Method Select of Object '_Worksheet' failed - why? - vba

Set mainWB = Workbooks("Copy Paste.xlsb")
Set mainWS = mainWB.Sheets("Sheet1")
Set testWS = mainWB.Sheets("Sheet3")
mainWS.Select
I keep getting an error on the last line in Excel VBA:
"Method Select of Object '_Worksheet' failed"
Any idea why or how to fix this? Thank you!

As discussed in comments, cannot select Sheets in VBA that are not active (or Range objects on them).
For example the following code
Sheets(1).Activate
Sheets(2).Range("A1").Select
will cause the error you are receiving.
In your case, it seems you are attempting to Select a sheet which is not active - your mainWS object is presumably not the ActiveSheet at the point you are calling this code. An easy way to test if this is happening is if you add the following to the end of your code:
if (ActiveSheet.Name <> mainWS.Name) then
msgbox ("Going to crash after clicking ok!")
end if
mainWS.Select
Note that you can refer to the activated worksheet with the command ActiveSheet to either get properties or whatever other operations you are interested in doing.
This error can also happen if you have loop working thru all of the worksheets in the workbook and there are hidden sheets. Lookout for that.
Last, and unrelated to your specific error message, I assume you are declaring those variables somewhere and simply did not copy them here - if not I would consider using Option Explicit as you can often run into all sorts of issues without having Option Explicit at the top of your VBA code.

While I agree with the above, it is also important to note that the Delete function will not work if the worksheet's visibility is currently set to xlSheetVeryHidden

I had the same issue and looked at this post for ideas on how to fix it. My issue was resolved by using "Activate" as opposed to "Select" on the line that my code was failing on. So instead of using "mainWS.Select", try using "mainWS.Activate" instead.

Related

vba excel sheets.range.value Error

So, sometimes when I try to execute this command, it gives me an error. The problem is that it is very inconsistent. In certain cases, it works and in others, it just doesn't.
This is the line from getCellVal function. cellName is a string and s is an integer.
getCellVal = Sheets(s).Range(cellName).Value
This time it is giving me:
Run-time error '438':
Object doesn't support this property or method
This line actually worked without problems moments ago. I added some other functions that use it and now it's not working anymore.
Any ideas about why?
Unqualified calls into the Sheets collection implicitly refer to whatever workbook is currently active, and it's important to know that the collection contains Worksheet objects, ...but also Chart objects.
Since you mean to work with a Worksheet, use the Worksheets collection instead.
If you're not getting an "index out of bounds" error, then the sheet you asked for does exist. But error 438 points to that sheet not being a Worksheet (and thus not having a Range member).
I bet the active workbook has a chart sheet at index s.
The solution is simply to be explicit.
If you mean to work with the workbook that contains the code that's running, qualify Workbook member calls with ThisWorkbook:
getCellVal = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(s).Range(cellName).Value
If you mean to work with a workbook, then you need to get ahold of the Workbook object when you open it:
Dim wb As Workbook
Set wb = Application.Workbooks.Open(path)
'...
getCellVal = wb.Worksheets(s).Range(cellName).Value

Error 91 when using Cells.Find with window hidden

Please read this fully and understand that this program was working fine until I changed the way I was hiding the workbook.
I have a program that worked great while I was using Application.Visible = False and only showing the user form. I came to realize that this would hide all Excel windows and not just the one I was using. This is going to be distributed throughout the department and hiding all Excel windows was unacceptable.
I started using ActiveWindow.Visible = False, but I am now getting Error 91 anytime I search a worksheet for a value (Cells.Find).
Modifying the worksheet is not an option and the value for which I'm searching can move around the sheet depending on what has been added or removed.
Cells.Find worked out great for this reason. I need to either find another way to search the page, or find another way to hide the worksheet. Please help
When the window is not visible, the Cells reference is not qualified to a worksheet object (unless qualified, Cells refers to ActiveSheet.Cells and there is no ActiveSheet), so you can do like:
Sheets("sheetname").Cells.Find ' modifying "sheetname" as needed
This may also fail (with the same error), or it could also yield incorrect results if there are other open workbooks, so it's best to qualify to a workbook fully, e.g.:
Workbooks("workbookname").Sheets("sheetname").Cells.Find(...
It is still a good idea to test the result of Find before performing additional method/property calls against an object which could be Nothing, as per this answer:
Find command giving error: "Run-time Error '91': Object variable or With block variable not set"

Run time error '1004' Unable to get the Match propertyof the WorksheetFunction class

In my macro, I have the following code :
i = Application.WorksheetFunction.Match(str_accrual, Range(Selection, Selection.End(xlToRight)), 0)
where 'str_accrual' is a string captured earlier to this line and the Range selected is in a single row say from "A1" to "BH1" and the result will be a number which is the position of that string in that range selected.
When I run the macro, I get the error:
Run time error '1004' Unable to get the Match propertyof the WorksheetFunction class
But when I run the macro line by line using (F8) key, I don't get this error but when I run the macro continuously I get the error. Again, if the abort the macro and run it again the error doesn't appear.
I tried several times. It seems that if there is no match, the expression will prompt this error
if you want to catch the error, use Application.Match instead
Then you can wrap it with isError
tons of posts on this error but no solution as far as I read the posts. It seems that for various worksheet functions to work, the worksheet must be active/visible. (That's at least my latest finding after my Match() was working randomly for spurious reasons.)
I hoped the mystery was solved, though activating worksheets for this kind of lookup action was a pain and costs a few CPU cycles.
So I played around with syntax variations and it turned out that the code started to work after I removed the underscore line breaks, regardless of the worksheet being displayed. <- well, for some reason I still had to activate the worksheet :-(
'does not work
'Set oCllHeader = ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets("Auswertung").Cells(oCllSpielID.Row, _
Application.Match( _
strValue, _
ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets("Auswertung").Range( _
oCllSpielID, _
ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets("Auswertung").Cells(oCllSpielID.Row, lastUsedCellInRow(oCllSpielID).Column)), _
0))
'does work (removed the line breaks with underscore for readibility) <- this syntax stopped working later, no way around activating the worksheet :-(
Set oCllHeader = ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets("Auswertung").Cells(oCllSpielID.Row, Application.Match(strValue, ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets("Auswertung").Range(oCllSpielID, ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets("Auswertung").Cells(oCllSpielID.Row, lastUsedCellInRow(oCllSpielID).Column)), 0))
In the end I am fretting running into more realizations of this mystery and spending lots of time again.
cheers
I was getting this error intermittently. Turns out, it happened when I had a different worksheet active.
As the docs for Range say,
When it's used without an object qualifier (an object to the left of the period), the Range property returns a range on the active sheet.
So, to fix the error you add a qualifier:
Sheet1.Range
I had this issue using a third-party generated xls file that the program was pulling from. When I changed the export from the third-party program to xls (data only) it resolved my issue. So for some of you, maybe there is an issue with pulling data from a cell that isn't just a clean value.
I apologize if my nomenclature isn't great, just a novice to this.
That is what you get if MATCH fails to find the value.
Try this instead:
If Not IsError(Application.Match(str_accrual, Range(Selection, Selection.End(xlToRight)), 0)) Then
i = Application.Match(str_accrual, Range(Selection, Selection.End(xlToRight)), 0)
Else
'do something if no match is found
End If
Update
Here is better code that does not rely on Selection except as a means of user-input for defining the range to be searched.
Sub Test()
Dim str_accrual As String
Dim rngToSearch As Range
str_accrual = InputBox("Search for?")
Set rngToSearch = Range(Selection, Selection.End(xlToRight))
If Not IsError(Application.Match(str_accrual, rngToSearch, 0)) Then
i = Application.Match(str_accrual, rngToSearch, 0)
MsgBox i
Else
MsgBox "no match is found in range(" & rngToSearch.Address & ")."
End If
End Sub
I used "If Not IsError" and the error kept showing. To prevent the error, add the following line as well:
On Local Error Resume Next
when nothing is found, Match returns data type Error, which is different from a number. You may want to try this.
dim result variant
result = Application.Match(....)
if Iserror(result)
then not found
else do your normal thing

Run-time error '-2147188160(80048240) DataType:=ppPasteEnhancedMetafile Error

Seems there is some bug. Can't resolve this problem, all code is running fine and I am able to see the AutoShape is getting copied from Excel file but it is not adding it to PowerPoint. Popping up an error Run-time error '-2147188160(80048240) View.Pastespecial : Invalid Request. The specified data type is unavailable
If Range("H" & i).Value = 1 And Range("B" & i).Value = "FRONT" Then
objPPT.Presentations(1).Slides(9).Select
objPPT.ActiveWindow.View.PasteSpecial DataType:=ppPasteEnhancedMetafile
Your code will be faster and possibly more reliable if you don't rely on selecting anything:
With objPPT.Slides(9).Shapes
Set objShape = .PasteSpecial(ppPasteEnhancedMetafile)(1)
With objShape
' set coordinates and such here
End With
End With
As to why you're getting the error message, try stopping the code after you've put something on the clipbard. Then switch to PowerPoint, use Paste Special to see what paste options are available. If EMF isn't one of them, that's your problem ... you're not putting anything in EMF format on the clipboard.
I had a similar issue, but I found a different solution; it may be specific to what I was doing though.
I setup a program where I would:
(manual) Copy an entire webpage that was a report on several performance metrics
(manual) Pasted it in to excel
Run the program to extract the values I want and then clear contents of the sheet I pasted them on.
Eventually after many tests, it would fail with this same automation error when I tried to access the sheet:
Sheets("PDX Paste").Activate
I was able to activate every other sheet except that particular one, even using the index value instead of the direct name reference. After googling to no success I found out that the copy and paste from the website was also pasting invisible controls. When I found this out I had 1,300+ shapes when I only expected 1 (the button I use to trigger the program). It was actually only apparent when a glitch - presumably due to so much memory being used to store these controls - displayed for a few seconds.
I ran the following code independently and then appended it to the end of my program when I do the cleanup of the data. The code goes through the sheet and deletes any shape that isn't the same type as my button. It would have to be adapted if the shapes you want to delete are the same type as the shapes you want to keep. It also becomes simpler if you don't have any shapes to keep.
Dim wsh As Worksheet
Set wsh = ActiveSheet
Dim i As Integer
For i = wsh.Shapes.Count To 1 Step -1
If wsh.Shapes(i).Type <> wsh.Shapes("UpdateDataButton").Type Then
wsh.Shapes(i).Delete
End If
Next i
I'm not sure this would solve this problem, but hopefully this can help others and prevent loss of time figuring out what may be causing this relatively vague error message.

How to get/set unique id for cell in Excel via VBA

I want to have/define a unique id for each data row in my Excel data sheet - such that I can use it when passing the data onwards and it stays the same when rows are added/deleted above it.
My thoughts are to use the ID attribute of Range (msdn link)
So, I have a user defined function (UDF) which I place in each row that gets/sets the ID as follows:
Dim gNextUniqueId As Integer
Public Function rbGetId(ticker As String)
On Error GoTo rbGetId_Error
Dim currCell As Range
'tried using Application.Caller direct, but gives same error
Set currCell = Range(Application.Caller.Address)
If currCell.id = "" Then
gNextUniqueId = gNextUniqueId + 1
'this line fails no matter what value I set it to.
currCell.id = Str(gNextUniqueId)
End If
rbGetId = ticker & currCell.id
Exit Function
rbGetId_Error:
rbGetId = "!ERROR:" & Err.Description
End Function
But this fails at the line mentioned with
"Application-defined or object-defined error"
I thought perhaps its one of those limitations of UDFs, but I also get the same error if I try it from code triggered from a ribbon button...
Any other suggestions on how to keep consistent ids - perhaps I should populate the cells via my ribbon button, finding cells without IDs and generating/setting the cell value of those...
EDIT:
As Ant thought, I have the sheet protected, but even in an unlocked cell it still fails. Unprotecting the sheet fixes the problem.... but I have used "Protect UserInterFaceOnly:=True" which should allow me to do this. If I manually allow "Edit Objects" when I protect the sheet it also works, but I don't see a programmatic option for that - and I need to call the Protect function in AutoOpen to enable the UserInterfaceOnly feature...
I guess I need to turn off/on protect around my ID setting - assuming that can be done in a UDF... which it seems it cannot, as that does not work - neither ActiveSheet.unprotect nor ActiveWorkbook.unprotect :(
Thanks in advance.
Chris
Okay...
It does appear that if the sheet is locked, macros do not have write access to low-level information such as ID.
However, I do not think it is possible to unprotect the sheet within a UDF. By design, UDFs are heavily restricted; I think having a cell formula control the sheet protection would break the formula paradigm that a cell formula affects a cell only.
See this page on the Microsoft website for more details.
I think this limits your options. You must either:
give up sheet protection
give up the UDF, use a Worksheet_Change event to capture cell changes and write to ID there
use a UDF that writes the ID into the cell value, rather than save to ID
The UDF approach is fraught with problems as you are trying to use something designed for calculation of a cell to make a permanent mark on the sheet.
Nonetheless, here's an example of a UDF you can use to stamp a "permanent" value onto a cell, which works on unlocked cells of a protected sheet. This one only works for single cells (although it could be adapted for an array formula).
Public Function CellMark()
Dim currCell As Range
Set currCell = Range(Application.Caller.Address)
Dim myId As String
' must be text; using .value will cause the formula to be called again
' and create a circular reference
myId = currCell.Text
If (Trim(myId) = "" Or Trim(myId) = "0") Then
myId = "ID-" & Format(CStr(gNextUniqueId), "00000")
gNextUniqueId = gNextUniqueId + 1
End If
CellMark = myId
End Function
This is quite flawed though. Using copy or the fillbox will, however, retain the previous copied value. Only by explicitly setting cells to be a new formula will it work. But if you enter in the formula into the cell again (just click it, hit ENTER) a new value is calculated - which is standard cell behaviour.
I think the Worksheet_Change event is the way to go, which has much more latitude. Here's a simple example that updates the ID of any cell changes. It could be tailored to your particular scenario. This function would need to be added to every Worksheet the ID setting behaviour is required on.
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
Dim currCell As Range
Set currCell = Target.Cells(1, 1)
Dim currId As String
currId = currCell.ID
If Trim(currCell.ID) = "" Then
Target.Parent.Unprotect
currCell.ID = CStr(gNextUniqueId)
Target.Parent.Protect
gNextUniqueId = gNextUniqueId + 1
End If
End Sub
Last note; in all cases, your ID counter will be reset if you re-open the worksheet (at least under the limited details presented in your example).
Hope this helps.
Concur with Ant - your code works fine here on Excel 2003 SP3.
I've also been able to use:
Set currCell = Application.Caller
If Application.Caller.ID = "" Then
gNextUniqueId = gNextUniqueId + 1
'this line fails no matter what value I set it to.
currCell.ID = Str(gNextUniqueId)
End If
Aha! I think I have it.
I think you're calling this from an array formula, and it only gets called ONCE with the full range. You can't obtain an ID for a range - only a single cell. This explains why Application.Caller.ID fails for you, because Range("A1:B9").ID generates an Application-defined or object-defined error.
When you use Range(Application.Caller.Address) to get the "cell" you just defer this error down to the currCell.ID line.
I think we may have a few issues going on here, but I think they are testing issues, not problems with the code itself. First, if you call the function from anything other than a Cell, like the immediate window, other code, etc. Application.Caller will not be set. This is what is generating your object not found errors. Second, if you copy/paste the cell that has the function, they you will by copy/pasting the ID too. So wherever you paste it to, the output will stay the same. But if you just copy the text (instead of the cell), and then paste then this will work fine. (Including your original use of Application.Caller.)
The problem is with Application.Caller.
Since you are calling it from a user defined function it is going to pass you an error description. Here is the remark in the Help file.
Remarks
This property returns information about how Visual Basic was called, as shown in the following table.
Caller - Return value
A custom function entered in a single cell - A Range object specifying that cell
A custom function that is part of an array formula in a range of cells - A Range object specifying that range of cells
An Auto_Open, Auto_Close, Auto_Activate, or Auto_Deactivate macro - The name of the document as text
A macro set by either the OnDoubleClick or OnEntry property - The name of the chart object identifier or cell reference (if applicable) to which the macro applies
The Macro dialog box (Tools menu), or any caller not described above - The #REF! error value
Since you are calling it from a user defined function, what is happening is Application.Caller is returning a String of an error code to your range variable curCell. It is NOT causing an error which your error handler would pick up. What happens after that is you reference curCell, it's not actually a range anymore. On my machine it tries setting curCell = Range("Error 2023"). Whatever that object is, it might not have an ID attribute anymore and when you try to set it, it's throwing you that object error.
Here's what I would try...
Try removing your error handler and see if VBA throws up any exceptions on Range(Application.Caller.Address). This won't fix it, but it could point you in the right direction.
Either through logic or Application.ActiveCell or however you want to do it, reference the cell directly. For example Range("A1") or Cells(1,1). Application.Caller.Address just doesn't seem like a good option to use.
Try using Option Explicit. This might make the line where you set curCell throw up an error since Range(Application.Caller.Address) doesn't look like it's passing a range back, which is curCell's datatype.
I have found that if I protect the sheet with "Protect DrawingObjects:=False", the UDF can set the Id. Strange.
Thanks for all the help with this.