Macro - delete rows based on date - vba

Question

I am very new to VBA and macros in Excel. I have a very large excel spreadsheet in which column A holds dates. I am trying to delete the rows which have a value smaller than a certain date and this is what I have come up with till now..
Sub DELETEDATE()
Dim x As Long
For x = 1 To Cells.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeLastCell).Row
Debug.Print Cells(x, "A").Value
If CDate(Cells(x, "A")) < CDate("01/01/2013") Then
Cells(i, "A").EntireRow.Delete
End If
Next x
Next i
End Sub
I am receiving a Next without For error... can somebody help please?

Answer 1

This lends itself well to using the .AutoFilter property of a Range. The script below contains a comment for each step taken:
Option Explicit
Sub DeleteDateWithAutoFilter()
Dim MySheet As Worksheet, MyRange As Range
Dim LastRow As Long, LastCol As Long
'turn off alerts
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
'set references up-front
Set MySheet = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1")
'identify the last row in column A and the last col in row 1
'then assign a range to contain the full data "block"
With MySheet
LastRow = .Range("A" & .Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
LastCol = .Range("A" & .Columns.Count).End(xlToLeft).Column
Set MyRange = .Range(.Cells(1, 1), .Cells(LastRow, LastCol))
End With
'apply autofilter to the range showing only dates
'older than january 1st, 2013, then deleting
'all the visible rows except the header
With MyRange
.AutoFilter Field:=1, Criteria1:="<1/1/2013"
.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible).Offset(1, 0).Resize(.Rows.Count).Rows.Delete
End With
'turn off autofilter safely
With MySheet
.AutoFilterMode = False
If .FilterMode = True Then
.ShowAllData
End If
End With
'turn alerts back on
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
End Sub
Running this code on a simple example (on "Sheet1" in this picture) that looks like this:
Will delete all rows with a date older than 1/1/2013, giving you this result:

Answer 2

To answer your question
I am receiving a Next without For error
The problem is you are trying to loop on i but you haven't opened a For i loop. When you indent the code below any code that invokes a Loop or condition (i.e. If) it becomes obvious
Sub DELETEDATE()
Dim x As Long
For x = 1 To Cells.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeLastCell).Row
Debug.Print Cells(x, "A").Value
If CDate(Cells(x, "A")) < CDate("01/01/2013") Then
Cells(i, "A").EntireRow.Delete 'i has no value so Cells(0, "A") is ??
End If
Next x
Next i 'where is the For i = ... in this code?
End Sub
When writing code I try to:
Enter the end command immediately if it's needed. So type If...Then, hit [ENTER], type End If, hit [HOME], hit [ENTER], hit [UP ARROW] then [TAB] to the right place to write the conditional code so that anyone will be able to read and understand it easily.
Always use Option Explicit at the top of every module to force variable declarations.
a tip about deleting rows based on a condition
If you start at the top and work down, every time you delete a row your counter will effectively move to the cell two rows below the row you deleted because the row immediately below the deleted row moves up (i.e. it is not tested at all).
The most efficient way is to loop up from the bottom or your rows:
Sub DELETEDATE()
Dim x As Long
For x = [a1].SpecialCells(xlCellTypeLastCell).Row To 1 Step -1
Debug.Print Cells(x, "A").Value
If CDate(Cells(x, "A")) < CDate("01/01/2013") Then
Cells(x, "A").EntireRow.Delete 'changed i to x
End If
Next x
End Sub
This way, the next row you want to test has been preserved - you've only moved the row below up by 1 and you've tested that row earlier.

Answer 3

Please try with this
Sub DELETEDATE()
Dim x As Long
last = Range("A65536").End(xlUp).Row
For x = 1 To last
Debug.Print Cells(x, "A").Value
check:
If x <= last Then
If Trim(CDate(Cells(x, "A"))) <= Trim(CDate("7/29/2013")) Then
last = last - 1
Cells(x, "A").EntireRow.Delete
GoTo check
End If
End If
Next x
End Sub

Answer 4

You have an additional Next i for some reason in your code as highlighted by the debugger. Try the below:
Sub DELETEDATE()
Dim x As Long
For x = 1 To Cells.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeLastCell).Row
Debug.Print Cells(x, "A").Value
If CDate(Cells(x, "A")) < CDate("01/01/2013") Then
Cells(i, "A").EntireRow.Delete
End If
Next x
End Sub