ENGG1811 VBA Reference Card

Editor Access and Setup

Developer tab, Visual Basic button. Starts the VBE. Shortcut is Alt-F11. Select Tools Options menu. First few options should be like this:

VBA Language Structure

' comment starts with a single quote ' (and is ignored by the VB system) identifiers are names you give to things like variables and procedures. They start with a letter, followed by any number of letters, digits or underscores (_). data types include Integer, Long (integer with wider range), Double (for normal calculations), String, Boolean and Variant (= any type). number formats include integer, decimal or scientific (also hexadecimal prefixed by &H) string literals are enclosed in double quote characters, type two of them to represent a double quote symbol: "He said, ""Hi!""". each module consists of optional constant definitions, optional variable declarations, then procedures.

Part A
Examples: Dim longitude As Double Dim numCells As Integer Dim e As Double ' surface roughness Dim stressMildSteel As Double

Procedures
Only two types, subprograms and functions. Sub name(parameter-list...) End Sub Function name(parameter-list...) As type name = ... ' assign result to func name End Function Procedures contain local variable declarations (normally occur first), and statements. parameter-list is a comma-separated list of local variables associated with the arguments passed to the procedure. Simplest format is name As type A subprogram with no parameters is called a macro, and can be initiated by the user (Alt-F8). See also Parameters and Procedure Calls overleaf.

Others are according to preference, including font in Editor Format (Consolas, Fixedsys are better than Courier).

VBE Layout
Top left: Project Explorer. Top right: edit window, one per object being edited. Bottom right: Properties window, F4 to unhide. Bottom right: Immediate window (Debug.Print destination), Ctrl-g to unhide.

Declarations
Constant definitions are of the form Const name = value where name is by convention ALL_CAPS and value is a literal or constant expression, for example: Const ROW_START = 4 ' first data row Const PLANCK = 6.626068e-34 'in J s Variable declarations are of the form Dim name As type or Dim name1 As type1, name2 As type2, ... Variable names may be simple algebraic (x, k), or indicate counting purpose (row, col), or hold significant values, using initial lower case but then Title Case (wordsJoinedWithInitialCaps).

Procedure Conventions
Subprograms perform general tasks, should be named using a verb phrase in Title Case (for example, ProcessCells. Functions should just calculate and return a value, not change the workbook directly. Their names should be nouns or noun phrases, such as Pythagoras, LastCell, IsEmpty, RelativeBearing. 1

Workbook objects
Sheets, for related event procedures and controls. Workbook, event procedures open/close etc. Modules, where most of the VBA resides; Insert Module to create, rename using the Properties window.

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Formatting Conventions (Rules)

Always indent lines that belong to an outer structure, such as procedure contents and selected or iterated statements. Leave an empty line before each group of related statements. Use a comment before each procedure, before a statement that does something non-obvious and on important variable declarations. Long lines should be split by inserting a space, underscore and Enter, increase indent by half.

Selection Statements
If Boolean-expression Then statement Else optional statement End If Chained form: If Boolean-expression Then statement repeat as ElseIf Boolean-expression Then needed statement Else optional statement End If A single expression can be matched this way (not required for ENGG1811): Select Case expression Case value1 statements Case value1, value2, ... statements Case value1 To value2, ... statements Case Is > value ' or any comparison statements Case Like pattern statements Case Else ' if no match, optional statements End Select Early exit from procedure: If exception-condition Then Exit Function ' or Exit Sub End If

Iteration Statements
Set variable var (usually Integer or Long) to each element of arithmetic progression: For var = start To finish Step amount statements optional Next var Continue as long as Boolean-expression is true: While Boolean-expression statements Wend Also general form (not required for ENGG1811): Do ... Loop with Exit Do and/or While conditions at either end.

Assignment Statement
Statements perform actions by changing the program state. Simplest is assignment: variable = expression expression combines literals, named constants, variables and function calls, combined using operators with this precedence:
( ) ^ + * / \ Mod + & = <> < > <= >= Like Not And Or Xor parentheses exponentiation unary: sign operators multiplication, division integer division remainder binary: add, subtract string concatenation comparisons Boolean operators string of any length any single character any char except these digit = [0-9] any single character

Parameters and Procedure Calls

Each parameter is a local variable, initialised from the corresponding argument. ByVal prefix means copy argument value only ByRef prefix means associate argument variable (if it is a variable) with parameter, this is default. Example: Sub DoIt(ByVal count As Integer, _ ByRef result As Double) If parameter names are known, can associate in any order using the := notation: DoIt result:=myAnswer, count:=22 Functions always require parentheses around arguments (if any), subprograms dont, but can be forced with the Call statement: each of these Call DoIt(22, myAnswer) is equivalent DoIt 22, myAnswer to the above

Like patterns:
* [abcx-z] [!xyzE-G] # ?
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Excel Objects
Hierarchy Application ActiveWorkbook ActiveSheet ActiveCell Most common objects are ranges: ActiveSheet.Cells(row,column) ActiveSheet.Range(name) ' "max" etc ActiveSheet.Range(address) ' "A4" etc Selection ' created by .Select Objects have properties (attributes, some of which can be set), and methods (associated procedures). Notation is the same: used in an expression object.property object.property = newvalue object.method arguments... if a subprogram object.method(arguments...) if a function Range properties include Value (default if omitted) Formula Interior Font Borders NumberFormat Range methods include ClearContents AutoFit FillDown Merge Offset(row, col)

Object Variables
Can declare variables of specific or generic object types: Dim rng As Range Dim wks As Worksheet Dim obj As Object Must use the Set keyword when assigning object variables (because the var points to the object). Set rng = ActiveSheet.Columns(5)

Part B
Other Shape methods (all return a shape): AddLine(beginX, beginY, endX, endY) AddTextBox(orientation, left, top, _ width, height) BuildFreeform see VBA Drawing document. Shape properties include Line, Fill; use these to change appearance: With shp.Line .Weight = 1.5 .DashStyle = msoLineDashDot .Forecolor.RGB = _ RGB(128,0,0) ' dark red End With With shp.Fill .Forecolor.RGB = vbYellow .Transparency = 0.5 ' translucent .Visible = True ' False = hide End With

Collections
Group (usually related) objects under a single name Can be indexed by position (1..n) or name ActiveWorkbook.Sheets.Add _ after:=Sheets(3) ActiveWorkbook.Sheets("Temp").Delete For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Sheets Debug.Print wks.Name Next wks

ActiveSheet.Shapes Collection
Represent drawing objects, coords are X and Y (down is positive) in pixels (approximately). Dim shp As Shape Set shp = _ ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddShape(type, _ left, top, width, height) type includes many predefined constants such as msoShapeRectangle, msoShapeOval msoShapeRightArrow, msoShapeHeart (see MsoAutoShapeType in Excel Help) other arguments define rectangular bounding box.

Colours
Define Long constants, or use the RGB function. If you know the hexadecimal code as used on web pages, can also create meaningful Consts: web : #00CC99 = RGB(0,204,153) VBA: Const BLUE_GREEN = &H99CC00 Note the reversed red and blue order. Built-in constants: vbBlack, vbWhite, vbRed, vbGreen, vbBlue, vbCyan, vbMagenta, vbYellow.

With Statement
Can factorise common prefix object reference: With ActiveSheet.Cells(1,4).Interior .Pattern = xlSolid .Color = RGB(100,50,100) ' purple End With
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Standard Functions
Use Excel Help for more info. Here num is a Double or Integer, i is an integer, str is a string, a is an angle in radians. Conversions: Int(num), Fix(num), Round(num,i) Abs(num), Val(str), CStr(num), CInt(str) Real mathematics: Sqr(num) (square root) Exp(num), Log(num) (both base e, not 10) Trigonometry: Sin(a), Cos(a), Tan(a) Atn(num) (arctangent) Others: IsNumeric(str) (looks like a number?) RGB(red,green,blue) (integer colour values) Rnd() (random number 0..1) Functions used in formulas: WorksheetFunction.functionname(...)

VBA Examples
Function to calculate Pythagorean distance given the differences in X and Y values: Function Pythag(xDiff As Double, _ yDiff As Double) As Double Pythag = Sqr(xDiff ^ 2 + yDiff ^ 2) End Function Snippet to process column in variable col: Dim row As Integer row = ROW_START While Activesheet.Cells(row,col) <> "" ' do something with the cell row = row + 1 Wend Subprogram calculating two values, passed back to the caller using ByRef parameters. Cartesian to polar conversion: Sub Polar(x As Double, y As Double, _ ByRef mag As Double, _ ByRef angle As Double) mag = Pythag(x, y) angle = WorksheetFunction.Atan2(x, y) ' Atan2 works for x=0, Atn doesnt End Sub

Notes

Error Codes and possible causes

6: Overflow: calculated integer value is too large (> 32767) or too small (< 32768) 13 Type mismatch: expression mixes up numbers and non-numeric values 438 Object doesnt support this property or method: you may have misspelled something after a dot, such as Activesheet.Culls(row,col) 1004 Unable to get the property [...] of the WorksheetFunction class: probably incorrect argument such as Asin with arg > 1
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