clear cells while preserving Autofilter settings? - vba

Question

I'm writing a script for a worksheet whose cells are populated based on an Access database. I'm trying to clear the contents of the worksheet without removing any Autofilters that the user has set, and then reload the data based on on the database. Right now I'm using:
Sub populateSheet()
Dim sht As Worksheet
Dim db As Database
Dim rs As Recordset
Set db = OpenDatabase("c:\myDB.mdb")
Set rs = db.OpenRecordset("myData")
Set sht = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("my output")
With sht
.Cells.value=empty
For c = 0 To rs.Fields.Count - 1
.Cells(1, c + 1) = rs.Fields(c).name
Next
.Range("a2").CopyFromRecordset rs
End With
End Sub
sub buildTable()
dim ws as workspace
dim db as database
dim dbPath as string
set ws=dbengine.workspaces(0)
set db=ws.createdatabase("c:\myDB.mdb")
db.execute "create table myData (field1 text,field2 text)"
db.execute "insert into myData (field1,field2) values (""1"",""a"")"
db.execute "insert into myData (field1,field2) values (""2"",""b"")"
db.execute "insert into myData (field1,field2) values (""3"",""a"")"
db.close
end sub
sub test()
buildTable
populateSheet
end sub
When I run .cells.clear, it wipes out the Autofilter. Is there a way I can keep the Autofilter settings so the new data will be filtered the same way? Or maybe record them and re-apply the same settings? I tried working with this solution, but I had trouble getting it to detect which columns were filtered.
EDIT:
I applied Jean-FrançoisCorbett's approach in the above code, but it has a problem. Try this with a test table:
1 a
2 b
3 a
After you run populateSheet, then autofilter the 2nd column to only include "a", the worksheet shows:
1 a
3 a
Then run populateSheet again, the sheet now shows:
1 a
1 a
If you remove the autofilter, rerun populateSheet, and re-apply the autofilter, you get the correct data, but that's a very cumbersome extra step to get correct output.
EDIT:
I added code to create a database and make a table that you can use to test populateSheet, and changed some of the arguments in populateSheet to reflect this test database.

Answer 1

If you just want to clear the values in the cells and nothing else, then you can do this:
sht.Cells.Value = Empty
EDIT Responding to the OP's edit:
Oddly enough, the statement above does not empty the cells in any rows that were hidden by the Autofilter! I think that the autofilter-hidden rows also cause unexpected behaviour when importing data with CopyFromRecordset.
The solution to that problem is of course to, prior to emptying all cells and importing data, unhide all rows by setting the autofilters to (All), which in VBA is done like this:
With Range("C1:D1") ' or wherever the filters are
.AutoFilter Field:=1
.AutoFilter Field:=2
' ... continue to set all fields to (All).
End With

Answer 2

Ok, I have a solution for this. Basically, I record the autofilter criteria in an array of variants, then remove the Autofilter settings, populate the sheet (using #Jean-FrançoisCorbett's suggestion of sht.Cells.Value = Empty) then reapply the settings from the array. Code as follows:
Sub reapplyAutofilter()
Dim fltr As Filter
Dim columnCriteria1() As Variant
Dim columnCriteria2() As Variant
Dim columnOperators() As Variant
Dim filterCriteria() As Variant
Dim sht As Worksheet
Dim rangeAddr As String
Dim fieldCount As Long
Dim ctr As Long
Set sht = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("mySheet")
'don't analyze autofilter if it's not on
If Not sht.AutoFilterMode Then
populateSheet
Exit Sub
End If
'put autofilter settings in arrays for criteria1, criteria2, and operator
With sht.AutoFilter
rangeAddr = .Range.Address
fieldCount = .Filters.Count
ReDim columnCriteria1(1 To fieldCount)
ReDim columnCriteria2(1 To fieldCount)
ReDim columnOperators(1 To fieldCount)
For ctr = 1 To fieldCount
With .Filters(ctr)
If .On Then
columnCriteria1(ctr) = .Criteria1
columnOperators(ctr) = .Operator
If (.Operator = xlOr) or (.Operator=xlAnd) Then
columnCriteria2(ctr) = .Criteria2
Else
columnCriteria2(ctr) = Null
End If
Else
columnCriteria1(ctr) = Null
End If
End With
Next ctr
End With
'clear autofilter
sht.AutoFilterMode = False
populateSheet
're-apply autofilter settings
With sht.Range(rangeAddr)
For ctr = 1 To fieldCount
If Not IsNull(columnCriteria1(ctr)) Then
If IsNull(columnCriteria2(ctr)) Then
.AutoFilter Field:=ctr, Criteria1:=columnCriteria1(ctr), Operator:=xlFilterValues
Else
.AutoFilter Field:=ctr, Criteria1:=columnCriteria1(ctr), Criteria2:=columnCriteria2(ctr), Operator:=columnOperators(ctr)
End If
End If
Next
End With
End Sub
I'm not sure if this counts as me solving the problem, because I was inspired by Jean-FrançoisCorbett's code. I did have to figure out on my own how to capture and reapply the Autofilter settings. Feel free to chime in about who should get credit on this one; otherwise, I'll accept my own answer.