Microsoft Office

Introducing Visual Basic for Applications 39
VBA Coding Tips
When you enter code in a module sheet, you’re free to use indenting and blank lines to make the code
more readable. (In fact, this is an excellent habit.)
After you enter a line of code (by pressing Enter), it’s evaluated for syntax errors. If none are found, the line of
code is reformatted, and colors are added to keywords and identifiers. This automatic reformatting adds consistent
spaces (before and after an equal sign, for example) and removes extra spaces that aren’t needed. If a
syntax error is found, you receive a pop-up message, and the line is displayed in a different color (red, by
default). You need to correct your error before you can execute the macro.
A single statement can be as long as you need. However, you may want to break the statement into two or
more lines. To do so, insert a space followed by an underscore(_). The following code, although written as two
lines, is actually a single VBA statement:
Sheets(“Sheet1”).Range(“B1”).Value = _
Sheets(“Sheet1”).Range(“A1”).Value
You can insert comments freely into your VBA code. The comment indicator is an apostrophe single quote
character (‘). Any text that follows a single quote is ignored. A comment can be a line by itself, or it can be
inserted after a statement. The following examples show two comments:
‘ Assign the values to the variables
Rate = .085 ‘Rate as of November 16
2. The Project window displays a list of all open workbooks and add-ins. Locate the workbook
that you’re currently working in and select it.
3. Choose Insert ➪ Module. VBA inserts a new (empty) module into the workbook and displays it
in the Code window.
A VBA module, which is displayed in a separate window, works like a text editor. You can move through the
sheet, select text, insert, copy, cut, paste, and so on.
How VBA works
VBA is by far the most complex feature in Excel, and you can easily get overwhelmed. To set the stage for
the details of VBA, here is a concise summary of how VBA works:
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You perform actions in VBA by writing (or recording) code in a VBA module sheet and then
executing the macro in any one of various ways. VBA modules are stored in an Excel workbook,
and a workbook can hold any number of VBA modules. To view or edit a VBA module, you
must activate the Visual Basic Editor window. (Press Alt+F11 to toggle between Excel and the VB
Editor window.)
A VBA module consists of procedures. A procedure is basically computer code that performs
some action. The following is an example of a simple Sub procedure called ShowSum (it adds 1 +
1 and displays the result):
Sub ShowSum()
Sum = 1 + 1
MsgBox “The answer is “ & Sum
End Sub
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