Why UserForm is "Not Responding" During Run Time in VBA Excel? - vba

Question

I'm very new with VBA Excel and i only know the things as far as i need for this report formatting task.
I'm almost done with my task but when i run the program and start the progress, eventhough it works successfully, GUI is not responding for a minute. I share my code here, is something wrong with it? Can you suggest me any best-practice? I don't want it to freeze because it will look bad to my manager.
Just to make it clear, by "not responding" i mean it freezes on the screen and says "Not Responding" on it's windows frame and when i click on it, it gives a message like this:
*ps: the sheet that i get records has 20997 rows and 7 columns and i make some records to another sheet on same file sized and 20997 lines 23 columns. And my GUI is very simple, it has nothing but a CommandButton that starts the progress.
How can i fix this?

Answer 1

You can prevent the freezing of excel window by putting
DoEvents
inside your loop.

Answer 2

This happens because your procedure is very busy working. For example your Sub TheLoop() is accessing 20995 x 16 times a cell to write on them a string. The interaction VBA with Excel is slow.
There is a couple of things you can do to make the procedure faster.
1.Disable events handlers, screen updating and calculations before you run your procedure. At the end of the procedure restore the settings again.
'Disable'
Application.EnableEvents = False
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
'...... Code'
'Enable'
Application.EnableEvents = True
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
2.You can optimize the Sub TheLoop. Instead of writing immediately on the cells, write the values inside an array. After the array is full with the values, assign the values of the array to the range that you need.
for example:
Dim ResultValues() As String
Dim j As Long
ReDim ResultValues(2 To 20997, 1 To 3)
For j = 2 To 20997
ResultValues(j, 1) = "New Defect"
ResultValues(j, 2) = "3"
ResultValues(j, 3) = "2"
Next j
With ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("myWorksheet")
.Range(.Cells(2, 3), .Cells(20997, 5)) = ResultValues
End With
EDIT:
Given that the columns between the ones that you modify are only text or empty cells, you can:
read the whole range into an array.
Then modify the array in the same way you are currently modifying cells.
After the modifications are done, dump the whole matrix in the range again.'
For example:
Sub TheLoop()
Dim arrRangeValues() as Variant
Dim j as Long
arrRangeValues= Range("A2:V20997").Value2
For j = 2 To 20997
arrRangeValues(j, 1) = "Defect" 'Cells(row_index , column_index)'
arrRangeValues(j, 3) = "New Defect"
arrRangeValues(j, 4) = "3" ' this one also might be empty'
arrRangeValues(j, 5) = "2" ' this one also might be empty'
arrRangeValues(j, 7) = "Name Surname"
arrRangeValues(j, 8) = arrRangeValues(j, 7)
arrRangeValues(j, 16) = arrRangeValues(j, 7)
...
arrRangeValues(j, 10) = " http://SERVER_NAME:8888/PROJECT_NAME/ "
Next j
Range("A2:V20997").Value2 = arrRangeValues
End Sub

Answer 3

Alright, i believe i found the best solution for this. (a) :)
Instead of using for loop in TheLoop subroutine, i removed the loop and changed it as in below. That makes it incredibly faster when i compare it with my first code eventhough i didn't disable event properties, and now it's not freezing.
Sub TheLoop()
Cells(2, 1).Resize(20996) = "Defect"
Cells(2, 3).Resize(20996) = "New Defect"
Cells(2, 4).Resize(20996) = "3"
Cells(2, 5).Resize(20996) = "2"
Cells(2, 7).Resize(20996) = "Name Surname"
Cells(2, 8).Resize(20996) = "Name Surname"
Cells(2, 9).Resize(20996) = "FALSE"
Cells(2, 10).Resize(20996) = " http://SERVER_NAME:8888/PROJECT_NAME/ "
Cells(2, 12).Resize(20996) = "Software Quality"
Cells(2, 13).Resize(20996) = "Unsigned"
Cells(2, 14).Resize(20996) = "Software Quality"
Cells(2, 15).Resize(20996) = "1"
Cells(2, 16).Resize(20996) = "Name Surname"
Cells(2, 18).Resize(20996) = "Software Quality"
Cells(2, 20).Resize(20996) = "Development"
Cells(2, 22).Resize(20996) = " TYPE YOUR MODULE'S NAME TO HERE"
End Sub

Answer 4

I been tried with the Application.ScreenUpdating, Application.EnableEvents, Application.Calculation, DoEvents and Application.Wait (Now + TimeValue("0:00:10")), and unfortunately the lasted options can not to resolve that problem, looking at the Microsoft WebPage say me if a program say me "Not Responding" is
For Security reasons and
Because is too heavy or complicated
Because the program don´t sent any FeedBack to user about to do.
In my case I tried showing and MsgBox to user with the finality to provide a FeedBack for the Win10 operative system and the customer, but is so boring that the user click yes, yes, yes, yes, ok, ok, ok, ok and viewing on others forums about VBA for MsgBox (automatly close), they suggest me that code CreateObject("WScript.Shell").PopUp "Please Wait", 1 and tada!! I going to stop see the "Not Responding Message", and if the user don´t to press any click or button for disable the message don´t worry the program going to execute after the message close after 1 second in my case this solve me a lot of problems, i hope to help you, good lucky.