Using VBA, I am trying to convert a string such as "/10" into an arithmetic operation, so that if I somehow connect it (depending on how it gets converted) after the number 200, the number 20 would be returned.
Thanks for any help.
What you're looking for is called a Math Parser. Look around for a library that you can use in VBA. If you're working in excel specific stuff - I'm sure excel already has a math parser built in - though I have no idea how you can gain access to it as the programmer. Maybe stick the expression in a cell as a string and call Eval().
EDIT
Microsoft intentionally removed this feature from function calls in excel, however it can be reinstated by creating the following function:
Function Eval(Ref As String)
Application.Volatile
Eval = Evaluate(Ref)
End Function
Then just call Eval("200" & "/10")
EDIT2
As noted in the comments below, modern versions of VBA support
Application.Evaluate("200" & "/10")
the below example provides a way of accomplishing what you are looking for.
Dim s As String
s = "/10"
Dim i As Integer
i = 200
Dim v
v = Evaluate(CStr(i) & s)
MsgBox v
Related
I am attempting to reduce the amount of clutter on my code by creating "shortcuts" if you will
For instance, I always have to type
ThisWorkBook.ActiveSheet.Range
Is there a way for me to define the above to create a less wordy macro? I have tried convert to range and string and the former returns an error (but I could still get intellisense recognize and attempt to autofill) while the string version doesnt work.
Just like in any programming language, you can use variables to store data
For example:
Dim myrange As Range: Set myrange = Sheets("Sheet1").Range("B5")
Alternatively, if you will be working with the same object multiple times, you can use the With keyword
For example. instead of writing you want to work with table every time on every new line you can do
With Sheets("Sheet1").ListObjects("Table1")
.ListRows.Add
.ListColumns(2).Range(3) = "Hello World!"
' ... and so on
End With
Also, please on a sidenote: Avoid using Select/ActiveSheet/ActiveWorkbook and so on!
More info on how to here
You can create functions or customized properties, which are always evaluated when called
Property Get pARng As Range
Set pARng = ThisWorkBook.ActiveSheet.Range
End Property
Function fARng As Range
Set fARng = ThisWorkBook.ActiveSheet.Range
End Function
'Usage
Sub xxx
'...
pARng.Rows(1).Activate
'Same as ThisWorkBook.ActiveSheet.Range.Rows(1).Activate
fARng.Rows(1).Activate
'using function instead achieves same result
End Sub
I have reduced my problem to the following code example. I am using a German Excel version in which separators in normal Excel formulas are semicolons ";" instead of "," (e.g. =SUMME(A1;A3) instead of =SUM(A1,A3)).
Now the code which works different from time to time:
Sub CommasDoNotWorkAnymore()
Dim a()
Dim i%
a = Array("A1,A3,A5", "B1", "B2")
i = 0
Debug.Print Sheets(1).Range(a(i)).Address
End Sub
Normally, when starting Excel, this code works. But sometimes Excel seem to switch the accepted separators used in the Range() to semicolons untill I restart Excel. This occurs most times when rerunning the code after a runtime error.
Is this a general Excel bug? Does anybody know what is behind this behaviour? Is there some Excel-wide "local option" for the Range class?
EDIT: I just tried to convert the a(i) with CStr(a(i) but this does also not work. So no ByRef kind of problem...
If you want to control it, check first what separator is currently in use. What I guess is that you want to know the list separator:
Application.International(xlListSeparator)
Check other separators here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vba/excel-vba/articles/application-international-property-excel
The other time I had a problem with identifying decimal separator in VBA. Finnally I was able to get it in this way:
Function GetVBAdecimalSep()
Dim a(0) As Variant
a(0) = 1 / 2
GetVBAdecimalSep = Mid(a(0), 2, 1)
End Function
Changing separator not always works. Please see this: Changing decimal separator in VBA (not only in Excel)
The best solution is to check/change locale, even temporary.
Application.LanguageSettings.LanguageID(msoLanguageIDUI)
gives the LCID which would be 1033 for English (US)
Edit: The real solution to what I wanted to do can be found on this post here. I just wanted to expose some compiled functions to excel. This proved to be very easy using the Excel DNA nuget package. You just add a class library, add the nuget package, and copy paste the code found in the readme. Click F5 and it launches excel with the add-in already loaded. If you want your functions to be persisted you just need to manually add the add-in to the excel file through the "developer" ribbon section.
Original Post:
I was following the instructions from this microsoft post on how to create an automation add-in. Code compiles fine and I can access the functions from within Excel. However the functions do not work. I almost always get a #value or a #ref error when I try to assign to a cell the result of a function call. To be more specific:
The following function that is provided by Microsoft does not work. It shows me a #value error in the cell where I try to use it. I select using the mouse a random cell range as a parameter for the function.
Public Function NumberOfCells(ByVal range As Object) As Double
Dim r As Excel.Range = TryCast(range, Excel.Range)
Return CDbl(r.get_Cells.get_Count)
End Function
The following function that I created does not work. I get a #ref error. I called it by passing either directly integers ( Add1(1,2) ) or cells that contain numbers.
Public Function Add1(ByVal i1 As Integer, ByVal i2 As Integer) As Integer
return i1+i2
End Function
The following function that I created works(?!?):
Public Function Add1(ByVal i1 As Integer, ByVal i2 As Integer) As Integer
return 222
End Function
I am quite experienced in c# but not at all in vb.net, however for this add-in I need to use vb.net. I suspect that there is something simple that I am missing here but I have no idea what it is. It is also strange that the code provided by Microsoft doesn't work.
Edit: I also copy pasted the function presented here and I get the same #Value error inside excel. I did not follow the tutorial from this post from the beginning but I will during the day.
Edit 2: I figured out that the code from Microsoft doesn't work for some reason whenever you add a number in the function name. If I renamed Add1 on the sample code above to Addqweqew it would work!
MSDN Ref: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/andreww/archive/2008/01/23/managed-automation-add-ins.aspx
It has to do with a locale ID (LCID) issue. This is a known issue when
developing Excel solutions in a mixed culture environment. For more
information, see here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/246501/.
VSTO solves this problem via its LCID Proxy. Although you can only use
this with VSTO solutions, its worth reading the documentation so you
can understand the problem:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.office.tools.excel.excellocale1033proxy.aspx
and
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.office.tools.excel.excellocale1033attribute.aspx.
I got the same problem #Value results, I mucked around a bit and got this working (obviously it could be cleared up - but this code definitely works for me while keeping my PC set to my Australian locale ID. I'm not sure which part of the world you live but I am guessing not the United States as that's the locale where it works by default)
Public Function AddNumbers1(ByVal num1 As Double, _
ByVal num2 As Double) As Double
Dim oldCI As CultureInfo = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture
Dim english As System.Globalization.CultureInfo = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("en-US")
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = english
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = english
Dim valresult As Double = num1 + num2
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = oldCI
Return valresult
End Function
Related question: https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/dafe71c5-d390-44bc-b4d3-b133444a02fe/excel-automation-addin-udf-returns-error-on-different-regional-settings?forum=vsto
I need to automatize a process which execute various (a lot) user-defined function with different input parameters.
I am using the solution of timer API found in I don't want my Excel Add-In to return an array (instead I need a UDF to change other cells) .
My question is the following: "Does anybody can explain to me HOW IT IS WORKING?" If I debug this code in order to understand and change what I need, I simply go crazy.
1) Let say that I am passing to the public function AddTwoNumbers 14 and 45. While inside AddTwoNumber, the Application.Caller and the Application.Caller.Address are chached into a collection (ok, easier than vectors in order not to bother with type). Application.Caller is kind of a structured object where I can find the function called as a string (in this case "my_function"), for example in Application.Caller.Formula.
!!! Nowhere in the collection mCalculatedCells I can find the result 59 stored.
2)Ok, fair enough. Now I pass through the two UDF routines, set the timers, kill the timers.
As soon as I am inside the AfterUDFRoutine2 sub, the mCalculatedCell(1) (the first -- and sole -- item of my collection) has MAGICALLY (??!?!?!!!??) obtained in its Text field exactly the result "59" and apparently the command Set Cell = mCalculatedCells(1) (where on the left I have a Range and on the right I have ... I don't know) is able to put this result "59" into the variable Cell that afterward I can write with the .Offset(0,1) Range property on the cell to the right.
I would like to understand this point because I would like to give MORE task to to inside a single collection or able to wait for the current task to be finished before asking for a new one (otherwise I am over-writing the 59 with the other result). Indeed I read somewhere that all the tasks scheduled with the API setTimer will wait for all the callback to be execute before execute itself (or something like this).
As you can see I am at a loss. Any help would be really really welcomed.
In the following I try to be more specific on what (as a whole)
I am planning to achieved.
To be more specific, I have the function
public function my_function(input1 as string, Field2 as string) as double
/*some code */
end function
I have (let's say) 10 different strings to be given as Field2.
My strategy is as follow:
1)I defined (with a xlw wrapper from a C++ code) the grid of all my input values
2)define as string all the functions "my_function" with the various inputs
3)use the nested API timer as in the link to write my functions IN THE RIGHT CELLS as FORMULAS (not string anymore)
3)use a macro to build the entire worksheet and then retrieve the results.
4)use my xlw wrapper xll to process further my data.
You may wonder WHY should I pass through Excel instead of doing everything in C++. (Sometime I ask myself the same thing...) The prototype my_function that I gave above has inside some Excel Add-In that I need to use and they work only inside Excel.
It is working pretty well IN THE CASE I HAVE ONLY 1 "instance" of my_function to write for the give grid of input. I can even put inside the same worksheet more grids, then use the API trick to write various different my_functions for the different grids and then make a full calculation rebuild of the entire worksheet to obtain the result. It works.
However, as soon as I want to give more tasks inside the same API trick (because for the same grid of input I need more calls to my_function) I am not able to proceed any further.
After Axel Richter's comment I would like to ad some other information
#Axel Richter
Thank you very much for your reply.
Sorry for that, almost surely I wasn't clear with my purposes.
Here I try to sketch an example, I use integer for simplicity and let's say that my_function works pretty much as the SUM function of Excel (even if being an Excel native function I could call SUM directly into VBA but it is for the sake of an example).
If I have these inputs:
input1 = "14.5"
a vector of different values for Field2, for instance (11;0.52;45139)
and then I want to write somewhere my_function (which makes the sum of the two values given as input).
I have to write down in a cell =my_function(14.5;11), in the other =my_function(14.5;0.52) and in a third one =my_function(14.5;45139).
These input changes any time I need to refresh my data, then I cannot use directly a sub (I think) and, in any case, as far as I understand, in writing directly without the trick I linked, I will always obtain strings : something like '=my_function(14.5;0.52). Once evaluated (for example by a full rebuild or going over the written cell and make F2 + return) will give me only the string "=my_function(14.5;0.52)" and not its result.
I tried at the beginning to use an Evaluate method which works well as soon as I write something like 14.5+0.52, but it doesn't work as soon as a function (nor a user-defined function) is used instead.
This is "as far as I can understand". In the case you can enlighten me (and maybe show an easier track to follow), it would be simply GREAT.
So far the comments are correct in that they repeat the simple point that a User-Defined Function called a worksheet can only return a value, and all other actions that might inject values elsewhere into the worksheet calculation tree are forbidden.
That's not the end of the story. You'll notice that there are add-ins, like the Reuters Eikon market data service and Bloomberg for Excel, that provide functions which exist in a single cell but which write blocks of data onto the sheet outside the calling cell.
These functions use the RTD (Real Time Data) API, which is documented on MSDN:
How to create a RTD server for Excel
How to set up and use the RTD function in Excel
You may find this link useful, too:
Excel RTD Servers: Minimal C# Implementation
However, RTD is all about COM servers outside Excel.exe, you have to write them in another language (usually C# or C++), and that isn't the question you asked: you want to do this in VBA.
But I have, at least, made a token effort to give the 'right' answer.
Now for the 'wrong' answer, and actually doing something Microsoft would rather you didn't do. You can't just call a function, call a subroutine or method from the function, and write to the secondary target using the subroutine: Excel will follow the chain and detect that you're injecting values into the sheet calculation, and the write will fail.
You have to insert a break into that chain; and this means using events, or a timer call, or (as in RTD) an external process.
I can suggest two methods that will actually work:
1: Monitor the cell in the Worksheet_Change event:
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
Dim strFunc As String strFunc = "NukeThePrimaryTargets" If Left(Target.Formula, Len(strFunc) + 1) = strFunc Then Call NukeTheSecondaryTargets End If End Sub
Alternatively...
2: Use the Timer callback API:
However, I'm not posting code for that: it's complex, clunky, and it takes a lot of testing (so I'd end up posting untested code on StackOverflow). But it does actually work.
I can give you an example of a tested Timer Callback in VBA:
Using the VBA InputBox for passwords and hiding the user's keyboard input with asterisks.
But this is for an unrelated task. Feel free to adapt it if you wish.
Edited with following requirements: It is necessary to run a user defined worksheet function, because there are addins called in this function and those work only within a Excel sheet. The function has to run multiple times with different parameters and its results have to be gotten from the sheet.
So this is my solution now:
Public Function my_function(input1 As Double, input2 As Double) As Double
my_function = input1 + input2
End Function
Private Function getMy_Function_Results(input1 As Double, input2() As Double) As Variant
Dim results() As Double
'set the Formulas
With Worksheets(1)
For i = LBound(input2) To UBound(input2)
strFormula = "=my_function(" & Str(input1) & ", " & Str(input2(i)) & ")"
.Cells(1, i + 1).Formula = strFormula
Next
'get the Results
.Calculate
For i = LBound(input2) To UBound(input2)
ReDim Preserve results(i)
results(i) = .Cells(1, i + 1).Value
Next
End With
getMy_Function_Results = results
End Function
Sub test()
Dim dFieldInput2() As Double
Dim dInput1 As Double
dInput1 = Val(InputBox("Value for input1"))
dInput = 0
iIter = 0
Do
dInput = InputBox("Values for fieldInput2; 0=END")
If Val(dInput) <> 0 Then
ReDim Preserve dFieldInput2(iIter)
dFieldInput2(iIter) = Val(dInput)
iIter = iIter + 1
End If
Loop While dInput <> 0
On Error GoTo noFieldInput2
i = UBound(dFieldInput2)
On Error GoTo 0
vResults = getMy_Function_Results(dInput1, dFieldInput2)
For i = LBound(vResults) To UBound(vResults)
MsgBox vResults(i)
Next
noFieldInput2:
End Sub
The user can input first a value input1 and then input multiple fieldInput2 until he inputs the value 0. Then the results will be calculated and presented.
Greetings
Axel
I am trying to reduce the time taken to generate the reports for an application. We generate the reports in Excel. We found that some calculation are much faster in Excel using formula than programmatically doing it in VB.net
So basically I need to use the following formula(Time difference) in VB.net code. but it is giving me an error.
=IF(F2>E2, F2-E2, ("24:00:00"-E2)+F2)
What I tried
Dim f As String = "=if(RC[-1]>RC[-2], RC[-1]-RC[-2], (" & "24:00:00" & "-RC[-2])+RC[-1]"
wbXl.Sheets("time diff", 7).FormulaR1C1 = f
wbXl.Sheets("time diff").Cells(2, 7).FormulaR1C1 = """"=if(RC[-1]>RC[-2], RC[-1]-RC[-2], ("24:00:00" & "-RC[-2])+RC[-1]""""
and few other combination but nothing seems to be working.
Any pointers or help would be really helpful.
Where do I start…
Dim f As String = "=if(RC[-1]>RC[-2], RC[-1]-RC[-2], (" & "24:00:00" & "-RC[-2])+RC[-1]"
That is not a valid syntax in Excel (you can’t assign the value at the time you Dim it… get .net if you want to do that!)
What is up with the “24:00:00” in quotes? Why not just subtract 1?
And all the quotes… it should be:
Cells(2, 7).FormulaR1C1 = "=if(RC[-1]>RC[-2], RC[-1]-RC[-2], (""24:00:00""-RC[-2])+RC[-1])"
Or better:
Cells(2, 7).FormulaR1C1 = "=if(RC[-1]>RC[-2], RC[-1]-RC[-2], (1-RC[-2])+RC[-1])"
I’m also assuming you're using RC notation because you're going to do dynamic entry. Otherwise, just use the cell IDs (easier to maintain). Re-reading, it’s in .net calling Excel (what I’m gathering). Otherwise, I’d say the sheet syntax should be different. (and most people prefer Range to Cell. Cell(2,7) is harder to read than Range("$G$2"). )
And here’s how I’d write the formula:
=B8+(B8<A8)-A8
(or in RC: =RC[-1]+(RC[-1]<RC[-2])-RC[-2])
Removes some of the redundancy of the original:
=IF(B6>A6,B6-A6,("24:00:00"-A6)+B6)