Populating a dropdown box with already-existing options in VBA? - vba

Question

I'm making an add records form for a spreadsheet of mine, and let's say that I want one of the controls to be a dropdown that is populated by unique entries under a certain column "type". However, I want to also make it such that the dropbox always has a initial option to "add new type" and upon such selection, it becomes a regular text box. How would I do this in VBA?

Answer 1

You cannot change a control type at run time. The easiest thing to do is create a combo box and a text box. Set the text box visibility to false. Then in the onchange event of the combo box your code will unhide the text box and hide the combo box. You will also need a save button so that when it is clicked it will add the option to the drop down, clear the text box, hide the text box, hide the button and unhide the drop down.

Answer 2

Okay, so here's my idea of how to tackle this.
Create 2 hidden elements (Visibility = False), one a TextBox and one a CommandButton.
Populate your ComboBox with the values from the sheet under column "type"
Add one more entry AddItem with wording such as "Add new item..."
When the user selects "Add new item...", change the Visibility of the TextBox & CommandButtons to True
When the user clicks the CommandButton, add the phrase to the column and add a new element to the ComboBox
I have created a mockup UserForm and code that does a little more than just this; it also styles the user entry to sentence case (consistency purposes) and checks to make sure the value isn't already in the column.
Excel Sheet with "type" column
UserForm with name labels
UserForm Code
Private Sub bAdd_Click()
Dim str As String
Dim rng As Range
Dim ro As Integer
'Makes sure there is an entry, adds it to the Sheet and then updates the dropdown
If Len(Me.tbNew) > 0 Then
'Converts user entry to "Sentance Case" for better readability
str = StrConv(Me.tbNew, vbProperCase)
'Finds out if the entry already exists
Set rng = Sheets(1).Range(Sheets(1).Cells(2, 1), Sheets(1).Cells(Sheets(1).Cells(Sheets(1).Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row, 1))
On Error Resume Next
Err.Number = 0
'Searches for duplicate; if found, then ListIndex of cbColor is modified without inserting new value (prevents duplicates)
ro = rng.Find(str, LookIn:=xlValues, LookAt:=xlWhole).Row
Debug.Print Err.Number
'Ensures a user doesn't add the same value twice
If Err.Number > 0 Then
Sheets(1).Cells(Sheets(1).Cells(Sheets(1).Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row + 1, 1) = str
Me.cbColor.AddItem StrConv(Me.tbNew, vbProperCase), Me.cbColor.ListCount - 1
Me.cbColor.ListIndex = Me.cbColor.ListCount - 2
Else
Me.cbColor.ListIndex = ro - 2
End If
'Resets and hides user form entries
Me.tbNew = vbNullString
Me.tbNew.Visible = False
Me.bAdd.Visible = False
End If
End Sub
Private Sub bClose_Click()
Unload Me
End Sub
Private Sub cbColor_Change()
'Visibility is toggled based on if the user selected the last element in the dropdown
Me.bAdd.Visible = Me.cbColor.ListIndex = Me.cbColor.ListCount - 1
Me.tbNew.Visible = Me.cbColor.ListIndex = Me.cbColor.ListCount - 1
End Sub
Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
'Populate from the sheet
For a = 2 To Sheets(1).Cells(Cells(Sheets(1).Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row, 1).Row
Me.cbColor.AddItem Sheets(1).Cells(a, 1)
Next
'Add option for new type
Me.cbColor.AddItem "Add new type..."
End Sub