When I enter the following function as a UDF in a cell:
Function VisibleBlankCells(r As Range) As Long
On Error Resume Next
VisibleBlankCells = Intersect(r.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible), r.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeBlanks)).Count
On Error GoTo 0
End Function
r.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeBlanks) evaluates ALL cells in r as empty regardless of whether they contain text or not. What might be the cause of this and an alternative solution?
Get rid of the On Error Resume Next for a start - you should always assume that your code will fail and account for it accordingly, simply ignoring errors will just complicate matters.
Secondly ,there is no need to use Intersect - just identify the visible cells directly, and then use a further SpecialCells() method to identify the blank child cells.
Function VisibleBlankCells(r As Range) As Long
VisibleBlankCells = r.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible).SpecialCells(xlCellTypeBlanks).Count
End Function
tested with this:
Sub test_code()
Dim r As Range: Set r = Selection
Debug.Print CountBlanks(r)
End Sub
Function CountBlanks(r As Range) As Long
CountBlanks = r.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible).SpecialCells(xlCellTypeBlanks).Count
End Function
This kind of filter mechanism won't work in an UDF (see this for information on that). I suggest a looping inside your UDF:
Public Function VisibleBlankCells(rng As Range) As Long
Dim i As Integer
Dim cell As Range
i = 0
For Each cell In rng
If cell.Rows.Hidden = False And _
cell.Columns.Hidden = False And _
cell.Value = "" Then
i = i + 1
End If
Next
VisibleBlankCells = i
End Function
However, there may be some problems regarding the updating and functionality:
The value of the UDF only updates after editing the referenced range or calling other UDFs. So if you hide a column or row in that range, it won't have an instant effect
In the (working) execution of your code in a Sub, the visible cells (also) refer to yet unused cells in your worksheet to be "not visible". In my solution however, all cells that are not contained in a hidden row/column are considered visible.
Related
Hello Recently someone posted this in a comment thread in one of my previous questions. The post itself shows a code to remove merged cells and replace them with Central Across Selection
https://codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/197726/getting-rid-of-merged-cells/197730#197730
My issue is that I can't seem to get the code to work. I tried giving the code a go but am having two issues with it. Primarily the:
Sub fixMergedCells(sh As Worksheet)
and later
Set used = sh.UsedRange
Which I don't quite understand and they seem to be stopping me from applying it as a macro button. I otherwise seem to get a debug prompt saying "Method 'UnMerge' of object 'Range' failed" with regards to the line:
.UnMerge
Could you give me a hand in understanding what it is that I can't seem to grasp.
Here is my original code from my other post:
Sub fixMergedCells(sh As Worksheet)
'replace merged cells by Center Acroos Selection
'high perf version using a hack: https://stackoverflow.com/a/9452164/78522
Dim c As Range, used As Range
Dim m As Range, i As Long
Dim constFla: constFla = Array(xlConstants, xlFormulas)
Set used = sh.UsedRange
For i = 0 To 1 '1 run for constants, 1 for formulas
Err.Clear
On Error Resume Next
Set m = Intersect(used.Cells.SpecialCells(constFla(i)), used.Cells.SpecialCells(xlBlanks))
On Error GoTo 0
If Not m Is Nothing Then
For Each c In m.Cells
If c.MergeCells Then
With c.MergeArea
'Debug.Print .Address
.UnMerge
.HorizontalAlignment = xlCenterAcrossSelection
End With
End If
Next c
End If
Next i
End Sub
Sub test_fixMergedCells()
fixMergedCells ActiveSheet
End Sub
Your sub procedure isn't listed in the available 'macros' because it has a non-optional, non-variant parameter.
Try using an optional variant type parameter that can be used or, if omitted, filled with the ActiveSheet (which I assume the button is on).
Sub fixMergedCells(Optional sh As Variant)
If IsMissing(sh) Then Set sh = ActiveSheet
sh.Cells.UnMerge
End Sub
IsMissing can only be used with optional variant type parameters. Sub procedures with optional parameters are only listed as available 'macros' to be assigned to a button if the optional parameter is the variant type.
In Excel's VBA I want to create a formula which both takes the value from the source cell and the format.
Currently I have:
Function formEq(cellRefd As Range) As Variant
'thisBackCol = cellRefd.Interior.Color
'With Application.Caller
' .Interior.Color = thisBackCol
'End With
formEq = cellRefd.Value
End Function`
This returns the current value of the cell. The parts that I have commented out return a #VALUE error in the cell. When uncommented it seems the colour of the reference is saved however the Application.Caller returns a 2023 Error. Does this mean that this is not returning the required Range object?
If so how do I get the range object that refers to the cell that the function is used? [obviously in order to set the colour to the source value].
Here's one approach showing how you can still use ThisCell:
Function CopyFormat(rngFrom, rngTo)
rngTo.Interior.Color = rngFrom.Interior.Color
rngTo.Font.Color = rngFrom.Font.Color
End Function
Function formEq(cellRefd As Range) As Variant
cellRefd.Parent.Evaluate "CopyFormat(" & cellRefd.Address() & "," & _
Application.ThisCell.Address() & ")"
formEq = cellRefd.Value
End Function
This is the solution I found to the above question using Tim William's magic:
Function cq(thisCel As Range, srcCel As Range) As Variant
thisCel.Parent.Evaluate "colorEq(" & srcCel.Address(False, False) _
& "," & thisCel.Address(False, False) & ")"
cq = srcCel.Value
End Function
Sub colorEq(srcCell, destCell)
destCell.Interior.Color = srcCell.Interior.Color
End Sub
The destCell is just a cell reference to the cell in which the function is called.
The interior.color can be exchanged or added to with other formatting rules. Three extra points to note in this solution:
By keeping the value calculation in the formula this stops the possibility for circular referencing when it destCell refers to itself. If placed in the sub then it continually recalculates; and
If the format is only changed when the source value is changed, not the format as this is the only trigger for a UDF to run and thus change the format;
Application.Caller or Application.ThisCell cannot be integrated as when it refers to itself and returns a value for itself it triggers an infinite loop or "circular reference" error. If incorporated with an Address to create a string then this works though as per Tim William's answer.
I know that this probably isn't the most ideal way to to do this but just bear with me.
I have a document with a few tables on it. I'm using a userform to search the tables/sub-categories and return the relevant values. I want to select the sub categories with a range of option buttons on a userform, these will in turn set the range for the search function to look within. I also want to dynamically update the option buttons if a new table was to be added or anything along those lines.
The only thing that differentiates the title of a sub-category/table, and the items within it, is that the title of a sub-category/table is bold. So what I'm looking to do is search the first column of the spreadsheet and return the names of any entries in bold. These values are then used to set the names of the option buttons :).
The following function is my attempt at finding the text entities in column a that are in bold, returning them and setting each to an individual variable to be used in another function. The bold1 .... variables are all globally defined variables as I need them in another sub, as is the page variable which contains the relevant page to be used. Currently the code returns an error stating "variable or with block not set" and using the debugger I can see that bold1 .... and all the other boldx variables have no value set. Does anybody know whats going on/how to fix this function.
Thanks in advance :)
Sub SelectBold()
Dim Bcell As Range
For Each Bcell In Worksheets(Page).Range("A1:A500")
If Bcell.Font.Bold = True Then
Set bold1 = Bcell
End If
Next
End Sub
EDIT: I simplified the above function, to remove clutter and help narrow in on the issue. I want the above function to store the contents of the found cell (any cell in the document in bold at this stage) in the variable bold1
This will return an array of values from bold cells in column A of Page.
You can fill a combo or list box with theses values using their list property.
ComboBox1.List = getSubCategories("Sheet1")
Function getSubCategories(Page As String) As String()
Dim arrSubCategories() As String
Dim count As Long
Dim c As Range
With Worksheets(Page)
For Each c In .Range("A2", .Range("A" & Rows.count).End(xlUp))
If c.Font.Bold Then
ReDim Preserve arrSubCategories(count)
arrSubCategories(count) = c.Value
count = count + 1
End If
Next
End With
getSubCategories = arrSubCategories
End Function
you may find useful to have a Range returned with subcategories cells found:
Function SelectBold(Page As String, colIndex As String) As Range
With Worksheets(Page)
With .Range(colIndex & "1", .Cells(.Rows.Count, colIndex).End(xlUp)).Offset(, .UsedRange.Columns.Count)
.FormulaR1C1 = "=if(isbold(RC[-1]),"""",1)"
.Value = .Value
If WorksheetFunction.CountA(.Cells) < .Rows.Count Then Set SelectBold = Intersect(.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeBlanks).EntireRow, .Parent.Columns(1))
.Clear
End With
End With
End Function
Function IsBold(rCell As Range)
IsBold = rCell.Font.Bold
End Function
to be possibly exploited as follows:
Option Explicit
Sub main()
Dim subCategoriesRng As Range, cell As Range
Set subCategoriesRng = SelectBold(Worksheets("bolds").Name, "A") '<--| pass worksheet name and column to search in
If Not subCategoriesRng Is Nothing Then
For Each cell In subCategoriesRng '<--| loop through subcategories cells
'... code
Next cell
End If
End Sub
I would like my Macro to launch whenever a value in a cell containing a formula changes.
i.e. the user is modifying another cell thus changing the value of the cell in question.
I have noticed that using the statement (found herein), only works if the user modifies the cell itself but not if the cell changes automatically - due to a formula as specified above.
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
If Not Intersect(Target, Range("A20")) Is Nothing Then ...
Any thoughts??
I tried to follow the answers from this question "automatically execute an Excel macro on a cell change" but it did not work...
Thanks in advance :)
A possible work-around comes from the fact that, to change a value, the user needs to change the selection first. So I would:
1) Declare a global variable called "oldValue" on top of the WS source code module:
Dim oldValue As Variant
2) Register the old value of your formula before the user types anything (let's say it's in Range("A4"), I let you adapt with the others):
Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
oldValue = Range("A4")
End Sub
3) Check if the change has affected the formula in the Change event:
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
If Range("A4") <> oldValue Then
MsgBox "User action has affected your formula"
End If
End Sub
I've tested with a simple sum, I'm able to write cells that are not involved without any prompt but if I touch one of the cells involved in the sum the MsgBox will show up. I let you adapt for multiple cases, for user adding/removing rows (in that case I suggest to name the ranges containing the formulas you want to track) and the worksheet references.
EDIT I'd like to do it at once, not by going through 2 processes, is it possible? The problem is my macro involves a range containing more than one cell so it will be hard to store old values for 10 cells.
If ranges are next to each other, then instead of using a variable you can use a collection:
Dim oldValues As New Collection
Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
For j = 1 To 10
oldValues.Add Range("A" & j).Value
Next j
End Sub
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
For j = 1 To 10
If Range("A" & j).Value <> oldValues(j) Then
MsgBox "The value of Range(A" & j & ") has changed"
End If
Next j
End Sub
Of course, if ranges are not close to each other, you can just store them anyway in the SelectionChange event like this:
oldValues.Add Range("A1").Value
oldValues.Add Range("B7").Value
'...
and if you done this ONCE, with 10 ranges only, it should be a reasonable solution to your problem.
You said, "I would like my Macro to launch whenever a value in a cell containing a formula changes..."
If having your code run whenever a cell containing a formula is recalculated (which is not exactly what you asked for), one solution might be to create a VBA function that simply returns that value passed to it, plus does whatever else you want to do when the formula is recalculated...
Public Function Hook(ByVal vValue As Variant) As Variant
Hook = vValue
' Add your code here...
End Function
...then "wrap" your formula in a call to this function. For example, if the formula you are interested in is =A1+1, you would change this to =Hook(A1+1), and the Hook function would be called whenever A1+1 is recalculated (for example, when the value in A1 changes). However, it is possible that recalculating A1+1 will yield the same result and still call the Hook function (for example, if the user re-enters the same value in A1).
You can have a go at this:
First, in a Module Code declare a Public Variable.
Public r As Range, myVal '<~~ Place it in Module
Second, initialize your variables in Workbook_Open event.
Private Sub Workbook_Open()
Set r = Sheet1.Range("C2:C3") '<~~ Change to your actual sheet and range
myVal = Application.Transpose(r)
End Sub
Finally, set up your Worksheet_Calculate event.
Private Sub Worksheet_Calculate()
On Error GoTo halt
With Application
.EnableEvents = False
If Join(myVal) <> Join(.Transpose(r)) Then
MsgBox "Something changed in your range"
'~~> You put your cool stuff here
End If
myVal = .Transpose(r)
forward:
.EnableEvents = True
End With
Exit Sub
halt:
MsgBox "Error " & Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description
Resume forward
End Sub
Above will trigger the event when values in C2:C3 changes.
Not really very neat but works in detecting changes in your target range. HTH.
Declaring a module -level variable like Matteo describes is definitely one good way to go.
Brian 's answer is on the right track with regards to keeping all is the code in the same place, but it's missing one critical part : Application.Caller
When used in function that is called by a single cell, Application.Caller will return the Range object of that cell. This way you can store the old value within the function itself when it is called, then once you're done with calculating the new value you can compare it with the old and run more code as required.
Edit: The advantage with Application.Caller is that the solution scales in and of itself, and does not change no matter how the target cells are arranged (I.e. Continuous or not).
For a given cell, I select Data/Validation and set Allow to "List". I now wish to set Source like so:
=rNames(REGS)
but that does not work (name not found). So I go Insert/Name/Define and create "REGNAMES" by simply assigning the formula above (no cell range). I then return to the Data/Validation and when I set Source like so:
=REGNAMES
Now I get "Source currently evaluates to error". Unfortunately, this error does not go away even after I ignore it. I can create a range formula in the sheet like so:
{=REGNAMES}
and drag this to the right across a couple cells and the rNames function faithfully returns
Option #1 | Options #2 | ...
That is, the function returns a range as intended.
I know that I can use macro code to manipulate the List setting for that cell out of VBA. I don't like these side-effects much. I would prefer a clean dependency tree built on functions. Any ideas how to get the Data/Validation to accept the array values returned from rNames?
Thanks.
PS: rNames returns the result range as a Variant, if that has any bearing.
I think the problem is that data validation dialog only accepts the following "lists":
an actual list of things entered directly into the Source field
a literal range reference (like $Q$42:$Q$50)
a named formula that itself resolves to a range reference
That last one is key - there is no way to have a VBA function just return an array that can be used for validation, even if you call it from a named formula.
You can write a VBA function that returns a range reference, though, and call that from a named formula. This can be useful as part of the following technique that approximates the ability to do what you actually want.
First, have an actual range somewhere that calls your arbitrary-array-returning VBA UDF. Say you had this function:
Public Function validationList(someArg, someOtherArg)
'Pretend this got calculated somehow based on the above args...
validationList = Array("a", "b", "c")
End Function
And you called it from $Q$42:$Q$50 as an array formula. You'd get three cells with "a", "b", and "c" in them, and the rest of the cells would have #N/A errors because the returned array was smaller than the range that called the UDF. So far so good.
Now, have another VBA UDF that returns just the "occupied" part of a range, ignoring the #N/A error cells:
Public Function extractSeq(rng As Range)
'On Error GoTo EH stuff omitted...
'Also omitting validation - is range only one row or column, etc.
Dim posLast As Long
For posLast = rng.Count To 1 Step -1
If Not IsError(rng(posLast)) Then
Exit For
End If
If rng(posLast) <> CVErr(xlErrNA) Then
Exit For
End If
Next posLast
If posLast < 1 Then
extractSeq = CVErr(xlErrRef)
Else
Set extractSeq = Range(rng(1), rng(posLast))
End If
End Function
You can then call this from a named formula like so:
=extractSeq($Q$42:$Q$50)
and the named formula will return a range reference that Excel will accept an allowable validation list. Clunky, but side-effect free!
Note the use of the keyword 'Set' in the above code. It's not clear from your question, but this might be the only part of this whole answer that matters to you. If you don't use 'Set' when trying to return a range reference, VBA will instead return the value of the range, which can't be used as a validation list.
I was just doing some research on accessing the contents of a Shapes dropdown control, and discovered another approach to solving this problem that you might find helpful.
Any range that can have a validation rule applied can have that rule applied programmatically. Thus, if you want to apply a rule to cell A1, you can do this:
ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Validation.Add xlValidateList, , , "use, this, list"
The above adds an in-cell dropdown validation that contains the items "use," "this," and "list." If you override the Worksheet_SelectionChange() event, and check for specific ranges within it, you can call any number of routines to create/delete validation rules. The beauty of this method is that the list referred to can be any list that can be created in VBA. I needed a dynamically-generated list of an ever-changing subset of the worksheets in a workbook, which I then concatenated together to create the validation list.
In the Worksheet_SelectionChange() event, I check for the range and then if it matches, fire the validation rule sub, thus:
Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target as Range)
If Target.Address = "$A$1" Then
UpdateValidation
End If
End Sub
The validation list-builder code in UpdateValidation() does this:
Public Sub UpdateValidation()
Dim sList as String
Dim oSheet as Worksheet
For Each oSheet in Worksheets
sList = sList & oSheet.Name & ","
Next
sList = left(sList, len(sList) -1) ' Trim off the trailing comma
ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Validation.Delete
ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Validation.Add xlValidateList, , , sList
End Sub
And now, when the user clicks the dropdown arrow, he/she will be presented with the updated validation list.
Sounds like your rNames function is probably returning a 1-dimensional array (which will be treated as a row).
Try making your function return a column as a 1-based 2-dimensional array (Ansa(1,1) then Ansa(2,1) etc)
Couln't you rather use dynamic range names ? That's quite easy and does not require any vba.
For the future:
Following is then used in a named range and the named range set as the 'Data Validation' 'List' value
Function uniqueList(R_NonUnique As Range) As Variant
Dim R_TempList As Range
Dim V_Iterator As Variant
Dim C_UniqueItems As New Collection
On Error Resume Next
For Each V_Iterator In R_NonUnique
C_UniqueItems.Add "'" & V_Iterator.Parent.Name & "'!" & V_Iterator.Address, CStr(V_Iterator.Value2)
Next V_Iterator
On Error GoTo 0
For Each V_Iterator In C_UniqueItems
If R_TempList Is Nothing Then
Set R_TempList = Range(V_Iterator)
End If
Set R_TempList = Union(R_TempList, Range(V_Iterator))
Next V_Iterator
Set uniqueList = R_TempList
End Function
#user5149293 I higly appreciate your code, but I recommend to prevent the collection from throwing an error, when adding duplicate values. The usage of a custom formula in the data validation list or in Name-Manager-Formula prevents the code from using the vbe debugger, which makes it very hard to trace back errors here (I ran into this problem myself, when using your code).
I recommend to check the existence of key in the collection with a separate function:
Function uniqueList(R_NonUnique As Range) As Variant
'Returns unique list as Array
Dim R_TempList As Range
Dim V_Iterator As Variant
Dim C_UniqueItems As New Collection
For Each V_Iterator In R_NonUnique
'Check if key already exists in the Collection
If Not HasKey(C_UniqueItems, V_Iterator.Value2) Then
C_UniqueItems.Add Item:="'" & V_Iterator.Parent.Name & "'!" & V_Iterator.Address, Key:=CStr(V_Iterator.Value2)
End If
Next V_Iterator
For Each V_Iterator In C_UniqueItems
If R_TempList Is Nothing Then
Set R_TempList = Range(V_Iterator)
End If
Set R_TempList = Union(R_TempList, Range(V_Iterator))
Next V_Iterator
Set uniqueList = R_TempList
End Function
Function HasKey(coll As Collection, strKey As String) As Boolean
'https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38007844/generic-way-to-check-if-a-key-is-in-a-collection-in-excel-vba
Dim var As Variant
On Error Resume Next
var = coll(strKey)
HasKey = (Err.Number = 0)
Err.Clear
End Function