(Excel VBA) - Draw from cell text in a macro - vba

I'm trying to build a small macro that allows the user to format multiple different documents at once.
I would like for the user to be able to enter into a particular cell within the document containing the macro a particular piece of text.
I then want for this piece of text to be able to be drawn upon in the macro while affecting a different document.
For instance, a code to add another column might say
Worksheets(1).Range("A1").EntireColumn.Insert
Instead of specifying the column (A), I would like it to draw on a value in the host document. For instance, the user types "G" into the particular cell, and then clicks a button to run the macro, and the macro will dynamically know to affect column G in all excel documents it targets based off of the value in the host document.
I hope this makes sense.
Any suggestions for the sort of functions I should be looking at to make this work?

"Any suggestions on the sort of functions I should be looking at?"
Here's a few...
To get the value which is entered...
If the cell will always be in the same address, say A1:
' Define a string variable and set it equal to value in A1
Dim cellText as String
cellText = ThisWorkbook.ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Value
or instead of using Range you can also use Cells which takes a row and column number.
cellText = ThisWorkbook.ActiveSheet.Cells(1, 1).Value
If the cell changes then you may need to look into the Find function to look for a label/heading next to the input cell. Then you can use it (easily with Cells) to reference the input...
Once you have this variable, you can do what you like with it.
To put this value into cell B3 in another (open) workbook named "MyWorkbook", and a sheet named "MySheet" you can do:
Application.Workbooks("MyWorkbook").Sheets("MySheet").Range("B3").Value = cellText
To insert a column at cellText, do
Application.Workbooks("MyWorkbook").Sheets("MySheet").Range(cellText & "1").EntireColumn.Insert
Notably here, the & concatonates the strings together, so if
cellText="B"
then
cellText & "1" = "B1"
Further to your comment about moving values between sheets, see my first example here, but always refer to the same workbook. If you find yourself repeatedly typing something like
ThisWorkbook.Sheets("MySheet").<other stuff>
then you can use the With shorthand.
With ThisWorkbook.Sheets("MySheet")
' Starting anything with a dot "." now assumes the with statement first
.Range("A1").Value = .Range("A2").Value
.Range("B1").Value = .Range("B2").Value
End With
Important to note is that this code has no data validation to check the cell's value before using it! Simply trying to insert a column based on a value which could be anything is sure to make the macro crash within its first real world use!

Related

How do I hide select text in excel (getting weird cells with conditional formatting)

How do hide cells that contain text in excel? These cells I am manually entering numbered data into them. I'd like them to be invisible when containing SetNumber but when I enter data manually, the data is visible.
I have seen a number of vba solutions and this solution which did not work. My question is how do I hide columns A, B and C which all contain SetNumber?
I have used conditional formatting but for some reason the output appears very un-natural. Is there a simple alternative?
To complete my comment above, you can do (in VBA):
Dim celltxt As String
celltxt = ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Text
If InStr(1, celltxt, "SetNumber") Then
Range("A:A").EntireColumn.Hidden = True
EndIf
To hide Column A based upon the contents of cell A1. You should be able to modify this to suit your needs.

Set Range to be specific lines within a cell, Microsoft VBA

I am working with a word template document that extensively uses tables to separate values. This has been great for most of my VBA code, as it makes it very simple to set values where I need to make edits. However, there is one place, in the header, where a single cell contains three lines of text. I need to set the value of JUST the first two lines in this cell.
QUESTION:
How do you set the value of JUST the first two lines of text in a given cell? Or, more broadly, can you set Range to be one line within a cell?
What I have right now, which sets Range as the whole cell and sets the value as "NEW TEXT":
ActiveDocument.PageSetup.DifferentFirstPageHeaderFooter = True
With ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterFirstPage)
.Range.Tables(1).Cell(1, 2).Range.Text = "NEW TEXT"
End With
Thank you for any expertise you can lend me.
To replace (eg) the second line:
With ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterFirstPage)
.Range.Tables(1).Cell(1, 2).Range.Paragraphs(2).Range.Text = "NEW TEXT" & vbLf
End With

Set Value of Cell, relative to active cell, within single column named range

I have written the following code as part of a larger sub-routine to set the value of a cell, relative to the active cell, when a particular selection has been made within the active cell.
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 5).Value = "CLV 7"
While this works, I may have need in the future to add columns into my worksheet and this presents a problem, due to the change of location of the cell that requires its value to be set, and by association the need to rewrite the code each time a new column is added.
In considering this variable, I researched and as a result, defined a range name for each column that requires values to be set within it. I thought that I would then be able to determine the variable & relocatable intersect point between the active row and the named range column and define it as the cell that requires the value to be set.
After this I researched ways to define this variable intersection and attempted to set the following alternate code:
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 0).Range("BusinessStudies").Value = CLV 7
in the hope that it would do the trick, but unfortunately it does not. I have looked at other posts and cannot see how to adjust it with any success as I can't see any similar requests.
try the Intersect() function in VBA
Debug.Print Intersect(Rows(ActiveCell.Row), Range("MyRange")).Value
Edit: apply to your situation, assuming that you want the string "CLV 7" to go into the cell:
Intersect(Rows(ActiveCell.Row), Range("BusinessStudies")).Value = "CLV 7"

Major formatting issue in Excel - VLOOKUP

I need help with a formatting issue in Excel, which is interfering with the VLOOKUP function in my Excel sheet.
I have two sheets with more than 20,000 column values as lookup, and the same number of values for reference. All the values in both cells are weirdly formatted, some with green triangles at the upper left corner of cells, some are text, etc.
Is there a way in Excel using a macro/VBA to remove or make all formatting similar in both sheets? The reason for VBA is because the person who is going to work with this file needs everything automated and is not familiar with Excel at all. I already have the VLOOKUP function in the cells, I just need to work with the formatting.
Well, I fight with partial lookups this way:
In the items array, I create new empty FIRST column and then place formula
="+"&B2
This will take the content of Cell B2 and add + in the front of it.
When I do vlookup, I add "+" to searcheable value
=VLOOKUP("+"&A6,A:O,2,FALSE)
Therefore, instead of comparing for example Strings and numbers, I compare Strings, by adding "+" in the front.
Another technique, is to kill all formatting:
Select whole column, click DATA-TEXT TO COLUMNS-DELIMITED and then DESELECT ALL DELIMITERS. Click Finish. This will clear your formatting.
===========================================================================
This is the VBA solution you asked for:
Call it from Excel
=GetLookup(G2,A:C)
Here is VBA:
Function GetLookup(LOOKFOR As String, RANGEARRAY As Range) As String
GetLookup = Application.WorksheetFunction.VLookup("+" & LOOKFOR, RANGEARRAY, 3, False)
End Function
Good luck!
I'm assuming the data type in all of the cells is the same, or you want it to all be the same. The following steps will make the cells a uniform type:
Save your workbook, in case this does not do as you require
Select all cells you wish to be of the same cell type
Press Ctrl+1, on the "Number" tab, select the type you wish these cells to take. Press OK.
Open the VBA editor using Alt+F11
Open the immediate window with Ctrl+G
Type the following: for each cell in selection : cell.formula = cell.value : next cell
Press enter (you may have to wait a few seconds).
If you take this action with the same data type (e.g. choose "Text" for both ranges in step 3) on both your ranges you should be "comparing apples with apples" and your VLOOKUP should function as required.
Hope this helps.
Edit: formatting, clarification

Excel VBA - Interpret "N/A" Values

I am traversing a spreadsheet which contains a column of prices, in the form of double types. I am trying to locate a missing value which is shown on the spreadsheet as "n/a", but it is not letting me interpret this as a string type.
The cell containing "n/a" seems to be an integer type; how can I read this?
If all you want to do is to check for the error value then:
Application.WorksheetFunction.IsNA(rngToCheck.Value)
where rngToCheck is the cell which you want to check for the #N/A error value
(There's a list of the worksheet functions which can be called from Excel VBA here)
You could also examine rngToCheck.Text as this will contain the string "#N/A"
If instead, you want to read the formula in the cell which generated the #N/A then rngToCheck.Formula would do that
A cell containing #N/A is retrieved by VBA as a variant containing an error code
In general its usually best to assign Excel cells to Variants because a cell can contain a number(double), logical, string or error and you cannot tell in advance what the cell wil contain.
You can prepare the spreadsheet you like to check as described below and evaluate the special cells containing the IS Functions, it is easy to check them for True or False in VBA. Alternatively, you can write your own VBA function as shown below.
There are Excel functions which check cells for special values, for example:
=ISNA(C1)
(assumed that C1 is the cell to check). This will return True if the cell is #N/A, otherwise False.
If you want to show whether a range of cells (say "C1:C17") has any cell containing #N/A or not, it might look sensible to use:
=if(ISNA(C1:C17); "There are #N/A's in one of the cells"; "")
Sadly, this is not the case, it will not work as expected. You can only evaluate a single cell.
However, you can do it indirectly using:
=if(COUNTIF(E1:E17;TRUE)>0; "There are #N/A's in one of the cells"; "")
assuming that each of the cells E1 through E17 contains the ISNA formulas for each cell to check:
=ISNA(C1)
=ISNA(C2)
...
=ISNA(C17)
You can hide column E by right-clicking on the column and selecting Hide in Excel's context menu so the user of your spreadsheet cannot see this column. They can still be accessed and evaluated, even if they are hidden.
In VBA you can pass a range object as RANGE parameter and evaluate the values individually by using a FOR loop:
Public Function checkCells(Rg As Range) As Boolean
Dim result As Boolean
result = False
For Each r In Rg
If Application.WorksheetFunction.IsNA(r) Then
result = True
Exit For
End If
Next
checkCells = result
End Function
This function uses the IsNA() function internally. It must be placed inside a module, and can then be used inside a spreadsheet like:
=checkCells(A1:E5)
It returns True, if any cell is #N/A, otherwise False. You must save the workbook as macro-enabled workbook (extension XLSM), and ensure that macros are not disabled.
Excel provides more functions like the above:
ISERROR(), ISERR(), ISBLANK(), ISEVEN(), ISODD(), ISLOGICAL(),
ISNONTEXT(), ISNUMBER(), ISREF(), ISTEXT(), ISPMT()
For example, ISERR() checks for all cell errors except #N/A and is useful to detect calculation errors.
All of these functions are described in the built in help of Excel (press F1 and then enter "IS Functions" as search text for an explanation). Some of them can be used inside VBA, some can only be used as a cell macro function.