Evaluate and Store Complex Expression in Excel VBA - vba

Question

I am working on an accounting VBA program that will post Journal entries to a Ledger, and then generate trial balances (i.e. print out the values on a new sheet following "Bal. " in the Ledger). To do this, I need a way to assign the numerical part of the balance cells to a variable or collection. Unfortunately, when I use Debug.Print I see the only value stored is 0 (I am testing just with Common Stock). My expression is: y = Application.Evaluate("=SUM(R[-" & x & "]C:R[-1]C)-SUM(R[-" & x & "]C[1]:R[-1]C[1])") where y represents the balance of Common Stock. How do I properly store the balance value in a variable?
' TODO BE ABLE TO RUN MULTIPLE TIMES
' CHECK FOR POSTED MARK & START WRITING WHEN
' r = "one of the keys", or just creates new Ledger Worksheet every time
Sub MacCompileData()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim lastRow As Long, x As Long
Dim data, Key
Dim r As Range
Dim cLedger As Collection, cList As Collection
Set cLedger = New Collection
With Worksheets("Journal")
lastRow = .Range("B" & .Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
For x = 2 To lastRow
Key = Trim(.Cells(x, 2))
On Error Resume Next
Set cList = cLedger(Key)
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
Set cList = New Collection
cLedger.Add cList, Key
End If
On Error GoTo 0
cLedger(Key).Add Array(.Cells(x, 1).Value, .Cells(x, 3).Value, .Cells(x, 4).Value)
Worksheets("Journal").Cells(x, 5).Value = ChrW(&H2713)
Next
End With
With Worksheets("Ledger")
Dim IsLiability As Boolean
Dim y As Integer
For Each r In .Range("A1", .Range("A" & .Rows.Count).End(xlUp))
If r <> "" Then
On Error Resume Next
Key = Trim(r.Text)
If Key = "LIABILITIES" Then
IsLiability = True
End If
data = getLedgerArray(cLedger(Key))
If Err.Number = 0 Then
Set list = cLedger(Key)
x = cLedger(Key).Count
With r.Offset(2).Resize(x, 3)
.Insert Shift:=xlDown, CopyOrigin:=r.Offset(1)
.Offset(-x).Value = data
If IsLiability Then
.Offset(0, 2).Resize(1, 1).FormulaR1C1 = "=""Bal. "" & TEXT(SUM(R[-" & x & "]C:R[-1]C)-SUM(R[-" & x & "]C[1]:R[-1]C[1]),""$#,###"")"
' LOOK HERE FOR Y
y = Application.Evaluate("=SUM(R[-" & x & "]C:R[-1]C)-SUM(R[-" & x & "]C[1]:R[-1]C[1])")
Debug.Print "Common Stock Balance Equals "; y
Else
.Offset(0, 1).Resize(1, 1).FormulaR1C1 = "=""Bal. "" & TEXT(SUM(R[-" & x & "]C:R[-1]C)-SUM(R[-" & x & "]C[1]:R[-1]C[1]),""$#,###"")"
End If
r.Offset(1).EntireRow.Delete
End With
End If
On Error GoTo 0
End If
Next
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
Function getLedgerArray(c As Collection)
Dim data
Dim x As Long
ReDim data(1 To c.Count, 1 To 3)
For x = 1 To c.Count
data(x, 1) = c(x)(0)
data(x, 2) = c(x)(1)
data(x, 3) = c(x)(2)
Next
getLedgerArray = data
End Function

Answer 1

Here is a solution that I was able to figure out, though I am not sure if it is the most efficient. In line before the formula is set, I set a Range named BalanceCell to the cell where the formula will be written. I then used the Mid Function to get the string number value from the cell (since the length of "Bal. " is always 5 characters) after the formula is put into BalanceCell.
If IsLiability Then
Set BalanceCell = .Offset(0, 2).Resize(1, 1)
BalanceCell.FormulaR1C1 = "=""Bal. "" & TEXT(SUM(R[-" & x & "]C:R[-1]C)-SUM(R[-" & x & "]C[1]:R[-1]C[1]),""$#,###"")"
y = Mid(BalanceCell.Value, 6, Len(BalanceCell.Value))
Debug.Print "Common Stock Balance is "; y