Excel VBA: Display the Developer Toolbar or Ribbon

By default the developer toolbar or ribbon (depending on the Excel version) is hidden in Microsoft Excel. In Excel 2007 and later it can be quite tricky to figure out where to enable the developer ribbon if you don't know where to look. To make things even worse, in Excel 2010 they have changed the way of enabling the ribbon.

Excel 2016

To enable the developer tooolbar in Excel 2016 for Office 365, please have a look at Displaying the developer toolbar or ribbon in Excel.

Excel 2010

In Excel 2010 you can display the developer toolbar the following way:

1. Click the green File Button
2. Press Options
3. Make sure that the Customize Ribbon right menu item is selected.
4. In the dropdown list called Customize the Ribbon, select All Tabs.
5. In the group called Main Tabs, make sure that the option Developer is checked.

Excel 2007

To display the developer ribbon, do the following:

1. Click the Office Button
2. Click the Excel Options button at the bottom of the dialog.
3. Ensure that the Popular tab in the left menu is selected (se picture below)
4. Check the option Show Developer tab in the Ribbon

Excel 2003

In older versions of excel the developer ribbon is divided between two toolbars: Control Toolbox and Forms. The toolbars can be displayed the following way:

1. Press View on the main toolbar
2. Select Toolbars
3. Check the toolbar Control Toolbox
4. Check the toolbar Forms

 

Visual Studio 2010: Debug the .NET assemblies

The .NET framework is under heavy development and bugs are removed by Microsoft developers when found. However, you may still experience major bugs that might cause your application to crash. Sometimes it is even hard to determine whether it is a bug in your own code or in the framework. This issue has been taken to a new level in Visual Studio 2010. A feature, which by default is disabled in Visual Studio, enables you to debug the entire .NET source code directly within VS2010. Previously tools like .NET Reflector and ILSpy were required to identify any bugs in the .NET framework.

To enable .NET framework code debugging, please do the following:

Visual Studio 2019

To enable .NET framework code debugging in VS2019 please visit Debug the .net assemblies.

Visual Studio 2010

1) In Visual Studio 2010, select Debug -> Options and Settings...
The Options dialog is displayed.

2) Select Debugging in the left menu (se picture below) and check the option Enable .NET Framework source stepping.

When running your application in debug mode, Visual Studio will download the .NET source code when needed. Please be aware that the source code might use a lot of free space on your hard drive depending on how many .NET assemblies that are in use.

Excel VBA: Adding custom Button to the Toolbar or Ribbon

Custom buttons are added to the toolbars or ribbons when a Microsoft Excel sheet is opened, and removed when the sheet is closed. To be notified when a given Excel sheet is loaded we need to listen to the Workbook_Open event of the ThisWorkbook object found in the VBA Project explorer.
Please notice that the following code works best with Excel versions prior to Office 2007. If used in newer versions, from Excel 2007, the button and commandbar will be added to the "Add-Ins" tab. It is only possible to add buttons to the main ribbon using dynamic XML when using VBA. Se below for more information.

' ConstantsPrivate Const COMMANDBAR_NAME As String = "Custom Toolbar"Private Const BUTTON_CAPTION As String = "My Button"' OpenPrivate Sub Workbook_Open()
    ' Variables
    Dim objCommandBar As CommandBar
    Dim objButton As CommandBarButton

    ' Try to get the Commandbar (if it exists)
    On Error Resume Next
    Set objCommandBar = Me.CommandBars(COMMANDBAR_NAME)
    On Error GoTo 0
    
    ' Was the commandbar available?
    If (objCommandBar Is Nothing) Then
        ' Create the commandbar
        On Error Resume Next
        Set objCommandBar = Application.CommandBars.Add(Name:=COMMANDBAR_NAME, Position:=msoBarTop, Temporary:=True)
        On Error GoTo 0
        
        ' Valid commandbar?
        If (Not objCommandBar Is Nothing) Then
            ' Add the buttons to the command bar
            With objCommandBar
                ' Add button
                Set objButton = objCommandBar.Controls.Add(Type:=msoControlButton, Temporary:=True)
                
                 ' Set the button properties
                With objButton
                    .Style = msoButtonIconAndCaption
                    .Caption = BUTTON_CAPTION
                    .FaceId = 258
                    .TooltipText = "Do Something"
                    .OnAction = "'" & ThisWorkbook.Name & "'!OnDoSomething"
                End With
                
                ' Show the command bar
                .Visible = True
            End With
        End If
    End IfEnd Sub' Before ClosePrivate Sub Workbook_BeforeClose(Cancel As Boolean)
    
    On Error Resume Next
    ' Try to remove the iTrade command bar
    Call Application.CommandBars(COMMANDBAR_NAME).Delete
    
    ' Restore error handling
    On Error GoTo 0
End Sub

The custom event called OnDoSomething must be defined in a global Module. It doesn't work to define the method in the Workbook class. Insert a new Module and add the following code:

Option Explicit

Public Sub OnDoSomething()
    MsgBox "Hello World!"End Sub

You can change the button icon by specifying another FaceId value. To get a list of all available FaceIds on you computer, download and and install the FaceID Browser:

• FaceID Browser

Excel 2007 and later
To dynamically add buttons to the Ribbon you must use a combination of XML and VBA. For more information, please visit:

• How to: Use VBA to Add a Custom Command to the Ribbon 

Resources
Other usefull pages:

• Excel VBA: Adding items to the right-click menu

Excel VBA: Adding custom buttons to the Right-Click popup menu

In Microsoft Excel it is possible to extend the right click popup menu by using VBA. The right click menu is implemented as a special CommandBar (like the toolbars in Excel 2003) with the name "Cell".
Customs buttons are added before the popup menu is displayed. It is up to your self to make sure that any custom buttons are removed when they are no longer in use. Otherwise you would end up adding a new button every time the right menu is about to be displayed.

Option Explicit

' Constants
Private Const BUTTON_CAPTION As String = "My Button"


' Before Right Click
Private Sub Workbook_SheetBeforeRightClick(ByVal objSheet As Object, ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)
    Dim objButton As CommandBarButton
    
    ' Remove the e-mail popup menu
    On Error Resume Next
    With Application.CommandBars("Cell")
        Call .Controls(BUTTON_CAPTION).Delete
    End With
    On Error GoTo 0
    
    ' Is the sheet1?
    If (objSheet Is Sheet1) Then
    
        ' Add the special button
        Set objButton = Application.CommandBars("Cell").Controls.Add(Type:=msoControlButton, Temporary:=True, Before:=1)
        
        ' Set the button properties
        With objButton
            .Style = msoButtonIconAndCaption
            .Caption = BUTTON_CAPTION
            .FaceId = 258
            .TooltipText = "Do Something"
            .OnAction = "'" & ThisWorkbook.Name & "'!OnDoSomething"
        End With
    End If
End Sub

Notice that the method SheetBeforeRightClick is overriden for the Workbook (ThisWorkbook) object, and not the worksheet, even though it is displayed on the worksheet. We are doing a check in the VBA code before the right click menu is displayed to ensure that it is only displayed for the worksheet named "Sheet1".

Please notice that all actions, i.e. OnAction events, must be stored in a public module. It is not possible to define the OnDoSomething method in the workbook or the worksheet classes. Add a new Module (Module1) and add the following code:

Option Explicit

Public Sub DoSomething()
    MsgBox "Hello World!"
End Sub

To specify an icon for the new button, a numeric value must be set for the FaceId property of the button. There is no built-in way of displaying all possible FaceIds. However, you can download and install the Excel add-in called Face ID Browser to display all possible button icons:

• FaceID Browser

 The final result will display the following custom menu item on the right click menu:

 

Resources

For more information on how to add buttons to CommandBars, please check out:

• Excel VBA: Add buttons to toolbars/ribbons

Excel VBA: String Format

The functions string.Format or StringBuilder.AppendFormat are two very usefull functions for formatting strings and increasing the readability of your .NET code. The Format function in VBA unfortunately works in a quite different way than the string.Format function in .NET. As far as I know there is no built-in function in VBA to acomplish the exact same as string.Format. In VBA the functionality can be achieved the following way:

' Format string using the .NET way
Public Function StringFormat(ByVal strValue As String, ParamArray arrParames() As Variant) As String
    Dim i As Integer

    ' Replace parameters  
    For i = LBound(arrParames()) To UBound(arrParames())
        strValue = Replace(strValue, "{" & CStr(i) & "}", CStr(arrParames(i)))
    Next
   
    ' Get the value    StringFormat = strValue
End Function

For more information please visit

• Using .NET String.Format in Excel

Excel VBA: Download files from the Internet

There is no built-in function in Microsoft Excel which allows you to download contents from the Internet on the fly. To accomplish this task we need to use the API for WinInet. The use and explanation of API in VBA is for advanced users which have prior experience from either Visual Basic 6.0 or .NET.

Pitfalls
It is very important that all open Internet connections are closed as soon as the task is completed. WinInet only allows 2 concurrent connections to a given host. If you forget to shut down the connection after use, you will experience timeouts and misleading error messages. Please refer to the following website for more information related to the maximum allowed concurrent web connections:

• Adjust maximum concurrent connections

Howto
The source code below should be pasted in a "Class Module" in Excel. If you are not sure how to open the VBA editor in Excel for your current Microsoft Office version, please refer to the following page:

• Display the developer toolbar or ribbon in Excel

Create new class module:

1. Open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications editor in Excel.
2. Select Insert -> Class Module on the main menubar
3. Rename the new class module to "WebClient"

Example
To use the code, you shold create a new instance of the class and any of the public methods:

• DownloadFile - download a specific resource to a local file
• UrlExists - check if a given URL exists

Dim objClient As New WebClient
Call objClient.DownloadFile("http://www.google.com", "c:\test.html")

Dependencies
The function "ReThrowError" is defined here:

• Re-throw Errors in VBA

Source Code

For the full source code, please visit

Excel VBA: Download files from the internet

Excel VBA: Re-throw error/exception

The current version of Microsoft Excel does not support the new Try/Catch blocks found in VB.net or any other modern programming languages. To handle errors within a procedure the "On Error Goto" statement must be used. When used, VBA expects the procedure to handle the error by either displaying a message visible to the user or just ignore it and continue as before.

However, if you are a Java or .NET developer you might want to restore the state of the application when a error is caught and then re-throw the error to let another part of the application handle it, just like when the "using" statement or throw/catch blocks are applied in C# code. There is no direct way of re-throwing a error in VBA, like throw or throw [Exception] in Java and .NET. The correct way of solving this challenge is to use the Err.Raise method, and specify all the existing error parameters in the following way:

Sub Test()
    On Error GoTo ErrorHandler
   
    ' Do Something   
    Exit Sub
ErrorHandler:
    ' Restore state

    ' Re-throw/Raise existing error   
    Err.Raise Err.Number, Err.Source, Err.Description, Err.HelpFile,    Err.HelpContext
End Sub

A custom method can be made to simplifying the re-throwing of errors:

' Rethrow
Public Sub ReThrowError(ByVal objError As ErrObject)
    ' Raise   
    Err.Raise objError.Number, objError.Source, objError.Description, objError.HelpFile, objError.HelpContext
End Sub

For more information, please visit

• Download files from the internet using Excel VBA.

.NET: Alternatives to .NET Reflector

.NET Reflector is dead, long live ILSpy. Well, .NET Reflector is not really dead, as you might already know, but you now have to pay if you want to use the disassembler. Below we have listed the most common alternatives to the previously popular tool:

1. ILSpy
2. dotPeek
3. JustDecompile
4. Common Compiler Infrastructure
5. Mono Cecil
6. Kaliro
7. Dotnet IL Editor (DILE)

Personally I prefer to use the ILSpy because it is open-source, and works in the similar way as the old .NET reflector.

Source: Coragi.com

JavaScript: Get URL Query Argument

Often I have the need to parse the URL query to retrieve the value of a specific named argument. There is no direct way of doing this is JavaScript, so this requires a custom function.

function findQueryArgument (strQuery, strArgumentName) {

    // Valid query?

    if (strQuery) {

        // Split the parameteres

        var arrParameters = strQuery.split("&");

        // Walk through the parameters

        for (var i = 0; i < arrParameters.length; i++) {

            // Get the key/value pair

            var arrPair = arrParameters[i].split("=");

            // Is this the event argument?

            if (arrPair[0] == strArgumentName) {

                // Has value?

                if (arrPair.length > 1) {

                    // Get the value

                    return arrPair[1];

                }

                // Not set

                break;

            }

        }

    }

    // Not found

    return '';

}

The strQuery argument is the full URL query i.e. a=val1&b=val2 etc. The full URL should not be included.
strArgumentName is the name of the argument you're looking for, i.e. a or b.

Please notice that the returned value is URL encoded. To extract the actual string value you need to use the built in JavaScript method unescape.

Here is an example:

// Query string

var strQuery = 'a=val1&b=val2';

// Get the value of the 'b' argument

var strEscaped = findQueryArgument(findQueryArgument, strQuery, 'b');

// Get the unescaped value

var strUnescaped = unescape(strEscaped);

// Display the value

alert(strUnescaped);

Excel VBA: Sum Values IF

Below we have made a function which sums the values of one column/range given that the value of another column is equal to a fixed value. This function ignores the N/A values, which is not the case for the built-in function called SumIf in Excel. If the built-in function finds a N/A value the function returns N/A.

' SUM Value If

' Ignores N/A

Public Function SumValueIf(ByVal objRange As Range, ByVal objCriteria As Range, ByVal objSumRange As Range) As Currency

    Dim intRow As Integer

    Dim objRangeValue As Object

    Dim objCriteriaValue As Object

    Dim objValue As Object

    Dim dblValue As Currency

    Dim dblSum As Currency

    ' Get the criteria value

    objCriteriaValue = objCriteria(1, 1)

    ' Walk through the rows

    For intRow = 1 To objRange.Rows.Count Step 1

        ' Get the current value

        objRangeValue = objRange(intRow, 1)

        ' Compare values

        If (objRangeValue = objCriteriaValue) Then

            ' Get the value

            objValue = objSumRange(intRow, 1)

            ' Is valid number?

            ' Ignore any strings, #N/A, #Error, etc.

            If (IsNumeric(objValue)) Then

                ' Get the value

                dblValue = CCur(objValue)

                ' Sum

                dblSum = dblSum + dblValue

            End If

        End If

    Next

    ' Get the value

    SumValueIf = dblSum

End Function

The function can be used in the following way:

= SumValueIf(A1:A10; "abc"; B1:B10)

where A1:A10 is the compare column. Only sum the value in column B1:B10 if the value in column A is equal to "abc".

Excel VBA: Convert Variant Array to String Array

To simplify the conversion of a variant array to a string array we have made a set of utility functions.

' Array Variant to String

Public Function VariantArrayToStringArray(ByVal arrVariants As Variant) As String()

    Dim arrStrings() As String

   

    ' Get the string array

    Call ParamArrayToStringArray(arrVariants, arrStrings)

   

    ' Get the string array

    VariantArrayToStringArray = arrStrings

End Function

' Array Variant to String

Public Sub ParamArrayToStringArray(ByVal arrVariants As Variant, ByRef arrStrings() As String)

    Dim intLength As Integer

   

    ' Handle the array

    Call ParamArrayToStringArrayInternal(arrVariants, arrStrings, intLength)

End Sub

' Array Variant to String

Private Sub ParamArrayToStringArrayInternal(ByVal arrVariants As Variant, ByRef arrStrings() As String, ByRef intLength As Integer)

    ' Parameter is array?

    If (IsArray(arrVariants)) Then

        Dim i As Integer

        Dim objValue As Variant

   

        ' Walk through the specified partner objects

        For i = LBound(arrVariants) To UBound(arrVariants) Step 1

            ' Get the value

            objValue = arrVariants(i)

       

            ' Array to string

            Call ParamArrayToStringArrayInternal(objValue, arrStrings, intLength)

        Next

    Else

        ' Next item

        intLength = intLength + 1

   

        ' Expand array

        ReDim Preserve arrStrings(1 To intLength)

        ' Set the value

        arrStrings(intLength) = CStr(arrVariants)

    End If

End Sub

Excel VBA: Expand and Collapse Group

In Excel it is possible to group rows and columns. To expand or collapse a a group you can use the VBA method called ShowLevels. In the example below we are expanding a row group. We have also disabled automatic recalculation to improve the performance.

' Show Level

Public Sub ShowGroupLevel(ByVal intRowLevel As Integer)

    Dim intCalculation As XlCalculation

    ' Get the old calculation state

    intCalculation = Application.Calculation

    ' Disable re-calculation

    Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual

    ' Show the specified level (expanded)

    On Error Resume Next

    Call ActiveWorkSheet.Outline.ShowLevels(RowLevels:=intRowLevel)

    On Error GoTo 0

    ' Restore automatic calculation

    Application.Calculation = intCalculation

End Sub

Please notice that expand and collapse work in the same way. Collapsing a group is the same as only displaying the first level. Expand is the same as showing level 2 or more.

Excel VBA: Get all selected rows

If the user does does a selection of rows in Excel, the selection can contain multiple areas. An area is a subselection of rows created when the user presses the Shift button while doing a multiselect. In VBA we need to handle each area independently to be able to retrieve all the selected rows.

' Example
Public Sub Test()

    Dim objSelection As Range

    Dim objSelectionArea As Range

    Dim objCell As Range
    Dim intRow As Integer


    ' Get the current selection

    Set objSelection = Application.Selection

    ' Walk through the areas

    For Each objSelectionArea In objSelection.Areas

        ' Walk through the rows

        For intRow = 1 To objSelectionArea.Rows.Count Step 1

            ' Get the row reference

            Set objCell = objSelectionArea.Rows(intRow)

            ' Get the actual row index (in the worksheet).

            ' The other row index is relative to the collection.

            intActualRow = objCell.Row

            ' Get any cell value by using the actual row index

            ' Example:

            strName = objNameRange(intActualRow, 1).value

        Next

    Next

End Sub

In the example we have not defined the variables strName and objNameRange. For your reference the variables are defined as follows:

    Dim strName As String

    Dim objNameRange As Range

objNameRange can be any range in your selected worksheet.

Excel VBA: Send E-mail from Excel

There are several ways to send e-mail from Excel using Microsoft Outlook.

It is possible to use the built-in function ActiveWorkbook.SendMail. However, it only allows simple e-mails to be created, and there is no way to add attachments.

In this example we are going to use the COM library of Microsoft Outlook to get more control. Attachments are not covered in this example.

We start by checking if an instance of Outlook is already running. To be independent of the installed version of Outlook we use the GetObject to try to get an existing instance. Another option would have been to reference the Outlook library directly, but then we are required to update the reference every time a new version of Microsoft Office is installed. If no instance is running, we start Outlook by calling CreateObject. Please remember to close down Outlook when you are finished.  Otherwise you will get multiple instance of the same application without the user knowing it.

We get a reference to the current users inbox by calling getDefaultFolder(6).The value 6 is a constant referring to the Inbox. If you used a reference to the COM library, you would have used the enum value olFolderInbox.

' Send E-mail

' strTo - Recipients. List of e-mails (separated by ';')

Public Sub SendEmail(ByVal strTo As String)

    Dim objOutlookApp As Object

    Dim objEmail As Object

    Dim objMapi As Object

    Dim objInboxFolder As Object

    ' Valid e-mails?

    If (strTo = "") Then

        ' Error

        MsgBox "No e-mails have been set!", vbExclamation, "No e-mails"

       

        ' Finished

        Exit Sub

    End If

   

    ' Attach to outlook

    On Error Resume Next

    Set objOutlookApp = GetObject(, "Outlook.Application")

    On Error GoTo 0

   

    ' Is Outlook running?

    If (objOutlookApp Is Nothing) Then

        ' Create new instance of outlook

        Set objOutlookApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")

       

        ' Get the MAPI namespace (e-mails)

        Set objMapi = objOutlookApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")

       

        ' Get the inbox folder

        Set objInboxFolder = objMapi.getDefaultFolder(6)

       

        ' Display the inbox folder (make outlook visible)

        Call objInboxFolder.Display

    End If

   

    ' Create the new e-mail

    Set objEmail = objOutlookApp.CreateItem(0)

   

    ' Set the properties of the new email

    With objEmail

        ' Set the recipients

        .To = strTo

       

        ' Show the message

        Call .Display

       

        ' Resolve all recipients (Same as pressing the "Check Names" button)

        Call .Recipients.ResolveAll

    End With

    ' Free memory

    Set objEmail = Nothing

    Set objOutlookApp = Nothing

End Sub