Storing Range attributes as an object? - vba

Question

I'm having trouble with the way I designed this little report I'm making. Is it possible to create a variable for a Range object in Excel VBA, for the purposes of applying the formatting to another Range? Here is my example:
I'm creating a dictionary from the Microsoft Scripting Runtime library:
Dim d as Scripting.Dictionary
With this I'm adding labels, values, and (trying to add) Ranges.
Dim rng as Range
rng.Font.Bold = True
d.Add 1, Field("test1", 12345, rng)
rng.Font.Bold = False
d.Add 2, Field("TestTwo", "Testing field", rng)
rng.HorizontalAlignment = xlCenter
d.Add 3, Field("threeeee", 128937912, rng)
Dim key As Variant
For Each key In d.keys
Range("A" & key).value = d(key).Label
Set Range("B" & key).value = d(key).rng
Next key
Here is my Field function:
Private Function Field(Label As String, val As Variant, rng As Range) As cField
Dim f As New cField
f.Label = Label
f.val = val
Set f.rng = rng
Set Field = f
End Function
And here is my cField class:
Option Explicit
Dim mVarValue As Variant
Dim mStrLabel As String
Dim mRng As Range
Property Let val(ByVal val As Variant)
mVarValue = val
End Property
Property Get val() As Variant
val = mVarValue
End Property
Property Let Label(ByVal val As String)
mStrLabel = val
End Property
Property Get Label() As String
Label = mStrLabel
End Property
Property Let rng(ByVal val As Range)
Set mRng = val
End Property
Property Get rng() As Range
Dim a As Range
a.value = mVarValue
Set rng = a
End Property
The idea is that the key in the dictionary is going to be the row location for the field. This way if changes need to be made to the report I'm making, the only thing that needs to be changed is the key for that particular value in the dictionary. I have been successful storing the label for the value, and the value itself, but I also want to store the formatting for that Range (bold, justification, borders, etc...).
I get a 'Run-time error '91': Object variable or With block variable not set' error on the line immediately following the rng declaration. I'm wondering if its not possible to have a generic Range that doesn't have a location on a sheet, or if somehow my syntax is off.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! :)

Answer 1

Is it possible to create a variable for a Range object in Excel VBA, for
the purposes of applying the
formatting to another Range?
I'm wondering if its not possible to have a generic Range that doesn't have
a location on a sheet...
The short answer is no.
The quick answer is...I suggest creating a "format" worksheet, which can be hidden or very hidden, that contains ranges, or Named Ranges, with the formatting you need. This allows you to range.Copy the "formatted" range then use range.PasteSpecial xlPasteFormats.
I dislike overwriting the user's clipboard, but it is difficult to programmatically copy the formatting of one range to another. I use this method in numerous solutions because it is flexible, maintainable, reusable, and does not rely on complex code. Moreover, I can visually change formatting without touching code.

Answer 2

Good question! Unfortunately, I don't think you can store a range that hasn't been initialized to an existing range of cells on your worksheet. I can think of a couple of options:
Use a hidden worksheet to store the range information
Store the range information manually, in a handful of member variables
Option 1 could be the easiest, despite the fact that it sounds like overkill to have an extra sheet kicking around. I'm picturing one hidden worksheet, defined specifically for this purpose.
Option 2 might be simplified if you only need to keep track of a couple of range properties (borders and color, for example).

Answer 3

You are correct - it is not possible to have a generic Range object. You have to 'Set' your range variable to some actual range to be able to read and write its properties.
But if you're "Letting" your rng property, then it seems you should already have a reference to a range. Why do you have a Property Let rng if you're not going to use that property in the Get statement.

Answer 4

How about this solution?
Create a class with
the range address as text, ie."$A$3:$A$11,$A$18:$A$24,$D$29".
The value
Save the formatting of the range as a format-text.
Then you could create the range by Range(RangeAdressAsText) and use something like the following
Private Sub ApplyFormatting(r As Range, ByVal f As String)
On Error GoTo ErrHandler:
f = UCase$(f)
Dim IterateRange As Range
Dim Formatarray() As String
Formatarray = Split(f, " ")
Dim i As Integer
With r
For i = LBound(Formatarray) To UBound(Formatarray)
Select Case Formatarray(i)
Case "BOLD"
.Font.Bold = True
Case "ITALIC"
.Font.Italic = True
Case "TOP"
.VerticalAlignment = xlTop
Case "BOTTOM"
.VerticalAlignment = xlBottom
Case "UNDERLINE"
.Font.Underline = True
End Select
Next i
End With
Erase Formatarray
Exit Sub
ErrHandler:
LogInformation Format(Now, "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss") & " - " & ": # ApplyFormatting in xlPrinter " & " - " & Err.Number & " - " & Err.Description & " - " & Err.Source & " - " & Err.LastDllError
End Sub