value' of a multi-cell Range is two-dimensional, and you'd need to acces its elements with two indices. Since it looks like you're intending to (element-wise) multiply two vectors, you would do either
arrayA(i) = arr1(i,1) * arr2(i,1)
or
arrayA(i) = arr1(1,i) * arr2(1,i)
depending on what orientation you expected from your input. (Note that if you do this with VBA, orientation of what is conceptually a 1-D array matters, but if you follow Remou's advice above, Excel will do the right thing regardless of whether you pass in rows or columns, or range references or array literals.)
As an epilogue, it also looks like you're not using 'Option Explicit'. Google around for some rants on why you probably always want to do this.
I want to point to a cell as a range in VBA. I've tried using:
Dim range
range = Sheet("sheet").Range("A1")
But this just returns the value in the range. What I actually want is the range object so I can manipulate it, e.g. by setting range.Value = "Hello"
Any ideas?
First, I strongly recommend you to make explicit declaration of variables in your code mandatory. Go to Tools - Options, in the Editor tab check "Require variable Declaration", or put Option Explicit in the first line of all your scripts.
Second, I think there is a small typo in your code, it should be Sheets.("sheet").
To answer your question, with range = Sheets("sheet").Range("A1") you are assigning a value variable, not an object. Therefore the default variable of the range object is implicitly assigned, which is value. In order to assign an object, use the Set keyword. My full example code looks like this:
Option Explicit
Public Sub Test()
Dim RangeObject As range
Set RangeObject = Sheets("Sheet1").range("A1")
RangeObject.Value = "MyTestString"
End Sub
This should put the text "MyTestString" in cell A1.
Edit: If you are using named ranges, try RangeObject.Value2 instead of RangeObject.Value. Named ranges do not have a Value property.