Why do Excel sheets have to be activated before selection? - vba

Question

This code
Sheets(1).Activate
Sheets(2).Range("A1").Select
will fail in VBA because you can only use Select on an object which is Active. I understand this is the case.
What element of the Excel datamodel causes this to be the case? I would think there is an implicit intent from a user/coder to Activate any object immediately prior to using Select - I do not understand why VBA would not make this assumption, and, I am assuming there is a reason this distinction exists.
What part of Excel's datamodel prevents selection without activation?

Answer 1

As brettdj pointed out, you do not have to activate the sheet in order to select a range. Here's a reference with a surprisingly large amount of examples for selecting cells/ranges.
Now as for the why do I have to active the sheet first? I do not believe it is a fault of the datamodel, but simply a limitation of the select method for Ranges.
From experimentation, it looks like there are two requirements to select a range in Excel.
Excel must be able to update the UI to indicate what is selected.
The ranges parent (I.E. the sheet) must be active.
To support this claim, you also cannot select a cell from a hidden sheet.
Sheets(1).Visible = False
Sheets(1).Activate
'The next line fails because the Range cannot be selected.
Sheets(1).Range("A1").Select
Simply put, when it comes to Ranges, you cannot select one you cannot see.
I would have claimed this is a limitation of select all together, except that you can actually select an object in a hidden sheet. Silly Excel.

Answer 2

I know that this is a bit late to the party, but I discovered a hack to do this...
Try this code:
Sheets(1).Activate
Sheets(2).Range("A1").Copy
Sheets(2).Range("A1").PasteSpecial xlPasteFormulas
Application.CutCopyMode = False
Note that it is a hack, but it does the trick!!

Answer 3

#Daniel Cook: thanks for your response, but unfortunately Excel itself doesn't play by the same rules imposed on Excel Macros...
To illustrate, I'll briefly present my current problem...
I'm attempting to re-set a table's contents to a common state. This method will be applied to multiple tables across various sheets:
Public Sub restoreTable()
Dim myTableSheet As Worksheet: Set myTableSheet = Range("Table1").Parent
Dim myTable As ListObject: Set myTable = myTableSheet.ListObjects("Table1")
' --- Clear Table's Filter(s)
If myTable.ShowAutoFilter Then ' table has auto-filters enabled
Call myTable.Range.AutoFilter ' disables autofilter
End If
myTable.Range.AutoFilter ' re-apply autofilter
' --- Sort by Sequence number
Call myTable.Sort.SortFields.Clear ' if not cleared, sorting will not take effect
myTable.Sort. _
SortFields.Add Key:=Range("Table1[[#Headers],[#Data],[Column1]]"), _
SortOn:=xlSortOnValues, Order:=xlAscending, DataOption:=xlSortNormal
myTable.Sort.Header = xlYes
myTable.Sort.Orientation = xlTopToBottom
myTable.Sort.SortMethod = xlPinYin
Call myTable.Sort.Apply
myTable.Sort.SortFields.Clear
End Sub
For each use-case below, Table1 is found in Sheet1
Use-Case 1:
Activate Sheet1, select range A1
Run restoreTable
observe: range Sheet1 A1 remains selected
Use-Case 2:
Activate Sheet1, select range A1
Activate Sheet2
Run restoreTable
observe: range Sheet1 A1 is not selected, instead the range Table1[#Data] is selected
Solution
It's absolutely terrible, but this is the best solution I could find
Public Sub resotreTable_preserveSelection()
Dim curSheet As Worksheet: Set curSheet = ActiveSheet
Dim tableSheet As Worksheet: Set tableSheet = Range("Table1").Parent
' Change Sheet
tableSheet.Activate
' Remember Selection / Active Ranges
Dim originalSelection As Range: Set originalSelection = Selection
Dim originalActiveCell As Range: Set originalActiveCell = ActiveCell
' Restore Table
Call restoreTable
' Restore Old Selection
originalSelection.Select
originalActiveCell.Activate
' Change Back to old sheet
curSheet.Activate
End Sub
Note: in this case, the original* ranges are not necessary, but you get the point: you can buffer the original selection and restore it when you're finished
I really don't like excel

Answer 4

Of course you don't have to select or activate the sheet to select/activate the cell. My way is to use "On Error Resume Next" and "On Error GoTo 0". Code below selects first cell in every worksheet of a workbook without selecting it. The worksheets are even very hidden on this stage.
On Error Resume Next
For i_wks = 1 To wb_macro.Worksheets.Count
wb_macro.Worksheets(i_wks).Cells(1).Select
Next i_wks
On Error GoTo 0