Speed up declaring variables? - vba

Question

I have a bunch of Variables I need to declare and was wondering if there's any way to shorten the amount of lines needed to do so. Here's the code:
Sub test()
dim comps as New Collection
dim noOfCompanies as Integer: noOfCompanies = 25
dim c1 as New Names 'Names is a class I have made
dim c2 as New Names
... ' in this gap is c3 to c29
dim c30 as New Names
End Sub
I don't know that you can create a variable and do something like the following, can you? (Note: Psuedocode)
dim i as Integer
for i = 1 to 30
Dim "c" & i as New Names
next i
edit:
#rene mentioned using an array - how would I do so, if later I'm going to set parts of the class properties (sorry, I'm learning classes and don't know the proper terms):
c1.companyCode = 10: c1.companyCountry = "USA": c1.companyName = "Batman LTD"
c2.companyCode = 13: c2.companyCountry = "Krypton": c2.companyName = "Superman LLC"
... 'etc until c30.
Here's what I'm trying so far, but to no avail:
Dim tempC As String, tempN As String
For i = 1 To noOfCompanies
c(i) = "c" & i
tempC = c(i)
Debug.Print tempC 'This will correctly print "c1", "c2", "c3", etc.
Dim c(i) As New Names 'This is where I can't figure out how to declare the different array parts as an individual "new Names" class part.
Debug.Print tempN
Next i
edit2:
Here's why I'm trying to create 30 variables. I get a spreadsheet every week that has a column of codes (the codes being that companyCode I am initializing above). If I find a row with any of the 30 codes I am trying to declare, then I need the companyName and companyCountry to be placed in some other cells on that row. My idea was to be able to just do something like this (psuedocode):
dim rng as Range
rng = Range("A1:A30") 'this has the codes in it, i.e. 13, 10, 11, 20...
for each cel in Rng
'here would be code where I just check for IF the cel.Value is anywhere in companyCode,
'return its equivalent companyCountry and companyName
next cel
So, would a dictionary be best? I could do like
if dict.exists(cel.value)
BUT how could I store the companyCountry and companyName in the same dictionary entry, AFAIK I can only store one key per entry?
...of course, if just saving this info in an excel table somewhere (xlsx or csv) and just opening/using that then closing would be best practice, just let me know!

Answer 1

Dim arrNames(1 to 30) as Names, n
for n=1 to 30
Set arrNames(n)=new Names
next n
arrNames(5).companyCountry = "USA"
EDIT: I think storing your code information on a worksheet and accessing it directly is the "best" approach unless you need high-volume/high-performance lookups (even then it will not be bad...)
For example here's a pretty simple function you can call from VBA:
Function CompanyInfo(companyCode, infoType As String)
Dim rng As Range, colNum As Long, rv
Select Case infoType
Case "Country": colNum = 2
Case "Name": colNum = 3
Case Else
CompanyInfo = "InfoType?"
Exit Function
End Select
rv = Application.VLookup(companyCode, _
ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Codes").Range("A2:C100"), _
colNum, False)
CompanyInfo = IIf(IsError(rv), "???", rv)
End Function
Usage:
Dim v, v2
v = CompanyInfo(10,"Country")
v2 = CompanyInfo(10,"Name")

Answer 2

Example using a collection to create 30 instances of a class containing the name.
If it is imperative that they be able to be retrieved using "c1-c30", then you can either use that as a variable in the class (like Name) or as the collection index/key.
For example:
Names Class:
Private pName As String
Private pOther As Integer
Public Property Get Name() As String
Name = pName
End Property
Public Property Let Name(Value As String)
pName = Value
End Property
Assigning and Printing our 30 Names:
Sub Test()
Dim MyNames As Collection
Set MyNames = New Collection
Dim x
For x = 1 To 30
Dim t As Names
Set t = New Names
t.Name = "c" & x
MyNames.Add t
Next x
Dim y
For Each y In MyNames
MsgBox (y.Name)
Next y
End Sub
In closing, I think your problem is that you want to be able to reference these 30 cnames in your code by name later after having assigned them. That's not going to work and it's a bad coding practice. You shouldn't do:
Dim c1
Set c1 = new Names
c1.Name = "Bob"
Dim c2 '...
There's a reason people don't typically declare 30 variables with incremental numbers. The reason is because there is a better way. That way is typically using a collection of variable types or an array of variable types that you can reference using an index or a loop.
If you're creating 30 instances of a certain data type, and you want to give them each unique values, create a table or even a static array to hold their values and assign them in a loop.
To follow up, if you want to reference them using c & x then add a variable to your class called ID and assign to that.
You might want to look into using a dictionary if you would like to be able to quickly retrieve the ID without looping through and checking ID's.
Edit:
I'm glad you explained your end game. You are absolutely over-complicating this scenario.
A simple VLOOKUP formula and a lookup table would save you from having to code anything in VBA at all.
Example:
Create a named range called LookupTable that contains the company ID's on the far left:
Then, use these formulas to search your table for the ID, and give you the name/location.
Parameter 1 is the value to Lookup
Parameter 2 is our LookupTable
Parameter 3 is the column from our table to return
(1 = ID, 2 = Company Name, 3 = City)
Parameter 4 says we want an exact match only.
=VLOOKUP(A1,LookupTable,2,FALSE)

Answer 3

I'm not sure if I like the use of "Names" as a class name since "Names" already has an Excel VBA meaning, but if that's what you want.
As others have pointed out, an array is probably the way to go. But if you really want to have 30 variables and you don't want to do a lot of typing, you can do something like this:
Sub DeclareVars()
Dim i As Long, v As Variant
ReDim v(1 To 30)
For i = 1 To 30
v(i) = "c" & i & " As New Names"
Next i
Debug.Print "Dim " & Join(v, ", ")
End Sub
Run it once and copy the result from the immediate window into your code. If you know Python you can use a 1-liner in the Python shell and type even less. Just evaluate:
"Dim " + ", ".join('c' + str(i) + " As New Names" for i in range(1,31))

Answer 4

Why don't you store your c1, ... c30 objects properties in a table, an xml file, a csv file, or any other of the multiple types of files? That can store data and be read via VBA.
So, when needed, you can just open the table, and populate an array of your object's properties with the values in the table? If your table/file contains 30 lines, an array of 30 objects will then be created.
By doing this, you will also separate your code from your data, which is usually considered as a best practise.