Excel Baby Steps

HowToBecomeAnExcelGod(withoutreallytrying)
DrAlexanderJTurner2007 1
BabySteps
Dedicatedto:ProfessorI.H.Williams.
Forhistirelesssupportandguidanceofmyselfandmany
othersinoursearchforagreaterunderstandingof
nature'screation.
2 DrAlexanderJTurner2007
Table of Contents
Forward:RunTheWorldFromExcel!........................................7
A Dream No Reality......................................................................7
Who can benefit from Excel Scripting Macros?..............................8
Where Does This Idea Come From?................................................8
Why 'Baby Steps'.............................................................................9
Introduction:Whatisthisallaboutthen?...............................10
Do I Need To Be A Programmer?...................................................10
Using This Book............................................................................10
Lesson1:BasicConcepts.........................................................11
'Take Home' Ideas from Lesson 1..................................................14
Lesson2:BuildingBlockConcepts..........................................15
Collections:....................................................................................15
Variables:.......................................................................................17
More On Variables.........................................................................18
With Statements............................................................................20
Lesson3:Loops.......................................................................23
Finally we start to make things easier:.........................................23
Drag And Drop Scripting, An Introduction....................................24
For Loops.......................................................................................27
For Each Loops..............................................................................28
Lesson4:GettingTooledUp....................................................31
A Quick Note.................................................................................31
Get A Good Text Editor..................................................................31
Recording Macros.........................................................................32
Translating Recorded Macros.......................................................36
Keyboard and Mouse to Script Translation..........................................................36
Translating Excel Constants.................................................................................37
Using The Object Browser.............................................................39
Finding And Removing Bugs.........................................................41
Lesson5:StartingToWorkWithData.....................................45
Special Folders..............................................................................45
Using 'SendTo' As A Really Easy Way To Run Scripts..........................................46
Saving And Opening From Special Folders..........................................................47
Merging Between Workbooks........................................................48
Merging Data By Example....................................................................................48
Dictionary Objects.................................................................................................49
Simple Merge Script.............................................................................................51
Working Merge Script...........................................................................................53
Merging Multiple Columns...................................................................................56
Lesson6:Reading&WritingFiles...........................................59
What Is A File?..............................................................................59
Writing To A Text File....................................................................60
BabySteps
Reading From A Text File..............................................................62

Reading And Writing In Chunks....................................................64
Listing Files...................................................................................66
Lesson7:EnhancedDataProcessing......................................71
Subroutines And Functions...........................................................71
Death By Dates..............................................................................74
DateAdd And DateSerial Fixing The Problem....................................................77
Importing Data From CSV Files....................................................80
Creating Reports...........................................................................87
Lesson8:WorkingWithPivotTables.......................................93
Why Pivot Tables Are So Very Important.......................................93
Understanding Pivot Tables...........................................................93
Creating An Example Pivot Table.........................................................................94
Creating A Pivot Table And Scripting Macro.................................96
Creating Pivot Tables Using Scripts............................................106
Looking At The Recorded Macro........................................................................106
Finished Product.................................................................................................111
Tricks To Improve Data To Help Pivoting....................................113
Banding Data.......................................................................................................113
Cleaning Data......................................................................................................115
The Page Area.....................................................................................................115
Lesson9:Working'OutsideTheBox'.....................................117
Accessing Binary Files.................................................................117
Reading Data From Binary Files An Example..................................................119
ADODB.Stream Summary...................................................................................121
Properties............................................................................................................121
Methods...............................................................................................................122
Sending Key Strokes To Other Applications Through .................123
Stopping Excel From Complaining.....................................................................125
Choice And Decision Processing................................................126
Yes Excel Really Is This Powerful!....................................................................126
What Is Choice/Decision Processing?.................................................................126
First Off Just The Very Minimum Of Logic.......................................................127
TRUE & FALSE....................................................................................................127
Chaining Decisions To Make Rules.....................................................................128
Blocks And Zeds..................................................................................................130
Putting It All Together.........................................................................................131
Moving From One To Many.................................................................................136
Lesson10:SpeedingScriptsUp............................................139
Cell By Cell Access Is Slow..........................................................139
Bulk Data Loading With Arrays...................................................140
What Is An Array?...............................................................................................140
Using Arrays Like Spread Sheets.......................................................................141
Bulk Data Transfer With Copy/Paste...........................................143
Don't Forget Formulae And Fills.................................................143
AppendixA:DifferencesWithExcel2007.............................145
Recording Macros:......................................................................145
Showing The Developer Tab (Accessing VBA).............................146
Creating A Pivot Table.................................................................149
AppendixB:HowThisBookWasWritten..............................157
AppendixC:WhyScriptWhenExcelHasMacros?................159
One Final Thing...................................................................................................160
AppendixD:VBScriptBuiltInFunctions&Constants...........161
Built In Functions........................................................................161
The Functions Enumerated And Explained........................................................161
Built In Constants................................................................................................170
Built In String Constants.....................................................................................170
AppendixE:NamedArgumentsAndThe:=Symbol.............173
Why This Is Here.........................................................................173
The Where, Why And When Of :=...............................................173
How To Translate From Named Arguments................................174
Errata....................................................................................176
Index.....................................................................................177
BabySteps
Forward: Run The World From Excel!

Mostcalculationsandnearlyallbusinessprocessesstartoutlifein
Excel. They grown in complexity and slowly require multiple
spreadsheetstofunction. Humanerrorleaksintothemixandthe
wholehouseofcardscomescrashingdown.
Thestandardsolutiontothischallengeistocommissionsomehuge
softwaresystemtosolveallourproblemsinonehit. Thissuper
systemwillbedeliveredlateandwillbeoverbudget.Whatisworse,
therequirementswillhavemovedonsincethesystemwasdesigned.
Thewonderful(wonderfullyexpensive)systemwillsolveyesterday's
problemsandnotaddresstoday's.
ThefinalactinourITtragedyiswheretheinadequaciesofthesuper
systemareovercome by preand postprocessingall thedata with
Excel!
Alltheabovepaincansoeasilybeavoided.ItiscausedbyExcelonly
goingsofar. Excelwillprocessdata,butnotautomaticallychain
processingstepstogether. Thislackofchainingmeansthathumans
endupintheprocesses.Evenhighlytrainedhumansmakemistakes
at the rate of 1 in 200 to 300 hundred repeated actions. Data
processingwhichinvolvesignificanthumaninteractionwillbecome
unstuckirrespectiveofhowhardthepeopletry.
A Dream No Reality
How about a world where data processing and business decisions
take place in Excel without human error? All repetitive tasks are
automatedandefficient.Inthisworld,wewouldhavetheflexibility
and responsiveness of Excel but the reliability and speed of a
dedicatedsystem.
Howaboutaddingtothiswishlist?Itwouldalsobegreatifeventhe
mostcomplexprocesseswererenderedsosimpletosetupthatnon
programmerscoulddoit!
This is not a fantasy world, it exists. The techniques of Excel
ScriptingMacrosdoexactlywhatisrequired.Ibelievethatanentire
business, of thousands of people, could be run with just Excel
ScriptingMacros, Excelandafree database. 90%ofallbusiness
processescanbeperformedevenwithoutthedatabase,allweneedis
ExcelandScriptingMacros.
BabySteps
Who can benefit from Excel Scripting Macros?

Ifyouareina smallbusiness andwanttoautomated work
flowthisisforyou.
If you are in a huge business and want to process
performancefiguresthisisforyou.
Ifyouareresearchinganimalbehaviourandneedtoanalyse
resultsthisisforyou.
Ifyouwanttoapplyarulesettochoosewho,outof10000
employees,getsaChristmasbonusthisisforyou.
Ifyouwanttodojustaboutanythingthatinvolvednumbers,
dataorrulesthisisforyou!
Where Does This Idea Come From?
The school of hard kicks, thatthis where is comes from. Back in
20012002 I began to realise two things. Firstly, the huge and
complex Java based systems on which I was working just never
providedwhatrealpeoplewanted.Secondly,nearlyallbusinesswas
alreadybeingperformedinExcel.
ItwasatthistimethatIsetupacompany'JDIT'totakeadvantageof
theserealisations. WetookExceland,usingExcelmacros,pushed
waybeyondwhatmostpeoplehaddreamtof.However,despitethe
success of the concept, it was not fully what was needed. The
systemsJDITproducedweretoolargeandtwocomplex. Insome
ways,theyturnedExcelinto thehugeandcomplexsystemsI was
tryingtogetawayfrom.
The key breakthrough came when considering how to directly
interconnectExcelwithalargeweb basedsystemforwhichIwas
architect. IrealisedthatasimplescriptcouldrunExcelandplace
dataintoit.ThetechnologyIhadusedinJDITinsideExcelcould
be put outside Excel in a script. However, the result was much
morepowerfulthanIhadexpectedbecauseitallowedcomplexthings
tobedoneinsimpleways.Contrastthis,ifyouwould,withnormal
ITwheresimplethingsaredoneinextremelycomplexways!
Excel Scripting Macros evolved a fair way from this initial wow
moment. The next challenge was to beat every last ounce of
complexityoutoftheapproach.Thatwasnotasstraightforwardas
one might imagine. But, each time I found an approach which
reduced complexity, the project on which I was working benefited
enormously.Inshort,IknewIwasontherighttrack.
Why 'Baby Steps'

UptothispointIhadthoughtofExcelScriptingMacrosasagood
waytosolveproblemsontheprojectswithwhichIwasinvolved.As
time went on, feedback from my coworkers and my blog
(www.nerdscentral.com) started to indicate they had crossed a
watershed. Nolongerwasthisseenasaprogrammerconceptbut
more as a business tool. The opportunity to devolve data and
decisionprocessingfromprogrammerstothepeoplewhoneededit
wastantalisingtosaytheleast.
I knew that to achieve this breakthrough democratisation of
technology,thelearningcurvewouldhavetobeveryshallow.Hence,
Icameupwiththenotionof'BabySteps';Aseriesoftinystepswhich
takeapersonfrombeingfamiliarwithExcelthroughtobeingableto
performseeminglysuperhumanfeatswithit.
Havingconsideredmanyformatsfrom blog to podcast,Ifigureda
friendlybookformatwasideal.Abookthatisnotfullofpaddingto
getthepagecountup.Abookthatissmallenoughtofitinalaptop
caseandreadonthetrain.Inshort,abookwhich,likeitscontents,
demandsonlytheminimumofeffortinvestedforthemaximumof
benefitgiven.
BabySteps
Introduction: What is this all about then?

'Babysteps'isallaboutlearninghowtowrite'ScriptingMacros'for
Excel.IamsurethatyouhaveheardofExcelMacros.Thesearelittle
programsembeddedintoanExcelWorkbookwhich automate tasks.
Scriptingmacrosareverysimilar.Thebiggestdifferenceisthatthey
donot'live'insideaWorkbook.Theyaresmallfilesthatexistoutside
WorkbooksbutcanactupononeormoreWorkbooksatonce.
Because Scripting Macros are outside of the Workbooks on which
theyact,theyareverymuchmoreflexiblethantraditionalMacros.
They also get around many of the nasty security problems and
consequentrestrictionsthatarepartandparcelofExcelMacrosthese
days.
Theconceptbehind'BabySteps'isthat,whilstyoucanbesomething
massively complex with Scripting Macros, it is also possible to do
amazingstuffwithmassivelysimpleScriptingMacros.Experiencein
thefieldhasshownthattheapproachhashugebenefitstobusiness
processes which are dependant on people sending data to one
another via Excel spreadsheets. Automation via Scripting Macros
removes'typo'mistakeswhichpeopletendtomakewhenfacedwith
repetitivetasks.Additionally,oneortwosimpleScriptingMacroscan
processdatathatwouldtraditionallybeloadedintoa database and
fromwhichprogrammerswouldwritereports.
Do I Need To Be A Programmer?
100%no.Theideabehind'Babysteps'isthatalittleknowledgewill
takeyouaverylongway.Eachconceptistiedbackto'realworld'
examplesandeveryeffortpossiblehasbeentakentoremovejargon!
IfyoucanuseExcel,youcanunderstand'BabySteps'.
Youdonotneedtobeaprogrammer.
Thisbookwillnottrytoteachyoutobeaprogrammer.
Using This Book
Ifyouhaveneverdoneanycomputerscriptingatall,donotworry.
Everythingyouneedtoknowiscontainedinlessons1,2and3. If
youareslightlyfamiliarwiththeconceptsofscripts,loopsVariables
andallthatstuff,thendiveinatlesson4.
Evenifyouareanexpertprogrammer,youmaygainalotfromthe
laterchapters.Iwouldrecommendalittlespeedreadingatlesson4
topickupafewtipsandthendiveinmoreatlesson5.
Lesson 1: Basic Concepts

Letusstartoffconsideringdrinkingaglassofwine...
Toinstructacomputerthatapersonshoulddrinkaglassofwine,it
seemslogicaltotellthecomputerthatthereisa'thing'calledperson
anda'thing'called glass-of-wine.Oncewehaveestablishedthis
setup,wecansaysomethinglike:
persondrinkglassofwine
(Thehyphensareincludedjustforclarity,togroupwords
together)
NowwehavestartedwritingaScriptingMacro. Tomakethisabit
morerealisticweneedtosplitouttheconceptof'aglassofwine'from
'myglassofwine'.Afterall,youwanttoknowwhichglassyourare
drinking(atleastatthestartoftheevening).
Todothis,wemightwritesomethinglikethis:
set my-glass-of-wine to be a-glass-of-wine
set my-person to be a-person
my-person.drink(the-glass-of-wine)
YoucanprobablytellthatIamgoingsomewherewiththelayoutof
these'pseudoscripts';Iamtransformingeverydayspeakintotheway
wetellthecomputertodostuff.Alotofthetime,itisfairlystraight
forwardtodoso.Sometimes,however,historyandconventiongetin
theway.But,fornow,letuscontinuealongthispath.
Key Concept:
Incomputerspeak,wecall'myglassofwine'anObjectandwecall'a
glassofwine'aclassofobjects,orsimplyaClass.
Onereallynicethingaboutcomputingisthatmakingglassesofwine
isverysimpleandjustaboutfree.Ifwewantanewglassofwine,we
just say something like 'Create myglassofwine which is from the
Classof'aglassofwine'.
Makingglassesofwineinascriptmightlooksomethinglikethis:
set my-glass-of-wine = CreateObject(a-glass-of-wine)
Butactually,hyphensbetweenwordsarenotallowedsoweput:
set myGlassOfWinne = CreateObject(aGassOfWine)
BabySteps
Thatdoesnotlookverymuchlikeeverydayspeakanylonger,but
thereisaclearlineagetobeseen! Onequestionthatcomesupis
whatdoesthe'='signmean?Therearetwothings'='canmeanin
ScriptingMacros:
1) Does x equal y, as in:
if x = y then
2) Make x equal to y, i.e. load the value of y into
x, as in:
Set x = y
or:
set myExcel=CreateObject(Excel.Application)
Nowwecanputallthistogethertomakeanearlycompleteprogram:
' Create the Objects which we require
set myself = CreateObject(People.Person)
set myGlass = CreateObject(Wine.Glass)
' Do stuff with the Objects, in this case

' Object myself, drink the Object myGlass:
' drink is a pre-defined Method which any
' Object from the Class People.Person can do.
mySelf.drink(myGlass)
To explain what is described in the comments to the code above:

.drinkiswhatwecallaMethod.ItisamethodoftheObjectmySelf.
Wedonothavetodefinewhat.drinkisbecauseitsdefinitioncomes
along with Class People.Person. Because mySelf is a Object from
People.Person(itisapersonObject)itwillhavetheMethoddrink.
Methods(doingthings)canhaveparenthesisafterthem. Insidethe
parenthesistherecanbealistofthingsthemethodistoworkwith.
In the above example, the list has one element myGlass. Some
methods,likethe .Add methodofExcel'sWorkbooks collection,have
noelementsinthelistandsoarefollowedbyemptyparenthesisasin
.Workbooks.Add().
IhavecalledtheClassesPeople.PersonandWine.Glass,withthese
doublenames,becausethatisthe Microsoft convention. AnExcel
application is called Excel.Application. To create one you put
CreateObject(Excel.Application).
Nowwehavefiguredouthowtoget'CyberSloshed',letusseeiswe
canapplythesamethingtoExcel!
set myExcel = CreateObject(Excel.Application)
This simple piece of code actually causes Windows to create a

completelynewExcelapplication.The'Variable'myExcel'refers'toit.
So,laterintheprogram,whenwewanttodosomethingwithExcel,
we can use the Variable 'myExcel' to pass instructions to our new
Excelapplication.
Forourveryfirst'babystep'towardsbeinganExcelgod,wearegoing
todojustthat.WearegoingtocreateaninstanceofExcelanddo
somethingwithit.Thatsomethingwillbesimplytomakeitvisible
(theyarecreatedhidden)andthencreateanew,emptyWorkbook
insideit.
Pleasefollowtheseinstructionstothelettertocreateyourveryfirst
ExcelMacroScript:
1) Open Notepad
2) Type in:

myExcel.visible = TRUE
myExcel.Workbooks.Add()
3) Save your magical words as step1.vbs on your desktop.

4) Double click on the Icon that has appeared on your
desktop to represent you new file.
5) Stand back in amazement!
Thispieceofcodecanbedescribedinwordslikethis:
SettheVariable myExcel tobeannewlycreated Object
which is from the Class Excel.Application. Make the
visible Property of that Object be true. Get the
Workbooks Property ofthatObjectandrunitsMethod
Add,whichwillcauseanewWorkbooktobecreated.
BabySteps
'Take Home' Ideas from Lesson 1

WehaveseenthatMacroScriptscancontrolExcelandthatthey
haveadirectlineagefromnormalEnglish.
Whenwritingscripts,werepresentreal,tangiblethings(like
glassesofwineorworkbooks)asObjects.Theobject
'myGlassOfWine'comesfromtheClassofObjects'aGlassOfWine'.
MacroScriptsaresimpletextfiles.Theyareeditedusingatext
editor(likenotepad)andsavedwiththe'.vbs'fileextension.
WhenwritingaScriptingMacro,beforewedoanythingwith
Excel,weneedtocreateanExcel.ApplicationObject.
Lesson 2: Building Block Concepts

Collections:
Fig1:AdigramshowinghowinExcelObjectsoftenhave
CollectionsofObjectsinsidethem.ACollectionholdsalistof
zeroormoreObjectsinsideitandallowsyoutofindthose
Objectsbyindex(e.g.0,1,2etc.,orsometimes:1,2,3etc.)or
name(e.g.sheet1,sheet2etc.).Thisdiagramshowsyouhow
tostartoffwithExcel.Applicationand'drill'allthewaydownto
individualCellsinaSheet.
BabySteps
Inlessononewelookedathowthings,likeglassesofwineandExcel
Applications,arecalled Objects.'myGlassOfWine'isanObjectwhilst
'aGlassOfWine'definesaClassofObjectsandsowecallitaClass.
WhenworkingwithExcel,weuseObjectsalot;also,wetendtousea
lotofthesameClassofObjectatonce.WhenyoucreateaWorkbook
Object(likewedidwithwithoursimplescript)youseethreeSheets,
notone.Indeed,anExcel.ApplicationcanhavemanyWorkbooksand
eachWorkbookcanhavemanySheetsandeachSheetwillhavemany
Cells.
To handle all these groups of Objects, Microsoft use what it calls
'Collections'. These are numbered, and sometimes named, lists of
Objects. A Collection is also an Object its self. For example, a
CollectionofWorkbooksisanObjectfromtheClassofCollections.
All Collections have the Property .count (note, because it is a
Property,notaMethod,thereisnoparenthesis).Thistellsyouhow
manythingsareinsidetheCollection.SomespecialCollectionshave
other properties and/or Methods. For example, Excel's Workbooks
Collection has .Add() to create a new Workbook and .Open(file
name)toopenanexistingWorkbook.
If we draw out the relationships of Excel.Application, Workbook,
SheetandCell,wegetsomethinglikeFigure1.
TofindtheObjectforaCell,wemightdosomethinglikethis:
' Create an Excel.Application Object
Set myExcel = CreateObject(Excel.Application)
' Cause Excel to create a Workbook (it starts
' with none). This is done by 'adding' one to
' the Collections of Workbooks
' Find the first Workbook in the Collection

' of Workbooks. i.e. this says: set the
' word 'myWorkbook' to refer to the Workbook
' Object at position 1 in the Collection.
Set myWorkbook = myExcel.Workbooks(1)
' Do the same this time but to get a Sheet

Set mySheet = myWorkbook.Sheets(1)
' Finally, find one particular Cell

Set myCell = mySheet.Cells(1,1)
' Now we have the top left Cell of

' the first Sheet. i.e. the Object which represents
' the Cell at the top left hand corner of the first
' Sheet.
'
' We can use this Object to
' write the value of the contents of the Cell.
myCell.Value = Hello World
KeyConcept:
CollectionsareawayofstoringzeroormoreObjectssothattheycan
beeasilyfoundandused.
Variables:
Whenweput:
Set myExcel= CreateObject(Excel.Application)
Wearesaying:
SetaVariablecalledmyExceltorefertoanewlycreated
Excel.ApplicationObject.
WhenworkingwithObjectsinExcel,weoftensetVariablestoreferto
ObjectstomakeiteasytousetheseObjects.Hereisanexampleasto
why:
' Try to set a Cell's contents without using Variables
' Step 1: Open up Excel and create a new Workbook
' in it
CreateObject(Excel.Application).Workbooks.Add()
' Are, now I am unstuck, because I no longer have a
' way of 'getting to' to the Excel.Application
' Object.
Thesolution,aswesawbefore,istosetaVariabletorefertothe
Excel.Application Object. This approach has other benefits as well.
Oncewegetthehangofitwecan:
1. Saveourselvesalotoftyping.
2. Savethecomputeralotof'thinking'.
3. Make developing (adding to, editing, improving) scripts
mucheasier.
Theseadvantagescomefromtheabilitytostore'working'information
inVariablesjustlikewemightstorenotesonpostits.Ifyouhadto
work out what the square root of 23456 was each morning, you
mightwellwritedowntheanswertosavetheeffort! Variablesare
usedforthispurposeinscripting.
BabySteps
KeyConcept:
Variablesarelike'postitnotes'forscripts;theyallowustostorethings
sowedonothavetokeeprecreatingthem.
Letusseethis'postitnote'conceptinusebyaddingtoourprevious
script:
' Create an Excel.Application Object
' Cause Excel to create a Workbook (it starts

' with none). This is done by 'adding' one to
' the Collection of Workbooks
' Find the first Workbook in the

' Collection of Workbooks
set myWorkbook = myExcel.Workbooks(1)
' Do the same but this time to get a Sheet

set mySheet = myWorkbook.Sheets(1)
' Finally, find one particular Cell

set myCell = mySheet.ells(1,1)
' Now we have an Object for the top left Cell of

' the first Sheet. We can use this Object to
' set the value of the contents of the Cell.
myCell.value = Hello World
' Now we can re-use the mySheet Variable to get

' the Object for the next Cell in the Column
set myCell = mySheet.Cells(2,1)
myCell.value = Hello Again
HerewehavereusedthevalueofmySheetratherthanhavingtore
findtheSheetObject. ThisuseofaVariablehassavedusrewring
andrerunningallthecodewhichfindstheSheet.
More On Variables
VariablesdonotonlyrefertoObjects;theycanholdotherstufflike
Numbers,DatesandStrings(piecesoftextarecalled'Strings'asin'a
stringofcharacters').
When working with Excel Scripting Macros we are using a
programming language called VBScript. VBScript, just like any
programminglanguagethathasbeenaroundforawhile,hashistory;
ithasaccumulatedafewoddities.Whilstthesecanbeexplained,itis
oftenbettertojustacceptthem. Oneoftheseisthewaywework
withVariablesandthingswhicharenotObjects.
Strings,Numbers,DatesandBooleans(logicalvalues,true/false)are
notObjectsin VBScript. Thisisnotforanyparticularreasonother
thanhistory. Variablesare almostexactly the samewhen working
withObjectsandnonObjects,appartfromonelittlething:wedonot
'set'Variablestononobjects.So:
Set Cell = mySheet.Cells(1,1) ' OK
myString = Hello World ' OK
myNumber = 1.0 ' OK
Set myNumber = 2 ' WRONG (2 is not an object)
myObject = CreateObject(Excel.Application) ' WRONG
One way of thinking about this is to say that Numbers, Strings,

BooleansandDatesaretoosimpletobethoughtofasObjectsandso
aretreateddifferently.Alsonotethatifnumberisinquotesitisused
astext.1.0isnotanumber,itisaString.
Youmighthavealsorealisedbynowthatanytextafter'onalineis
considered to be a comment. Comments are not read by the
computer and have no effect on the script, they are there to help
peoplereadingthescripttoknowwhatisgoingon.Thecomment
goesfromthefirst'totheendoftheline.
NowwehaveareallypowerfultoolbecausewecanletaVariable
readthevaluefromaCellandwecanwriteaVariable'svalueintoa
Cell.ThisisthebasisofmostExcelMacroScriptingdataprocessing.
' Script to show how values can be read and
' written in and out of Cells and Variables
' =========================================
' Start the process by writing a value into

' the top left Cell
myCell.value = 1
' We can then take that value and work with it

myValue = myCell.value
' (explain how this is done)
myValue = myValue + 1
' Get the next Cell along (B1)
BabySteps
' This will make the value of B1 be 2

myCell.Value = myValue
With Statements
Withstatements areanotherwayofworkingwithObjectwhichcan
behandyasanadditiontousingVariables.Thisisespeciallysoifwe
wanttodoseveralthingswiththesameObjectintightsequence.It
iseasiesttoshowthisbyanexample;herewewillsetthevaluesof
severalCellsinsequence.
' Here is the with, note the extra indentation

' which is here to make the code easier for
' humans to read:
With myWorkbook.Sheets(1)
.Cells(1,1).value="Row=1,Col=1"
End With
KeyConcept:
NotehowanythinginsidetheWith(betweentheWithand EndWith)
whichbegins.istreatedasaMethodorpropertyoftheObjecttowhich
theWithstatementrefers.

ObjectsarestoredinCollectionstomakethemeasiertofind.
InExcel,manyObjectshaveaCollectionofObjectsasoneoftheir
Properties.Thisallowsusto'drilldown'fromatoplevelObject
likeExcel.ApplicationallthewaydowntoCells.
VariablesarenamedcontainersforObjectsornonObjectdata
likeStrings,Booleans,DatesandNumbers.
VariablesareahandywayofbeingabletofindanObjectonce
butuseitseveraltimes.
AnotherhandywayofusingthesameObjectseveraltimesisto
useaWithstatement.
BabySteps
Lesson 3: Loops
Finally we start to make things easier:
Iamnotyou,butifItrytoimaginebeingyou,rightnowIwouldbe
thinking:
Thisisallverywell,butIhavejusttakenanagetodosomethingI
couldhavedoin30secondswithExcelusingjustformulaeorfills.
Thatsentimentisperfectlycorrect!So,itistimetostartdoingsome
stuffwhichiseasierandfastertodowithscriptsthanitisbyhand,
andthatusuallyinvolvesloops.
Fig2:Thelooptapemodelofcomputerloops.Hereweare
makingaloopwhichsays'Add2And2'overandoveragain,for
ever!
People do not normally like doing the same thing over and over
again;computersloveit. Loopsareawayoftellingacomputerto
'loopover'thesamesetofactionsrepeatedly.Youcanthinkofloops
BabySteps
as 'loop tapes'. Figure 2 shows graphically how this mental model

works.
Theobviousflawinthisapproachisthattheloopwillrunforever.
Thisiscalledan'InfiniteLoop'. Sometimesinprogrammingthisis
exactlywhatyouwant.Mostofthetime,however,wewanttoloop
onlyuntilsomecriterionhasbeenmet.
ForExample:
1. WorkdownColumnAoneCellatatime.
2. AddthecontentsoftheCellyouareontotoitsrownumber.
3. PuttheresultintothesamerowinColumnB.
4. StopwhenyougettoanemptyCellinColumnA.
Thatexampleisexactlythesortofthingonedoesallthetimewhen
Scripting Macros. The way that it automatically stops when a
conditionismet(whenanemptyCellisreached)hintsatthepower
ofthistechniquewhencomparedtojustusingformulaeinExcel.
Drag And Drop Scripting, An Introduction
Tomakemeaningfullexamplesofhowloopscanautomaterepetitive
tasks, we need to be able to load preexisting Excel Workbooks.
Again,fromexperienceinthefield,thebestwaytoachievethisisvia
'draganddropscripting'.
ThisapproachworksbyclickingonaWorkbookfileand dragging it
over the icon for our script. When we 'drop' (release the mouse
button)Windowsrunsthescriptandtellsthescriptthefilenameof
theWorkbookyoudroppedonit. Windows'tells'youthefilename
byaspecialCollectionthatyoucanalwaysusefrominsidethescript.
This is the WScript.Arguments Collection. All scripts of type '.vbs'
(VBScript)haveaspecialObjectprecreatedthatiscalled WScript.
YoucandolotsofhandythingswithWScript;readingthenamesof
fileswhichhavebeendroppedontoascriptisjustoneofthem.
Figure4:HereistheWorkbookfileBabyStepsExamples.xlsbeing
'draganddropped'ontoaMacroScriptfile.Whenthescriptruns,
thefilenameoftheWorkbookwillbebeplacedinthe
WScript.ArgumentsCollectionofthescriptatindex0.
Now that we have figured out how to tell a script which Excel
Workbooktoopen,weneedtoactuallyopenit.Thispieceofcode
willopenanExcelWorkbookwhichisdroppedontoit:
' Create an Excel application Object and make it
' become visible
Set myExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
myExcel.visible=true
' WScript.Arguments is a special Collection into

' which Windows places a list of the file names of any
' files that were dropped on to the script.
' It is a bit unusual because it starts from index 0,
' rather index 1 like most Collections do.
' You just have to remember it as a special case!
myFileName = Wscript.Arguments(0)
' The Workbooks Collection has a special method

' which loads and Workbook file into a new Workbook.
Set myWorkbook=myExcel.Workbooks.Open(myFileName)
Now that we have automated the loading of a Workbook we can

automateitsprocessingusingascript.Aswehaveseen,eachCell
Object has a Property Value. There isa special Method built into
VBScriptwhichcantellifavalueisempty. ThisMethodiscalled
BabySteps
IsEmpty(). Itproduces a Booleanvalueof true or false. Itisthis

handymethodthatweusedtocontrolwhenourloopwillexit.Here
isanexamplescript,whichIwilldiscussinmoredetailafterwards:
myFileName = WScript.Arguments(0)
Set myWorkbook=myExcel.Workbooks.Open(myFileName)
' Note that the Sheets Collection starts at

' the more normal index of 1.
Set mySheet=myWorkbook.Sheets(1)
' row is a Variable in which we store the number

' of the current row that the loop is working on.
' We are going to start with row = 2 because
' Row 1 holds the headers. Please also note
' I have called this Variable row just to make
' the script easy to read for humans. It could
' be called anything. For example, I could have
' called the Variable bob as in: bob = 2
row = 2
' This loop will carry on until the current

' Row has an empty Cell in Column 1.
' For a full descripting of this
' loop, see the main text of "Baby Steps"
While Not IsEmpty(mySheet.Cells(row,1).Value)
mySheet.Cells(row,2).value = _
mySheet.Cells(row,1).value * 2.0
row = row + 1
Wend
Note:ifyouendaline_itmeansthatthelineiscontinuedon
thenextline.i.e.:
a = _
b
Isthesameas:
a = b
TotestthisscriptweshouldcreateanExcelWorkbookinwhichthe
firstSheethasvaluessomethinglikethis:
Price Price $
1.5
2.3
0.5
OncethescripthasrunthefirstSheetwilllooklikethis:
Price Price $
1.5 3.0
2.3 4.6
0.5 1.0
To achieve this the script has performed the following steps

(rememberthatCellsarereferencedy,xi.e.row,column):
1. StartedwiththeVariablerowwithvalue2.
2. CheckedthatValueofCell(2,1)andfoundittobenotempty.
3. TakentheValueofCell(2,1)andmultiplieditby2.
4. PlacedtheresultofthecalculationinCell(2,2).
5. Added1tothevalueofrowandputtheresultbackintorow.
6. CheckedthatValueofCell(3,1)andfoundittobenotempty.
7. TakentheValueofCell(3,1)andmultiplieditby2.
8. PlacedtheresultofthecalculationinCell(3,2).
9. CheckedthatValueofCell(4,1)andfoundittobeempty.
10. Notprocessedtheloopanyfurther(sometimescalled'exiting
theloop').
For Loops
Sofarwehavelookedat While loops. Thesearethemostobvious
form of loop; they say keep doing something while something is
true.Theyarenottheonlyformofloop.Anothersortthatisquite
usefulistheForloop.Theysaydosomethingforacertaincount.
Thefollowingtwoloopsarecompletelyidentical.
' While loop:
bob = 2
While bob < 10
mySheet.Cells(bob,1)= Row number = & bob
bob = bob + 1
Wend
' For loop:

For bob = 2 To 9
mySheet.Cells(bob,1)= Row number = & bob
Next
BabySteps
Note:ifbob = 3thenRow number = & bobproduces

Row number = 3i.e.thesymbol&joinsaStringtoa
String,Number,BooleanorDate.
Because,inExcelscripting,wearemoreoftenthannotloopingover
data until some data related condition is met, For loops are less
commonthanWhileloops.However,asyoucanseefromtheabove
example,whenyoucanusethemtheytakeuplessspaceanditis
moreobviouswhatishappening.
For Each Loops
WehavejustseenhowForloopsareaneasywayofperformingaset
ofactionsforasetnumberofrepetitions.Howaboutifwewantto
performanactiononeachofthecontentsofaCollection?Inother
wordsForEachelementintheCollection.Happily,VBScriptprovides
uswithareallysimplewayofdoingthis.
WecouldmakethishappenusingaForloop:
For index = 1 To myWorkbook.Sheets.Count
mySheet = myWorkbook.Sheets(index)
mySheet.Cells(1,1).Value = Hello World
Next
However,usinga ForEach ismuchsimpler(andactuallyfasterfor

thecomputertorun)!
For Each mySheet In myWorkbook.Sheets
mySheet.Cells(1,1).vValue = Hello World
Next

Therearethreetypesofloopswhicharereallyhandy:While,For
andForEach.
TheeasiestwayofsettingupaScriptingMacrotoopenpre
existingWorkbooksistouseDragAndDropScripting.
WScriptisapreexistingObjectwhichisavailablefromall
scripts.Italowsus,amongstmanyotherthings,togetthefile
nameofaWorkbookwhichhasbeen'dropped'ontoourscript.
AlotofthetimewewillwanttoprocessCellsuntilwefindonor
moreemptyones.Thiscanbeachievedusingthehandy
IsEmpty()methodinconjunctionwithaWhileloop.
BabySteps
Lesson 4: Getting Tooled Up.

A Quick Note
From here onward in Baby Steps, there will be times when it is
impossibletofitawholelineofscriptingcodeintoalineonthepage.
To help prevent this being confusing, empty space at the start of
scriptlineswillbefilledwiththisspecialcharacter.Ifyoudo
noseeanyofthisgreystuffatthestartofaline,thenthelineisa
continuationfromthelineabove.
Get A Good Text Editor
Aswehaveseensofar,MacroScriptsarejusttextfiles.Textfilesare
unlikedocumentsfromthingslikeMSWordbecausetheycontainjust
characters;even newlines arestoredjustacharacters.Wecanedit
textfileswithNotepad(likewehavetillnow)butitisnotaverynice
toolfordoingthis.Beforeourscriptsgetmuchmorecomplex,itwill
bemucheasierforustouseamorepowerfultool.Fortunately,there
aremanyfreetexteditorsinexistence.Theyaresoimportanttothe
actofprogramming,thatmanypeoplehavecreatedthem.
MyfavouritetexteditorforWindowsisNotepad++.Itsnamegives
the game away. It is a lot like Notepad but with loads of extra
features like line numbering, text colouring and excellent
find/replacetools.
Notepad++is'OpenSource'andfreeofcharge.Thismeansthatyou
donothavetopayforitatallandyoucanuseitinanywayyou
wantotherthanresellit.
BabySteps
Figure4:ThisisascreenshotofNotepad++beingusedtoeditone
oftheexamplefilesfromBabySteps.
Todownloadacopy,pleasegotothisURL:
http://www.sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?
group_id=95717&package_id=102072.
Alternativelyyoucandotothepackagehomepageandfollowthe
linkstodownloadthebinaryexecutablefiles:
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/download.php
Recording Macros
ItwouldbeahugetasktolearnandrememberhowtogetExceltodo
everythingviaScriptsthatwecangetittodoviatheuserinterface.
Wow, that is scary. Fortunately, we do not have to learn and
rememberallthat!Excelhas(asyoumaywellalreadyknow)areally
handyfeaturecalledthe'MacroRecorder'.
The Macro Recorder records 'Internal' Macros; those being ones
which are embedded into a Workbook. However, Internal Macros
andScriptingMacrosasverysimilar.WecanrecordInternalMacros
andtheneasilytranslatethemintoScriptingMacrosorintopieces
whichcanbeaddedintoScriptingMacros.
First,IwillbrieflydescriberecordingMacrosforthispurpose.Then,
inthenextsection,IwillexplainhowtotranslatetheInternalMacros
intopiecesofScriptingMacro.
Figure5:HowtostartrecordingaMacro.
Theusualuseofthe MacroRecorder istocreateanInternalMacro
whichwillautomateatask.Usingitrequiresthreesimplesteps:
1. Startrecording.
2. Performthetask.
3. Stoprecording.
Startingtherecording,inmostversionsofExcel,isdoneviatheTools
menuoption. Figure5showsthisbeingdoneandAppendixAhas
detailsofhowtodoitinExcel2007.
Figure6:WhenchoosingaMacroname,youmayaswellusethe
oneExcelsuggestsbecauseyouarenotgoingtokeeptheMacro,
itisgoingtobetranslatedintoyourScript.
BabySteps
Once we have requested to start the Macro Recorder, we need to

nametheMacro.BecausewearenotgoingtokeepthisMacro(just
translateitintoaScriptingMacro)itisnotveryimportantwhatwe
callit; inmostcases,thenameExcelcreatesautomaticallyisjust
fine.
Oncewehavechosenanameandclicked'OK'(seefigure6)Excel
startsrecording.Eachactionwhichistaken(e.g.eachmouseclickor
button press) will be recorded as Visual Basic code which will
perform the same action. For example, selecting the top Row of
ColumnsAtoIwillcausetheMacroRecordertorecord:
Range(A1:I1).Select
Unfortunately, we cannot actually see the recording happen as it

records. However,itisimportanttothinkverycarefullyasweare
performingthetaskswhichwewantrecorded;everyactionwillbe
recorded,includingmistakes,'undos'andaccidentalCellselections!
Figure7:ThisscreenshotshowsasetofCellsbeingcoloured
whilsttheMacroRecorderisrunning.
RememberthatwearenotwantingtokeeptheMacro.Wearegoing
totranslateitintopartofaMacroScript.Becauseofthis,itismuch
easiertorecordaseparateshortMacroforeachstepofaprocessthan
torecordahugeMacroofanentire,complexprocess.Infigure7we
canseeaMacrobeingrecorded.Thisoneconsistsofselectingsome
Cellsandthencolouringthem.Thisisaboutthelevelofcomplexity
we should be aiming for in any one recording. There are some
exceptionswhereitisnotpossibletomakereallyshortrecordings.
Forexample,whenwecreatePivotTablesinlesson8.
Figure8:Thisscreenshotshowshow,oncetheactionswewant
recordinghavebeencompletedandtheMacroRecorderstopped,
wecanopentheVisualBasicEditorandviewtheMacrocode.
Figure9:HerewecanseehowthecodefortheMacrohasbeen
writtenintoaModuleofname'Module1'.Byexpandingthe
Modulesnodeinthelefthandtreeviewandthendoubleclicking
on'Module1'wecanseetherecordedcode.
BabySteps
Translating Recorded Macros

OncewehaverecordedaMacro,wecanusecopyandpastetoput
theMacrocodeintoNodepad++(orwhatevereditorweareusing).
WeareonlyinterestedinthecodebetweenthelinestartingSub
andthelineEndSub. Everythingelse,includingthesetwolines,
canbethrownaway.
The'raw'InternalMacrocodehastobetranslatedbeforeitwillwork
asaScriptingMacro.Translatingmacrosrequiresthreefundamental
steps:
1. The keyboard and mouse based approach of the Macro
shouldbeconvertedtoasimplerformforscripting.
2. Excelconstantsneedtobetranslatedintonumbers.
3. Theresultsof1and2needtobeintegratedintothescriptso
thatitoperatesonthecorrectObjects.
Keyboard and Mouse to Script Translation
InourexampleweliterallyselectedsomeCellsandthenchangedthe
backgroundcolour oftheselection.ThisisexactlywhattheMacro
Recorderhasrecorded.A Range Objectisidenticaltoa Cell Object
(whichwehaveusedbefore)exceptitreferstooneormoreCellsat
once.
mySheet.Cells(1,1).Value = Hello World
Is100%thesameas:
mySheet.Range(A1:A1).Value = Hello World
RangeandCellObjectshaveaMethod Select() whichsimplyselects

themjustasthoughyouhadselectedthemonaWorksheetusingthe
mouse.SotheMacroRecorderhasrecordedtheCellsbeingselected
and converted this action into the code which calls the Select()
MethodonaRange.
mySheet.Range(A1:I1).Select
OncetheCellshavebeenselected,theRecorderrecordsthechanges
tothatselection.Weshouldremovethisuseofaselectionandwork
withtheCellsdirectly:
Range(A1:I1).Select
With Selection.Interior
Becomes:
With mySheet.Range(A1:I1).Interior
The Interior PropertyofaCellorRangeObjectisaspecialObject

whichExcelusesforcontrollingthe colour, border andothervisual
Cellfeatures.
Translating Excel Constants
Excel constants arenumberswhichhavespecialmeaningstoExcel.
Forexamplethenumber1tellsthe Cell.Interior ObjectthataCell
border shouldbesolid.The MacroRecorder hasspecialnamesfor
theseconstants. Forexampleinsteadofusing1 to signify a solid
border,itwillusexlSolid;Excel'knows'thatxlSolidactuallymeans1.
Unfortunately,aScriptingMacrodoesnot'know'whatxlSolidmeans
sowetotellit.
BeforewecanwritethecodeintoaScriptingMacrotodefinexlSolid,
orany Excelconstant,weneedtofindoutwhatitsvalueis.Whilst
wemightbeabletorememberthevalueofoneortwoconstants,
Excelhashundredsofthem. Fortunatelyforus,Excelalsohasan
easytousetoolforfindingouttheirvalues.
Figure10:TostarttheprocessoffindingthevalueofanExcel
constantrightclickontheconstantintheVisualBasicviewofthe
Macro.
ExcelhasatoolcalledtheObjectBrowser.Wearegoingtolookinto
usingthisinmoredetailinthenextsection.Usingitforfindingthe
valueofExcelconstantsisverysimpleindeed.Thatisexactlywhat
wewilldonow.
BabySteps
Figure11:ThesecondsteptofindingoutthevalueofanExcel
constantistoclickon'Definition'whencontextmenucomesup.
AllthatisrequiredistoviewthecodeofourrecordedMacro.From
thisview,wecanrightclickonthetextoftheconstantitsself.Inour
example,ifwerightclickonthetext'xlAutomatic'acontextmenu
appears.Allweneedtodoisclickon'Definition'.
Figure12:Oncewehavechosen'Definition'fromthecontextmenu
overanExcelconstant,theObjectBrowserwillopen.Inthebottom
paneoftheObjectBrowser,wecanseethedefinitionoftheExcel
Constant.Inthiscase,xlAutomaticisdefined
as4105.
Oncewehaveclickedon'Definition'Excelwillautomaticallystartup
the Object Browser showing details of the constant on which we
clicked. Constantsareshownasthenumberinournormaldecimal
numbersystemandtheninbracketsusingthemorecomputercentric
hexadecimalsystem.Weonlyneedtoconsiderthedecimalversion.
ForourScriptingMacrotousetheconstantswehavetodefinethem
in the Scripting Macro. Hereis an example of thefinished Script
segment(thisisnotafullscript):
xlAutomatic = -4105
xlSolid = 1
With mySheet.Range(A1:I1).Interior
.ColorIndex = 36
.Pattern = xlSolid
.PatternColorIndex = xlAutomatic
End With
Using The Object Browser

IntheprevioussectionwesawhowExcelwillautomaticallylaunch
theObjectBrowserifweaskitforthedefinitionofanExcelconstant.
WecanalsomanuallyopentheusetheObjectBrowser.Thiscanbe
veryhandytohelpworkouthowtodosomethingwithExcel.
The Macro Recorder can be very helpful, however sometimes we
wanttoworkouthowtodosomethingwhichishardorfiddlytodo
withtheMacroRecorder.ThisiswheretheObjectBrowsercomesin
extremelyuseful.
JustabouteverythingExcelcandofromthegraphicalinterfaceitcan
alsodofromtheprogramminginterface.ThismeansthatourMacro
Scriptscandojustaboutanythingwewant.ToallowExceltohave
such excellent programmatic control, there are a huge number of
ObjectsandConstantsinExcel. Theseareallknownaboutbythe
ObjectBrowser.TheObjectBrowsertakesitsinternaldescriptionof
alltheseObjectsandConstantsanddisplaystheminahumanusable
form.Itisnotonlyabrowser,butalsoasearchengine.Youcanuse
ittosearchforObjectsorConstantsbyname.
TogettheObjectBrowserstarted,wefirstneedtobeinVisualBasic
ForApplications view(seefigure13). Fromthere,wecandirectly
opentheBrowserfromthe'View'menu.
BabySteps
Figure13:WecanstarttheObjectBrowsermanuallyfromthe
Viewmenu.
OncewehavestartedtheBrowserwecanstartlookingaroundinside
theprogrammaticinterfacetoExcelandsolearnalittlemoreabout
justwhatwecandowithScriptingMacros.
Figure14:ThisscreenshotshowswhattheObjectBrowserlooks
likewhenithasbeenopened.AlsohereIhavetyped'xlsolid'
(notethatthesearchisnotcasesensitive)intothesearchbox
andclickedthesearchbutton(ithasbinocularsonit).Inthe
paneatthebottomoftheBowserwecanseetheresultofmy
search.InthemiddlepaneswecanseethatxlSolidisamember
ofConstants.
Figure15:NotonlycanwesearchusingtheObjectBrowserwe
canbrowsewithit.Thebottomtwopanesallowustomove
aroundtheClassesandCollectionsofExcelandseewhatis
available.
Finding And Removing Bugs
Bugsareafactoflifeinanythingcomputerbased.Basically,abugis
whenourscriptdoesnotdowhatwewantorexpect. Thereisno
simplecureorremedyforbugs.Whenweseetheeffectofabugin
thewayascriptisrunningwemust'findthebug'. Thisisjustlike
fixinganymachine;thefirststepistofindoutwhyitisnotworking
properly.Fixingtheproblemalwayscomessecond.
Thebestadviceforfindinganythingistodevelopthebestpossible
wayoflookingforit.Ifwearelookingforaneedleonacarpet,we
mightuseamagnet. Ifwearelookingforastar,wemightusea
telescope.So,weneedtoolstohelpusfindbugsinScriptingMacros.
Fortunatelyforustherearethree:
1) Ourbrains!Wemustnotmakeanyassumptions.Thehuman
brainisamazingpowerfulattheartoffiguringoutwhatis
goingon,aslongaswedonotassumewealreadyknowwhat
isgoingon.Findingbugsrequiresanopenmindandlotsof
concentration.
2) Wscript.Echo:ThisMethodpopsupalertboxesthatletussee
theinnerworkingsofascript.Onewayoflookingforabug
istoimagineallthevaluesofVariablesasthescriptruns.An
alternativeistoimaginewhichpiecesofcodewillberunning
atwhichpointintime. Placing Wscript.Echo statementsin
BabySteps
thescriptsallowsusto'see'ifourimaginingsarecorrect.If
they are not, maybe that points to the bug. For example,
whatvalueswillmyNumbertakeon?
For row = 1 To 10
myNumber = (row * row) / (row * 0.25)
Next
Tofindout,simplyjustgetthescripttotellus:
For row = 1 To 10
Wscript.Echo myNumber
Next
Ifhavingtenpopupboxesisjusttooannoyingthenthisisan
alternative:
myList =
for row = 1 to 10
myList = myList & myNumber & ,
next
Wscript.Echo myList
3) OptionExplicit:Thissasimpledirectivethatwecanputat
the top of scripts. It forces the VBScript interpretor (the
thingthatactuallyrunsourScriptingMacro)tocheckthat
youhaveexplicitlyuseDimtocreateallVariablesbeforeyou
usethem.
Here is an example of the use of Option Explicit to help debug a
script:
Inthisexample,thescriptwillproducemeaninglessresults:
' Create Excel Etc
...
' Populate a Spreadsheet
for row=1 to 100
value=row * 10
mySheet.Cells(row,1).Value=valeu
next i
Amistakelikethisisalargescriptcantakeaverylongtimetospot
usingjustthehumaneye.Thesolutionistodothis:
Option Explicit
Dim mySheet,row,value
' Create Excel Etc
...
' Populate a Spreadsheet
for row=1 to 100
value=row * 10
mySheet.Cells(row,1).Value=valeu
next i
The'OptionExplicit'atthetopofthescripttellsVBScriptnottousea
Variable unlessit has beencreated witha Dimstatement. In this
case,wehavenotcreatedaVariablevaleusothescriptwillnotrun;
insteaditwillgiveusawarningtellingusthattheVariableisnot
definedandthelineonwhichthebugis.
BabySteps

Fromnowonscriptswillhaveinsteadofspacesatthestart
ofnewlines.
Scriptsaretextandsoarebesteditedwithatexteditorlike
notepad++.
Excel'sInternalMacrosandScriptingMacrosareverysimilar.A
goodapproachtofiguringouthowtodosomethingwithascript
istorecordanExcelInternalMacroandthentranslateitintoa
ScriptingMacro.
Scripttranslationrequires3steps:
1) Covertfromthekeyboardandmousebasedapproachto
asimplerdirectmethodology.
2) Translateconstants.
3) Integrate.
Totranslateconstants,wecanrightclickontheminExcel'scode
viewandgotoDefinition.
FindingdefinitionsusestheObjectBrowser.TheObjectBrowser
isveryusefulforlookingatotherpartsofExcel'sprogrammatic
interface.
Gettingridofbugstakes3techniques:Keepingandopenmind,
usingWscript.Echoto'see'whatisreallyhappeningandalways
usingOptionExplicit.
Lesson 5: Starting To Work With Data

Special Folders
Inthislessonwearegoingtodosomerealdataprocessing. Todo
thisweneedtofindWorkbookstoopenandfindgoodlocationsto
savenewWorkbooks. Todothiswecanuse SpecialFolders. So,
pleasebepatient;thissectionwillonlybebrief,thenwecanstart
withsomerealwork!
Special Folders are folders that are or at least potentially can be
presentonallWindowscomputers;theseincludetheMyDocuments,
FontsandStartMenufolders.TherearetwotypesofSpecialFolders:
Thosethatmapto standarddirectories andthosethatdonot.The
Favourites folder,forexample,mapstoastandarddirectory;the My
Computerfolderdoesnot.WeareonlyinterestedinSpecialFolders
whichmapto(represent)realfolders.
The WScript.Shell SpecialFolders collectioncontainsthefullpathto
eachofthespecialfoldersthatwecanaccessusingScriptingMacros.
Thetablebelowliststhe Keys totheCollectionandthecontentsof
eachofthespecialfoldersintheSpecialFolderscollection.
Identifier Folder Contents

AllUsersDesktop Shortcuts that appear on the
desktop for all users
AllUsersStartMenu Shortcuts that appear on the Start
menu for all users
AllUsersPrograms Shortcuts that appear on the
Programs menu for all users
AllUsersStartup Shortcuts to programs that are run
on startup for all users
Desktop Shortcuts that appear on the
desktop for the current user
Favorites Shortcuts saved as favorites by the
current user
Fonts Fonts installed on the system
MyDocuments Current users documents
NetHood Objects that appear in Network
Neighborhood
PrintHood Printer links
Recent Shortcuts to current users recently
opened documents
BabySteps
Identifier Folder Contents

SendTo Shortcuts to applications that show
up as possible send-to targets when
a user right-clicks on a file in
Windows Explorer
StartMenu Shortcuts that appear in the
current users start menu
Startup Shortcuts to applications that run
automatically when the current user
logs on to the system
Templates Application template files specific
to the current user
ThewaytousetheSpecialFolderfeatureofaWScript.Shellobjectis
via the .SpeciaFolders.Item() Method. The script below finds the
locationoftheMyDocumentsspecialfolderanddisplaysittous.
Option Explicit
Dim myShell, myPath
Set myShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
myPath = myShell.SpecialFolders.Item("MyDocuments")
WScript.Echo "MyDocuments='" & myPath & "'"
Using 'SendTo' As A Really Easy Way To Run Scripts

The script below creates a shortcut to a Scripting Macro
'myMacro.vbs'intheSendTospecialfolderwhichmeanswecanthen
rightclickonanyWorkbookfileandsendittothatScriptingMacro.
The script assumes that our Scripting Macro is in
MyDocuments\ScriptingMacros.
Option Explicit
Dim myShell, sendToFolder, myScriptPath, myShortcut
Set myShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

sendToFolder = myShell.SpecialFolders("SendTo")
myScriptPath = myShell.SpecialFolders("MyDocuments") &
"\myMacro.lnk"
Set myShortcut = myShell.CreateShortcut(sendToFolder &

"myMacro.lnk")
myShortcut.TargetPath = myScriptPath
myShortcut.Save
Saving And Opening From Special Folders

WhenweuseScriptingMacrostoautomateataskwewanttheinput
andoutputfilestobeplacedineasytofindplaces. Microsoft has
carefully moved us into thinking in terms of MyDocuments and
Desktop etc.;thismakes specialfolders likethisidealforautomated
scriptingtasks.
Belowaretwoexamples.ThefirstscriptcreatesanewWorkbook.It
thenplacesthecurrenttimeanddateintooneoftheSheets.Onceit
has done this it saves the Workbook onto the Desktop. It
automaticallyoverwritesanyexistingWorkbookofthesamename.
Youcantellthatithasdonethisbecauseeachtimethescriptrunsthe
dateand/ortimewillbeupdated.
Thesecondscriptisevensimpler;itjustopenstheWorkbookthefirst
scriptcreated.Thescriptrequiresnouserinterventionbecauseitcan
findtheWorkbookusingthespecialfolder'Desktop'.
' This script saves a Workbook to the Desktop
Option Explicit
Dim myShell, myExcel, myWorkbook, mySheet, myShell,
xlNormal
' Open Excel

' Create a Workbook and set myWorkbook to refer to it
' all in one go
Set myWorkbook = myExcel.Workbooks.Add
mySheet.Cells(1,1).Value="Date"
mySheet.Cells(2,1).Value=Date()
mySheet.Cells(1,2).Value="Time"
With mySheet.Cells(2,2)
.Value=Now()
.NumberFormat = "[$-409]h:mm:ss AM/PM;@"
End With
mySheet.Columns(1).AutoFit
' Tell Excel not to complain about overwrite files and

' other things like that
myExcel.DisplayAlerts = FALSE
' Save Excel Workbook to Desktop

xlNormal = -4143
Set myShell=CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
myWorkbook.SaveAs myShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop") &
"\AutoSaved.xls",xlNormal
myExcel.Quit
BabySteps
Figure16:ThisscreenshotisresultofthefirstofthetwoDesktop
scripts.ThisistheExcelWorkbookthatIopenedfromdouble
clickingonAutoSaved.xlsonthedesktop.
' This script opens the Workbook saved by the
' previous one
Dim myShell, myExcel,myShell
myExcel.Open myShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop") &
"\AutoSaved.xls"
Merging Between Workbooks

InmyforwardItalkedaboutchainsofExcelspreadsheets.Theseare
causedwheredatapassesthroughmanystepsand/ormanyhands.
Onekeyactioninsuchchainsisdatamerging.Oftenwemusttake
twoorthreedatasetsandmergethemtogether.
MovingColumnsofdataaroundbyhandcanbetedious.Searching
through rows of data to find matches can be soul destroying.
ScriptingMacroscancometotherescue.
Merging Data By Example
Tosetthesceneofdatamerging,agoodexamplewilldonicely.By
looking at a plausible business scenario we can truly imagine the
stepsinvolvedinmerging.
Afairlycommoncause forthe needto mergeis 'incompletedata'.
Considerthatweareinasalesdepartment.Salespeopleareouton
the road collecting orders. They report the orders back to head
officeonspreadsheetslikethis:
Customer Name Part Number Quantity Date

ABC Engineering 12345 1 11/11/2007
XYZ Fabrication 7234 4 6/11/2007
Our job is to record there orders and get them dispatched to

fulfilmentfromwherethepartswillbesenttothecustomers.
But notice, the order records from the sales people do not tell us
enough for fulfilment to do their job. All we have is a customer
name. To overcome this we have another master customer list.
This is the critical core Workbook from which all customer
information is run. In this Workbook is a Sheet with customer
contactdetailslikethis:
Name Id Address Tel Fax Main

Contact
ABC 5 45 False 01234567 01234567 John
Engineering Road 8 9
XYZ 8 23 08756432 01234567 Jane
Fabrication Nowhere 1 2
Avenue
OurfirstchallengeistowriteaScriptingMacrowhichwilloutputa
Sheettosendtofulfilment.ThisscriptwilltakeeachorderRowfrom
a sales person and match the customer name against the Name
column in the Customer Contact Details Sheet. The output of this
process should have the customer name, address, part number,
quantityandorderdate.
Dictionary Objects
Dictionary Objects are very useful things indeed. They let us just
lookupvaluesratherthanhavingtogoandsearchforthem.Inthe
case of our example, we can storeall the customer addresses and
'lookthemup'bycustomername.Thethingwearelookingupisa
valueandwelookitupbyakey.Hereisadescriptionofallthe
PropertiesandMethodsofaDictionaryObject.
DictionaryObjectProperties:
CompareMode This sets the compare mode for using

different character sets. We can normally
BabySteps
ignore this.
Count The number of key/value pairs in this
Dictionary.
Item(key) Return the value looked up by key. We can
also set the value for an existing key:
myDictionary.item(fred-wife)= wimla
Key(key) Allows us to change a key. Consider that
Wilma remarried Barny then we could put:
myDictionary.key(fred-wife)=barny-wife
DictionaryObjectMethods:
Add key,value Places a new key/value pair into the

Dictionary.
Exists(key) Returns TRUE is key is in the Dictionary
and FALSE otherwise.
Remove(key) Removes a key/value pair from the
Dictionary.
Items() Returns an array of all the values in
the Dictionary.
Keys() Returns an array of all the keys in the
in the Dictionary.
RemoveAll() Totally empties the Dictionary so it has
no key/value pairs at all.
So,to merge orders with addresses wecanstore allthecustomer

namesaskeys.Foreachcustomernamekeywestoretheaddressas
thevalue.
Letususeacustomercalledhackandslashwithanaddress123
FakeStreet.wecanthenstoretheaddresswiththenamesasakey
likethis:
Dim myDictionary
Set myDictionary=CreateObject(Scripting.Dictionary)
myDictionary.Add hack and slash, 123 Fake Street
Thereverseofthisistolookupthevalueassociatedwithanalready
stored key. We can demonstrate this with a continuation of the
previousscript.
Dim address
address = myDictionary.Item(hack and slash)
Wscript.Echo address
Theabovescriptwillecho123FakeStreet
Simple Merge Script
Tomakeamergescriptworkitwillhaveto:
1) Loadtheordersheet.
2) Loadthecustomerinformationsheet.
3) Createanewsheet.
4) Populatethenewsheetwithamergeddataset.
5) Savethenewsheet.
TomakethisniceandsimpleIwillsaythatthecustomerinformation
WorkbookisalreadyonmyDesktop.Thismeansthatwecanusethe
'specialfolders'wehavealreadylookedattolocatetheWorkbook.To
continuewiththeeasyconcept,IwillputtheoutputWorkbookon
the Desktop aswell. Finally,using'draganddrop'seemsasensible
choiceforloadingthesalesWorkbookintomyScriptingMacro.
Todothedatamergethescriptwillhavetolookupaddressesby
customer name. So it will load a Dictionary; the keys will be
customernamesandthevalueswillbecustomeraddresses.Nextthe
scriptwillworkitswaydownthesalesSpreadsheet(fromthesales
Workbook that was dropped onto it). For each Row on the sales
Spreadsheetthescriptwillreadinthecustomersnameandlookup
theaddress.
Onceithasfoundtheaddressitwillwritethename,address,order
quantityanddateintotheordersSheetintheoutputWorkbook.The
followingscriptperformsthissimplemerge:
Option Explicit
Dim myShell,myExcel,ordersWB
Dim customersWB,outputWB,myDict
Dim desktop,row,ordersSh,customersSh,outputSh
Set myExcel=CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Set myDict =CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
desktop=myShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop")
myExcel.Visible=TRUE
BabySteps
Set ordersWB=myExcel.Workbooks.Open(desktop &

"\orders.xls")
Set customersWB=myExcel.Workbooks.Open(desktop &
"\customers.xls")
Set outputWB=myExcel.Workbooks.Add()
Set ordersSh=ordersWB.Sheets(1)
Set customersSh=customersWB.Sheets(1)
Set outputSh=outputWB.Sheets(1)
' This loads the dictionary with the

' addresses keyed by name
row=2
While(NOT IsEmpty(customersSh.Cells(row,1)))
myDict.Add
customersSh.Cells(row,1).Value,customersSh.Cells(row,3).
Value
row=row+1
Wend
' Lay out the output sheet

outputSh.Cells(1,1).Value="Customer Name"
outputSh.Cells(1,2).Value="Part Number"
outputSh.Cells(1,3).Value="Quantity"
outputSh.Cells(1,4).Value="Date"
outputSh.Cells(1,5).Value="Address"
' This scans the orders and creates the output

row=2
While(NOT IsEmpty(ordersSh.Cells(row,1)))
outputSh.Cells(row,1).Value=ordersSh.Cells(row,1)
' This is the merge, looking up the address from
' the Dictionary
outputSh.Cells(row,5).Value= _
myDict.Item(ordersSh.Cells(row,1).Value)
row=row+1
Wend
'Clean up output
outputSh.Columns("D:D").NumberFormat = _
"[$-F800]dddd, mmmm dd, yyyy"
outputSh.Columns("A:E").AutoFit
outputSh.Rows("1:1").Font.FontStyle = "Bold"
Thisscriptproducesthisoutputwhenoneoftheordersisforabc
engineering:
Customer Part Quanti

Name Number ty Date Address
ABC 11-
Engineering 12345 1 Nov-2007 45 False Road
XYZ 6- 23 Nowhere
Fabrication 7234 4 Nov-2007 Avenue
abc 15-
engineering 12348 12 Nov-2007
Thisscriptisallwellandgoodbutitwillbenouseintherealworld.
Forexample,thecustomerinformationWorkbookmaywellhavea
customer names as ABC Engineering; however, a sales person
(maybeinarush)mightputabcengineering(seetheabovetable).
Thesalespersonmightevenputabcengineering.Howcanwedeal
withthesesituations?
Thesolution isto this realworld situation isabit ofpragmatism.
Step one is to remove all unnecessary information. ABC
Engineering and abc engineering are clearly the same company.
Wecanchangethescripttoignorethecaseofnamestoreflectthis
reality. Thiscanbedonebymakingallthekeysinthe Dictionary
lowercaseviatheLCase()functionwhichisbuiltintoVBScript.The
other built in Function to use here is Trim() which removed any
unwantedspacesfromthestartorendofaString.
Dim MyString
myString = "VBSCript "
myString = LCase(Trim(myString))
' We can see here that the output is all lower case
' and the trailing space has gone.
Wscript.Echo "'" & myString "'"
Our second issue is where ABC Engineering is written

abcengineeringorevenbcaengineering. Theseareexamplesof
genuinemistakesmadebythesalesperson. Ifwetrytoengineer
somehypercomplexscripttoworkouttheanswerdespiteincorrect
inputs,wewillendupwastingalotoftime.
The only thing really qualified to sort out a real human error is
anotherhuman.SowewillcreateanextraSheetoferrorswecango
throughandfixbyhand.
Working Merge Script
Option Explicit
BabySteps
Dim
myShell,myExcel,ordersWB,customersWB,outputWB,myDict
Dim desktop,row,ordersSh,customersSh,outputSh,key
Dim errorSh,errorRow,okRow
Set myDict =CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
desktop=myShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop")
Set ordersWB=myExcel.Workbooks.Open(desktop &
"\orders.xls")
Set customersWB=myExcel.Workbooks.Open(desktop &
"\customers.xls")
Set outputWB=myExcel.Workbooks.Add()
Set ordersSh=ordersWB.Sheets(1)
Set customersSh=customersWB.Sheets(1)
Set outputSh=outputWB.Sheets(1)
Set errorSh=outputWB.Sheets(2)
' This loads the dictionary with the

' addresses keyed by name
row=2
While(NOT IsEmpty(customersSh.Cells(row,1)))
myDict.Add
LCase(Trim(customersSh.Cells(row,1).Value)),customersSh.
Cells(row,3).Value
row=row+1
Wend
' Lay out the output sheet

outputSh.Cells(1,1).Value="Customer Name"
outputSh.Cells(1,2).Value="Part Number"
outputSh.Cells(1,3).Value="Quantity"
outputSh.Cells(1,4).Value="Date"
outputSh.Cells(1,5).Value="Address"
errorSh.Cells(1,1).Value="Customer Name"
errorSh.Cells(1,2).Value="Part Number"
errorSh.Cells(1,3).Value="Quantity"
errorSh.Cells(1,4).Value="Date"
errorSh.Cells(1,5).Value="Address"
' This scans the orders and creates the output

' We need three different Row Variables because the
' Row we write to is not the same as the number
' as the one we read from any more
row=2
errorRow=2
okRow=2
While(NOT IsEmpty(ordersSh.Cells(row,1)))
key=Trim(LCase(ordersSh.Cells(row,1).Value))
' Here is the decision if the address can be looked
up or not
If myDict.Exists(key) Then
' Yes it can - so put the Row into the ouput Sheet
outputSh.Cells(okRow,1).Value= _
ordersSh.Cells(row,1)
myDict.Item(key)
okRow=okRow+1
Else
' No it cannot - so put the Row into
' the error Sheet
errorSh.Cells(errorRow,1).Value= _
errorRow=errorRow+1
End If
row=row+1
Wend
'Clean up output
outputSh.Columns("D:D").NumberFormat = "[$-F800]dddd,
mmmm dd, yyyy"
outputSh.Columns("A:E").AutoFit
outputSh.Rows("1:1").Font.FontStyle = "Bold"
outputSh.Name="Orders To Process"
errorSh.Columns("D:D").NumberFormat = "[$-F800]dddd,
mmmm dd, yyyy"
errorSh.Columns("A:D").AutoFit
errorSh.Rows("1:1").Font.FontStyle = "Bold"
errorSh.Name="Errors"
Hereisastepbystepapproachtogettingdatamergingtowork:
BabySteps
1) FindaColumnwhichisinbothSheets
2) WorkoutwhichSheethasthemasterrecordsandwhich
theslave.InourexamplethecustomerinformationSheet
wasthemaster. Donotworryifitisnotobviouswhichis
which;youcanalwaystryitbothwaysandseewhichworks
better.
3) FindtheColumninthemasterwhichissharedwiththeslave
(e.g.customername).
4) Figureoutallthevariabilitywhichcanberemovedfromthe
shared column data. Examples are capitals, spaces,
punctuation.
5) Loadthedatayouwantfromthemasterintoa Dictionary
Object.KeytheDictionarybythesharecolumn.
6) Foreachrowintheslave,lookupthedataintheDictionary.
7) Ifamatchingentryinthe Dictionary isfound,putthedata
fromtheslaveandtheDictionaryintotheoutputSheet.
8) Ifnomatchisfound,putthedatafromtheslaveintothe
'errors'Sheet.
Merging Multiple Columns
Sofarwehavelookedatmergingmultiplecolumnsfromtheslave
Sheet with a single column (e.g. address) from the master. How
couldwe mergemultiple columns frombothSheets? Itwouldbe
quite hard to load more than one Column into the Value of a
key/valuepairintheDictionaryObjectsothatisprobablynotthe
solution.
Asitturnsout,thesolutionisverysimple. Doeverythingthesame
wayasforthesinglemasterColumnmerge,butthistimestorethe
RownumberinthemasternottheColumndata.Eachtimeamatch
isfoundintheDictionary,theRownumbercanbeusedtoextractthe
datafortheoutputdirectlyfromthemasterSheet.

Wscript.ShellhasaCollectioncalledSpecialFolders.
TheSpecialFolderCollectionisveryusefulindeedforfindingeasy
touseplacesonthecomputer'sharddriveliketheDesktop.
DictionaryObjectsletusstorevaluesandthenlookthesevalues
bykeys.
Mergingdatafrommultiplespreadsheetsisaverycommonand
importantScriptingMacrotask.
Mergingcanbedonequickandeasilywiththehelpof
Dictionaries.
BabySteps
Lesson 6: Reading & Writing Files

What Is A File?
Thismightseemanoddquestion. Weallusecomputerfilesallthe
time.Weopenthem,savetothem,uploadthemanddownloadthem.
However,dowereallyknowwhattheyare? Likemanyeveryday
items,weoftenlearntousethemwithouttrulyknowingthem.
Thankfullyfilesaresimple.Theyaresimplerthanmostpeoplewould
imagine.Afileisjustalonglistofnumbers.Eachnumbercantakea
valuebetween0and255.Thatisit!
We may have extra stuff associated with the file; for example, we
mightgiveitaname.Butthenameisnotpartofthefile;thefileis
just a list of numbers. We might make a place where people or
programs can find our file. We often call these places folders or
directories.However,afolderisnotthefile.Neitheristhenamewe
usetohelplocatethefileinsidethedirectory;thatnameispartofthe
directorynotpartofthefile.Afileisjustalistofnumbers.
AllthisbegsaquestionIffilesaresoverysimple,howcomewecan
dosomanyamazingthingswiththem?
Theanswertothisliesinasimplechild'sgame.Oftenchildrenseek
tomakeaeasytousecypherbyreplacingletterswithnumbers:
a=1,b=2,c=3,d=4etc.
Towritedownabcwecouldput123.Nowthenumbershave
takenonameaning. Theyarestilljust numbers,butwehaveput
specialmeaningsontothem.Usingasimpleschemejustlikethiswe
canstorewhatwethinkofastextasalistofnumbers. Yes,that
meanswecanstoretextinacomputerfile!Thefiledoesnot'know'
thatitcontainstext;itisjustalistofnumbers. However,wecan
interpretthosenumbersasrepresentingcharactersandso,tous,the
filecontainstext.
WecouldconsiderthefilewhichcontainsthedigitalversionofBaby
Steps. This has to hold much more than just text; it as images,
tables and complex structure information. How, how can such
complexitybestoredinasimplelistofnumbersbetween0and256?
This is where format comes into play. Format takes sequences of
numbersandgivethemmeaning.ThisisjustlikeinEnglishwriting
writinghasmoremeaningthanthesumofitindividualletters.
BabySteps
Fileformatscanbecomeverycomplexindeed. InBabyStepswe
arenotinterestedincomplexsowewillkeepthingssimple. Itis
amazingwhatcanbedonesimplywithfilesandExcel.
Formostoftherestifthisbookwewillonlydealwithwhatarecalled
textfiles.Thesehavedirecttranslationsofthenumbersinthefile
to characters,punctuationandafewlayoutrules. Textfilesareso
simplethattheycanbereadandconvertedtohumanreadablefrom
using Notepad. Notepad (or Notepad++) reads in each number
fromthetextfileandconvertsitintoahumanreadablecharacteretc.
When we write text in Notepad, every so often we will press the
'enterkey'todroptothenextline.Yearsagosomecomputerscalled
the enter key 'newline'. This is because in text file editors like
Notepad,pressingitproducesaspeciallayoutcharacterwhichmeans
start a newline. This is an example ofone of the hand full of
speciallayoutcharactersintextfiles.
Newline characters are stored in the text file as the number 13.
Spaceisanotherexamplewithitsnumberbeing32.Thenumeral1
isrepresentedbythenumber48andtheletterAby64.So123A
is4849503264.
Whenweworkwithtextfileswetendtoletthecomputerprograms
weworkwithdoallthetranslationbetweenthefiles'numbersand
thetextweareworkingwith.Inotherwords,wereadtextfilesinto
StringsandwewriteStringstotextfiles. Towardstheendofthe
book I discuss what are called binary files. These are where the
actualnumbersarereadandwrittendirectly.Wealmostneverneed
todirectlyhandlebinaryfilesinExcelMacroScripting.
Writing To A Text File
MacroScriptingusesaspecialObjecttoaccessfilesdirectly.Towrite
toafilewecreatea System.FileSystemObject. WegivethisObject
informationonwheretoputthefilethatwewillbewriting,itsname
andifitshouldreplaceanypreexistingfilewiththesamenamein
thesamefolder.FromthisinformationtheFileSystemObjectcreates
aTextStreamObject.ItisthisTextStreamObjectwhichactuallydoes
thewriting.
TheexamplebelowwillcreateatextfileontheDesktopadinside
thatfileitwillplacetwolinesoftext.
Option Explicit
Dim myFSO, myTSO,myShell,myName,forWriting
forWriting=2
Set myFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

' The file location (folder) and name are sent to the
' FSO as a single String: Folder Name \ File Name
myName=myShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop") &
\example.txt
' The arguments to the OpenTextFile method here
' give the location\name, that we want to write
' and that it is OK to create the file if it does
' not already exist
Set myTSO = myFSO.OpenTextFile(myName,forWriting,true)
myTSO.WriteLine("Hello this is a text file")
myTSO.WriteLine("It was created by a script")
' It is good practice to always close a TextStream
myTSO.Close
Figure17:ThisiswhatNotepadshowsifweuseittoopenthefile
example.txtcreatedbyourfilefilewritingscript.
Thepreviousscriptwillalwaysreplaceanexistingfilewithanew
one.Thismeansthatit'secretly'performsthefollowingsteps:
1) CheckifafileofthatFolder\Nameexists.
2) Ifitdoes,deleteitpermanently.
3) CreateanewfilewiththesameFolder\Name.
4) Writetothenewfile.
Whathappensifwejustwanttoaddtothefileratherthanreplaceit?
Thisisnotsoodd;wemightwanttowritealineatheendofasfile
everytimeascriptisruntoactasanaudittrailforexample.Todo
BabySteps
thiswetelltheFileSystemObjectto'Append'ratherthan'Write'when
weopenthefileandcreatetheTextStreamObject.
Thisscriptaddsanewlinegivingthedateandtimethescriptwas
runtoafilescript.log.ThefilewillbecreatedontheDesktopthe
first time the script runs. After that, a line will be added to the
existingfileeachtimeitisrunagain.
Option Explicit
Dim myFSO, myTSO, myShell, myName, forWriting,
forAppending
forWriting = 2
forAppending = 8
Set myFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
' The file location (folder) and name are sent to the
' FSO as a single String: Folder Name \ File Name
myName=myShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop") &
"\script.log"
' The arguments to the OpenTextFile method here
' give the location\name, that we want to write
' and that it is OK to create the file if it does
' not already exist
Set myTSO =
myFSO.OpenTextFile(myName,forAppending,true)
myTSO.WriteLine("Script Run: " & now)
myTSO.Close
Iranthisscriptafewtimeandhereisthecontentsoftheresulting
file:
Script Run: 18/10/2007 13:03:31
Script Run: 18/10/2007 13:04:30
Script Run: 18/10/2007 13:04:31
Script Run: 18/10/2007 13:04:42
Script Run: 18/10/2007 13:04:44
Script Run: 18/10/2007 13:04:45
Script Run: 18/10/2007 13:04:46
Reading From A Text File

Nowthatwecanwritefiles,howabout reading them? Firstofall,
whywouldwewanttoreadone?ExcelcanreadExcelfilessowhy
doweneedadifferentwayofreadingfiles?
Sometimesweneedtouseascripttoreadafile,workwithwhatit
hasreadandthenputtheresultinExcel. Forexample,wemight
haveafilethathasaformatelikethis:
Begin
User = AJT
Date = 01/07/2007
Action = logon
End
Begin
User = FF
Date = 01/08/2007
Action = logoff
End
InthisfileweknowthatalinewhichsaysBeginstartsablockof
lines and a line which says End ends that block. This extra
informationaboutthemeaningofthecontentsofthefileiswhatwe
callformat.ThisformatisnotonethatExcelunderstandssowehave
toloadthedataintoaspreadsheetusingascript:
Option Explicit
Dim
myFSO,myExcel,myWorkbook,mySheet,myTS,row,line,keyWord,d
atum
' Another way of defining Variables which we will not

' change is to use the Const keyword
Const forReading = 1
Set myWorkbook=myExcel.Workbooks.Add()
With mySheet
.Cells(1,1).Value="User"
.Cells(1,2).Value="Date"
.Cells(1,3).Value="Action"
End With
' Set row to the first Row we

' want to write to in Excel
row=2
' Open our file in a TextStream Object

Set myFSO=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
' This is how we open a file reading using the

' FileSystemObject
Set myTS=myFSO.OpenTextFile _
( _
"myFile.txt", _
forReading, _
FALSE _
)
BabySteps
' This means keep looping until the end of the file
While NOT myTS.AtEndOfStream
' Read a line of text and put it in
' the Variable line
line=myTS.ReadLine()
' Split the line in two iff it has a = in it
line=Split(line,"=")
'See if there are two parts or one
if UBound(line)=1 Then
datum=Trim(line(1))
end if
' It will always have at least one part once split
' Strip spaces off the beginning and end
' at the same time
keyWord=Trim(line(0))
'Make sure the key word is all lower case
keyWord=LCase(keyWord)
' Choose what to do depending on the line
if keyWord="end" Then
' At the end of a block, move down
' one row in Excel
row=row+1
elseif keyWord="user" Then
mySheet.Cells(row,1).Value=datum
elseif keyWord="date" Then
elseif keyWord="action" Then
end if
Wend
' For neatness - close the TextStream
myTS.Close
' Tidy up our spreadsheet
mySheet.Columns(1).Autofit
Reading And Writing In Chunks

Mostofthetimereadingandwritinglinesisjustfine.Whenweput
myTextStream.Writeline(Fred) the actual file gets two extra
numberswrittentoitinadditiontothoserepresentingFred.These
arecalledCarriageReturnandLineFeed. Theygettheirnames
fromtypewriters.Theyrepresenttheactionofreturningthecarriage
(holdingthepaper)totheleftandfeedingthroughthepaperbyone
lineheight.Nowadaysthesenumbersjustrepresenttheendofaline
andthebeginningofthenext.
WhenweusemyTextStream.ReadLine()wegetbackthenextlineof
text from a file. Just like a human reading a page of text, the
TextStreamObjectremembersits'place'inthetextandsocangiveus
thenextlinefromthat.
Thereareafewotherthingswhichwemightwanttodowithatext
file.Thesearenotusefulquiteasoftenasworkingwithonelineata
time,buttheycomeinhandyeverysooften:
1) ReadanentirefileatoncetoaString.
2) WriteanentirefileatoncefromString.
3) Readanexactnumberofcharactersfromafile.
4) WriteaStringtoafilewithoutaddingonthecarriagereturn
linefeed.
Whilstthesearefourdifferentthingsweneedonlylearntwonew
techniquestobeabletodothem! WhenweopenaTextStreamfor
readingwecancallcallmyTextStream.Read(count)wherecountisa
number. This is just like Readline in that the TextStream Object
remembers its 'place' in the file and reads on from that place.
However, rather then reading a whole line, it reads exactly count
charactersandreturnstheseasaString.Anotherslightdifferenceis
thatwhenitencounters carriagereturn or linefeed,itwillactually
put these characters in the returned String. Also note that if it
reachestheendofthefilebeforeithasread countcharactersitjust
givesusthecharactersithasreadsofar.
InExcelMacroScriptingIhaveyettocomeacrossaneedtoread
count characters from a file except in one common special case.
SometimewewanttoreadanentirefileintoaStringallinonego.
Again,tomakethissupereasy,wecanjustmissoutcountaltogether.
InthebelowscriptweopenaTextStreamreadingfromafileandcall
ReadAll()whichislikeusingRead(count)wherecountisthenumber
of characters left which can be read. This slurps the entire file's
contentsintoaStringforus(thisisnotanentirescript,justapieceof
one):
( _
"myFile.txt", _
forReading, _
FALSE _
)
' Read the entire contents at once
BabySteps
fileContents=myTS.ReadAll()
myTS.Close
Theexactsamethingcanbedonewithwriting.ByusingtheMethod
Write(myString)onaTextStreamObject(whichwasopenedtowrite
orappend)wesimplywriteoutthenumbersforthecharactersinthe
Stringtothefile. Write(myString)doesnotadd carriagereturn or
newline.Ifwecallitmanytimeswecanaddtothefilesonechunk
atatime.IfweopenaTextStreamforoverwriting(notappending)
and we call Write(myString) just the once before closing the
TextStream,wehavewrittentheentirecontentsofthefilefromour
String.
Hereisascriptwhichreadsanentiretextfileinonego. Itthen
replaceseveryinstanceof/with//.Finally,itwritesanewfile
withtheupdatedcontents.Wewillseeinlesson7(thenext)whywe
mightwanttodothis(again,thisisjustasubsectionofascript):
( _
"myFile.txt", _
forReading, _
FALSE _
)
' Read the entire contents at once
myTS.Close
' Do the replace of / with //

fileContents=Replace(fileContents,"/","//")
' Now write out our new file contents

( _
"myFile.txt", _
forWriting, _
TRUE _
)
' Write the entire contents at once
myTS.Write(fileContents)
myTS.Close
Listing Files
I was considering not including this section. Then I suddenly
rememberedaveryimportantsortofapplicationforlistingfiles.Let
us imagine that wehave written a script which takes a 'dragand
drop'WorkbookandmergesthedatawithasecondWorkbook.This
scriptthencreatesanoutputWorkbookcontainingthemergeddata
(see lesson 5). Whilst this is fine for one, two or even ten input
Workbooks, how about if there were 100 or even 1000. The
alternativetospendingthebalanceofournaturallifedraggingand
droppingistogetourscripttofindtheinputWorkbookfilesitsself.
Thenextscriptdoesexactlythat.Itisabit'dense'inthatitdoesalot
withonlyafewlinesofcode.Ratherthanstuffitfullofcomments,I
havediscussedhowitworksafterthescript.
Option Explicit
Dim fso,myFolder,myFile,myShell,myList
Set fso=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set myFolder =
fso.GetFolder(myShell.SpecialFolders.Item("Desktop"))
myList=""
For Each myFile In myFolder.Files
With myFile
If _
LCase(Right(.name,4))=".xls" OR _
LCase(Right(.name,5))=".xlsx" _
Then _
myList=myList & .name & vbcrlf
End IF
End With
Next
WScript.Echo "Excel Files On The Desktop:" & vbcrlf &
myList
ThefirstthingthattheabovescriptdoesistouseSpecialFoldersto
findthepathtotheDesktop.NextitcallstheGetFolder(path)
methodofaFileSystemObjectObject.ThismethodreturnsaFolder
Object.BecausethepathwepasstotheGetFoldermethodisthepath
totheGetFoldermethod,wegetaFolderObejctrepresentingthe
Desktop.
FolderObjectsareusedtoallowustodothingswithFolders.Inthis
case,wewanttofindallthefilesintheFolder.TheFolderObjecthas
aCollectioninitcalled'Files'whichcontainsaFileObject
representingeachoftheFilesintheFolder.ThisbeingaCollectionis
veryusefulbecausewecanuseaForEachlooptoworkthrougheach
ItemintheCollection.
InsidetheForEachloopIhaveplacedanIfstatement.Thisiswhatis
calleda'conditional'.WhatthismeansisthatIfaconditionismet
BabySteps
Thenapieceofcodeisexecuted.TotryandexplainthisfurtherIcan
takethepieceofscript...
With myFile
If _
Then _
End If
End With
..andtryanddescribeitasinplainEnglish:
If the name oftheVariable myFileendswith.xlsor
with .xlsx then add that name to the end of the
VariablemyList.Otherwise,donotdoanything.
WehavealreadyseetheVBScriptbuiltinfunction LCase. Another
handybuiltinfunctionisRight.ThisfunctionreturnsjusttheRight
handcharactersfromaString. AppendixDhasadescriptionofall
thesebuiltinfunctions.VBCRLFisabuiltin'Constant'.Itcontainsa
Stringconsistingofcarriagereturn, linefeed. Byaddingthistothe
endofeachFilenameasitisaddedtomyList,itmakesthenames
appearonnewlinesinthepopupboxcreatedattheendofthescript.
Toprocessallthefilesofaparticulartypeinafolderallweneedto
doisreplacethecode...
If _
Then _
End IF
...with what ever code we require. For example, our Workbook

mergingcode.

Filesarejustsimplelistsofnumbers.
Byassigningcharacterstothenumberswecanstoretextinfiles.
Wecallthesetextfiles.
TheTextStreamObjectdoestheconversionfromtexttonumbers
(andback)soitletsusreadanwritetextfilesusingStrings.
Byaddingmorerulesabouttheorderofdatainfiles,more
complexinformationcanbestoredinthem.Wecallthese
structurerulesformat.
Whenwritingfileswecanoverwriteolderversionsofthefileor
appendnewstufftothen.
Mostreadingandwritingisdoneonelineatatime.
Beingabletoreadandwritefilesallowsourscriptstoworkwith
fileformatswhichExceldoesnotunderstandbyitsself.
SometimesitishandytoreadawholefileintoaStringorwrite
awholefileoutfromaString.
Wecanlistallthefilesinafoldersothatwecanthenprocess
themall,orasubsetofthem,automatically.
BabySteps
Lesson 7: Enhanced Data Processing

Subroutines And Functions
Beforegoingfurther,letusunderstandonething. Subroutinesand
Functions are here to make our life easier. They are not some
abstractconceptwhichcomputerscientiststhrustuponustoprovea
point;theyarehereonlyforourconvenience.
Thewholeconceptstartsoffromasimpleidea: Itisbesttodoone
thingonetime;itisawasteofefforttodoonethingmanytimes.
ThisappliesdoubleortripletowritingScriptingMacros.Ifwewrite
thesamepieceofcodetwicewehavedoubledtheinputeffort.Then,
ifweneedtochangethatcode,wehavetorememberalltheplaces
weputitandchangeeachandthenfixanytyposwehavemade!
So,writeonethingonetime;itismucheasier.
ASubroutineallowsustowriteapieceofscriptoncebutuseitmany
times.Forexample,wemightwanttomakeapieceofscriptwhich
turns the background of some Cells yellow. To do this as a
Subroutinewecanwrite:
Sub MakeYellow(myRange)
With myRange.Interior
.ColorIndex = 6
.Pattern = 1
.PatternColorIndex = -4105
End With
End Sub
Functionsarea lotlike Subroutinesexcept thatthey givea value.

HereisastupidlysimpleFunction:
Function AddTwoNumbers(a,b)
AddTwoNumbers=a+b
End Function
BymakingthenameoftheFunctionequaltothethingwewantgiven
back,wecontrolwhatitgivesback. TheaboveFunctioncouldbe
usedlikethis:
Option Explicit
WScript.Echo AddTwoNumbers(2,2)
WScript.Echo AddTwoNumbers(3,4)
Function AddTwoNumbers(a,b)
AddTwoNumbers=a+b
End Function
BabySteps
Thisscriptwillproducetwopopupboxes;thefirstwillsay4and
thesecond7.
Hereisamoreuseful Function. ItlooksdownaColumnandturns
everyCellValueintouppercase.Itwillstopwhenitfindsanentire
Rowwhichisempty,returningthenumberofalteredRows:
Option Explicit
Dim myExcel, myWorkbook,mySheet,col,row
myExcel.Visible=true
' Create some data to demonstrate the Function

For row=1 to 10
mySheet.Cells(row,1)="Hello"
Next
mySheet.Cells(11,2)="This is not blank"
mySheet.Cells(12,1)="So this should be ucase"
' These three lines do all the work, they

' use pop-ups to tell us what is happening and
' call the Function
WScript.Echo "Click OK to make column 1 ucase"
row=UCaseCol(mySheet,1)
WScript.Echo row & " Rows were converted"
' This is the actual Function its self.

Function UCaseCol(theSheet,theCol)
Dim uRow,uCol
' The max number of rows could be bigger
' in Excel 2007 but in all previous versions
' it is 65536, so we will use that
For uRow=1 to 65536
' The max number of columns could bigger
' in Excel 2007 but in all previous versions
' it is 256, so we will use that
For uCol=1 to 256
If Not IsEmpty(theSheet.Cells(uRow,uCol).Value)
Then
' Exit For forces the loop to stop
' in this case, it will stop the
' "For uCol" loop
Exit For
End If
Next
' If uCol=257 here then all Cells were empty

If uCol=257 Then
' This Exit For will case the "For uRow"
' loop to stop
Exit For
End If
With theSheet.Cells(uRow,theCol)
.Value=UCase(.Value)
End With
Next
' At this point uRow is always the first blank row

' but we want to give back the number of
' changed rows
UCaseCol=uRow-1
End Function
FigureX:HereiswhattheuppercaseaColumnscriptproduces
atthepointwherethefirstpopupappears.
ItisimportanttorememberthatiswecreateaFunctionwhichgives
back(sometimescalled'returns')anObject,wemustuseSet:
' A Function to create a new Excel Object and
' return a new Workbook from it
Function MakeExcelWorkbook()
Dim myExcel
Set myExcel=CreateObject(Excel.Application)
Set MakeExcelWorkbook=myExcel.Workbooks.Add()
End Function
BabySteps
FigureX:HereiswhattheuppercaseaColumnscriptproduces
onceithasfinishedprocessingtheSheet.
Death By Dates
IhavebeenworkinginITforwhatfeelslikeaverylongtime(over
25 years sob). Over that time, certain patterns have started to
appeartome.Oneoftheseisthatwhenadatasetgoesallweird,it
isusuallybecauseofdates.
Thereasonissimple;dateshavenoconsistentlyappliedstandards.
Wecanillustratethisbycounterexample.Integernumbersdohavea
very consistent standard. Nearly all integer number in data are
representedusingArabicnumeralbasetennotation:
1
11
100
-20
Bywayofcontrast,herearejustafewofthewaysonemightseethe
firstofJulytwothousandandonewritten:
1/7/01
1/7/2001
7/1/01
1-7-01
7/1/2001
1-July-2001
Hereisa good question: If 7/1/01 and 1/7/01 mean exactly the

samething,thenhowcanwetelltheyrepresentthefirstofJulyor
theseventhofJanuary?
TheproblemwithExcelanddatesusuallyturnsupwhenimporting
datawherethesourceofthedatesortheExcelSpreadsheetaresetto
be'outside'theUSA. Thesnagisthatevenifwesetthe Windows
localtobesomewherewheredatesaredd/mm/yyyy(dayday/month
month/yearyearyearyearasin31/01/2002)Exceldoesnotimport
suchdatescorrectly.IfyousetthevalueofaCellto31/01/2001it
maywellnotrecognisethisasadateatall.
Figure20:Hereisthelanguageandregionalconfigurationofmy
test(virtual)computerwhilstwriting'BabySteps'.
Toillustratethisissue,IhavecreatedascriptwhichloadsExcelwith
datesfromthe10thtothe20thofJanuary.Italsousesatricktoforce
ExcelnotitinterpretthevaluesIampassingintoit.ThiswayIcan
getExceltoshowwhatthe'raw'valueIputinitandthenalsowhatit
interpretsitas.Thistrickwillbeusedagainlater.
BabySteps
Option Explicit
Dim myExcel,myWorkbook,mySheet,row
Set myWorkbook = myExcel.Workbooks.Add()
' This loop creates strings in dd/mm/yyyy format

' puts them into Cells. To force Excel into not
' interpreting the string in any way, I make it
' into a formula and use the Cell.Formula property
' rather than the Cell.Value property we normally
' use.
For row=1 To 10
' This sets a formula like ="11/01/2001"
mySheet.Cells(row+1,1).Formula = "=""" & (10+row) &
"/01/2001"""
' This will just put in the date string
' like 11/01/2001 and it also sets the Cell
' format to show dates in long format to help
' make it clear what Excel's interpretation is
With mySheet.Cells(row+1,2)
.Value = "" & (10+row) & "/01/2001"
.NumberFormat = "[$-F800]dddd, mmmm dd, yyyy"
End with
Next
' This code puts in the column titles and makes
' them bold
mySheet.Cells(1,1).Value="Input"
mySheet.Cells(1,2).Value="Excel Interpretation"
mySheet.Range("A1:B1").Font.Bold = True
' Now we can autofit the width of the columns
' and as a nice touch, zoom into the spreadsheet
myExcel.ActiveWindow.Zoom = 200
' Finally, we had better make Excel visible!
myExcel.Visible = TRUE
Figure21:HerewecanseehowExcelhasmadeacompletemess
ofinterpretingthevalueswhichourscriptasplacedintoit.
DateAdd And DateSerial Fixing The Problem
FirstwecanlookataVBScriptbuiltinfunctioncalled'DateAdd'.We
canusethistobypassthefaultydateinterpretationinExcel.
DateAdd(Interval, Number, Date)
The DateAdd function adds atime interval to any date. Thereare

threearguments.TheIntervalargumentdefinesthethetypeoftime
intervalyouwishtoaddontothedate. Youmustplacethesetting
inside double quotes. The possible settings are shown in the table
below:
SETTING DESCRIPTION
YYYY Year
Q Quarter
M Month
Y Day Of Year
D Day
W WeekDay
WW Week Of Year
H Hour
N Minute
S Second
TheNumberargumentisamultiplierfortheIntervalargument(i.e.,
BabySteps
howmanydays,weeks,months,etc.).Ifthisisapositivenumber,you
willgoforwardintime.Anegativenumberwillgobackintime.
TheDateargumentisanactualDate.ThismeansitisnotaStringin
dateformatlike01/02/2001;itisavalueoftypeDate. Wecan
makeDatevaluesfromstringsusingthe VBScript builtinfunction
CDate.
Option Explicit
Dim
myExcel,myWorkbook,mySheet,year,month,day,myDate,start
Date,row
' This date cannot be confused because the day

' and month are the same, and it is a nice
' simple date.
' We will use it as the starting date from which to
' make our calculations
startDate=CDate("01/01/2000")
For row=1 to 10
' Here we set up the day month and year
myMonth=1
myYear=2001
myDay=row+10
' Write the 'raw' date string into Excel

mySheet.Cells(row+1,1).Formula = "=""" & myDay &
"/01/2001"""
' Compute a true Date value for the date

' We start of with the startDate
myDate=startDate
' Then add in the appropreate number of years
' It does not matter if year < 2000, because this
' will still work OK
myDate=DateAdd("YYYY",myYear-2000,myDate)
' Now we add in the appropreate number of months
myDate=DateAdd("M",myMonth-1,myDate)
' And finally the appropreate number of days
myDate=DateAdd("D",myDay-1,myDate)
' At this point myDate holds a Date type value

' that represents the date we are interested in.
' Excel does not need to interpret this value,
' because it is already a date, so Excel cannot
' make a mistake.

With mySheet.Cells(row+1,2)
.Value = myDate
.NumberFormat = "[$-F800]dddd, mmmm dd, yyyy"
End With
Next
' This is just the same layout stuff as before

mySheet.Cells(1,1).Value="Input"
mySheet.Cells(1,2).Value="Excel Interpretation"
mySheet.Range("A1:B1").Font.Bold = True
myExcel.ActiveWindow.Zoom = 200
myExcel.Visible = TRUE
Figure22:Herewecanseethenewscriptcorrectlycreatesdate
valuesintheExcelCells.
Another(possiblysimpleryetlessinformative)wayofachievingthe
samethingistousethe DateSerial builtinfunction. Thistakes3
arguments,theyear,monthandday.Sothepreviousscriptpiece:
myDate=startDate
myDate=DateAdd("YYYY",myYear-2000,myDate)
myDate=DateAdd("M",myMonth-1,myDate)
myDate=DateAdd("D",myDay-1,myDate)
Becomes:
myDate=DateSerial(year,month,day)
BabySteps
Iconsideredonlyincludingthissimplerversion.However,themore
complex DateAdd version made such a nice example of date
arithmetic, I chose to include both approaches. Indeed, the the
DateAddmethodisillustrativeofthewayDateSerialactuallyworks.
Forexample,whatdoesthefollowingscriptproduce?
Option Explicit
Dim myDate
myDate=DateSerial(2007,2,32)
WScript.Echo myDate
WhatitcomesupwithisapopupboxgivingthefourthofMarchasa
date.
Figure23:ThisisthepopupshowingthatDateSerialactually
worksjustlikeDateAdd.Here,DateSerial(2007,2,32)yieldsthe
fourthofMarch,i.e.twomonthsand32daysaddedto2007.
ThefourthofMarchbeingtheDateyouwouldgetifyouweretodo
this:
myDate=1/1/2007
myDate=DateAdd("M",2-1,myDate)
myDate=DateAdd("D",32-1,myDate)
WScript.Echo myDate
Importing Data From CSV Files

Welookedatfileformatsinlesson6.Theideaofaformatbeingthat
theorderofnumbersinafileoffersinformationastothemeaningof
thosenumbers. Ifthefileisa textfile,thenwecanconsiderthe
orderofnumberstorepresentanorderofcharacters.Therearesome
textfileformatsthatareusedaverygreatdeal.Oneoftheoldestyet
stillmostcommonlyusedonesisCommaSeparatedValuesorCSV.
FileswhichcontaintextinCSVformatarecalledCSVfilesandthey
turnupeverywhere.
Wecomeacrossthisstandardformatmostwhenwearetransfering
data from one application to another. Forexample, if a customer
relationshipmanagementsystemmustcreateanoutputwhichwecan
readwithExcel,CVSmightbeanexcellentchoice:
Figure24:ThisshowshowadatabaseviewfromaCRM
(CustomerRelationshipManagement)systemcanbeconvertedto
aCSVfileformat.
IntheaboveexampleaviewinaCRMsystemhasbeenexportedtoa
CSVfile. Excelisabletoread CSV filesandconvertthecontents
directlyintoaspreadsheet.Thereareevensomecleaverstandardsto
avoidthingslikecommasinthedatacausingtrouble.Iftherewasa
comma in the data, the field holding thecomma is surrounded in
quotationmarks:
FigureX:Herewecanseehowwhenadatafieldhasacommain
it,theCSVformatplacesthatfieldinquotationmarkstomakeit
clearwhichcommasareseparatingfieldsandwhichare
containedinsidefields.
Unfortunately,CSVtellsusnothingaboutthenatureofthedata,it
justhascolumnsandrows.However,Exceltriestoguessthenature
ofdatafromitsformat.Aswehavealreadyseen,Exceloftentakes
somethinglikethis5/7/01andtreatsitasadate.Butitalsogets
allconfusedbetweenthefifthofJulyandtheseventhofMay.
Becauseoftheseissues,itissometimesnecessaryto'help'Excelalong
abitwhenreadingCSVfiles. Thiscanbedonewithathreestep
strategy:
1) Change the data in the CSV file so that Excel will treat
everythingassimpletext.
2) OpenExcelandtellittoloadthealteredCSVfile.
3) Change thedata in Excel to the format we wantor insert
formulaewhichoutputtheformatwewant(orboth).
BabySteps
Forstep1wecanusethefilehandlingtechniqueswelookedatthe
previous lesson. We open the original CSV file as a TextStream
Object andopenanemptyoutput CSV fileasanother TextStream.
Wecanthereadtheoriginalin,alterthecontentsandwritethenew
contentout.
ToillustratethissurvivaltrickIwillgothroughtwoexamples;oneis
forworkingwithdatesandtheforworkingwiththingsthatExcel
mightincorrectlythinkarenumbers.Forexample,ifwetype10e24
intoanExcelCell,Excelwillconvertthisto1.00E25;inotherwords,
Excelhasreadthetextandconsideredittorepresent1x1024.
' Create a CSV file with a load of dates in it.
' This script is here
' only to produce the input file for the next
' script it is not really part of the example
Option Explicit
Dim myFSO, myTS,row
Const forWriting = 2
Set myTS=myFSO.OpenTextFile("Date-
data.csv",forWriting,TRUE)
myTS.WriteLine "SerialNumber,Date"
For row=0 to 99
' This is a numerical trick to produce realistic
' serial numbers from the row Variable and dates
' in US format which a UK Excel setting will get
' wrong.
myTS.WriteLine (NOT ((row + row * 65536) XOR
&H8888)) & ",8/" & (1+row-(31*Int(row/31))) & "/2006"
Next
myTS.Close
HereiswhatthecontentsofthecreatedCSVfilelooklike:
SerialNumber,Date
30583,8/1/2006
96118,8/2/2006
161653,8/3/2006
227188,8/4/2006
292723,8/5/2006
358258,8/6/2006
Figure26:ThisishowExcelinterpretstheCSVfilewhichour
scriptcreates.Clearly,ithasreadthedatestotallyincorrectly.
' Change the CSV file innards to force Excel
' to treat them as plain text
Option Explicit
Dim
myExcel,myWorkbook,mySheet,row,myValue,myFSO,myTS,file
Contents,myShell,myDesktop,splitted
Const forReading=1
Const forWriting=2
myDesktop=myShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop")
Set myTS=myFSO.OpenTextFile(myDesktop & "/Date-
data.csv",forReading,FALSE)
myTS.Close
fileContents=Replace(fileContents,"/","//")
Set myTS=myFSO.OpenTextFile(myDesktop & "/Date-data-
fixed.csv",forWriting,TRUE)
myTS.Close
Theabovescriptworkbyreplacingeveryoccurrenceof/with//.
This means that a date String 1/5/01 will become 1//5//05.
Hereisapieceoftheresultingfile:
SerialNumber,Date
30583,8//1//2006
96118,8//2//2006
BabySteps
161653,8//3//2006
227188,8//4//2006
292723,8//5//2006
358258,8//6//2006
WhilstthishasstoppedExcelincorrectlyinterpretingdates,ithasnot
performedstep3inourstrategy.Todothatweneedtogothrough
all the fields that should be dates in Excel and convert them into
Excelcorrectdates. Notonlythat,wealsoneedtocorrectalltext
fieldstoundoanychangesthepreviousstepcaused. Forexample,
thechoicewasgreen/bluewillhavebeenchangedtothechoice
wasgreen//blue. Thesefieldsneedchangingback. Thefollowing
script performs this action on our example file. It is actually a
continutationofthepreviousscript. Itmakessensetocombinethe
filecorrectionandloadingintooneScriptingMacro:
' Read the newly updated CSV file into Excel and
' then recreate the dates in a way Excel cannot
' get confused (see previous lesson)
' Load the csv usign the Open Method of the
' Workbooks Collection
Set myWorkbook=myExcel.Workbooks.Open(myDesktop &
"/Date-data-fixed.csv")
' This loop goes down the Rows from the first data
' until the first Row in which the "serial number"
' is blank
For row=2 to 65536
If IsEmpty(mySheet.Cells(row,1).Value) Then Exit For
' Here we use the ever handy Split built in Function
' to split the date String in Excel into
' three bits (0, 1 and 2)
myValue=mySheet.Cells(row,2).Value
splitted=Split(myValue,"//")
' DateSerial can now be used to create a real Date
' value to put back into Excel
myValue=DateSerial _
( _
splitted(2), _
splitted(0), _
splitted(1) _
)
mySheet.Cells(row,2).Value=myValue
' Finally, we correct the other Cell values
myValue=Replace(myValue,"//","/")
Next
Hereisthesamesetofscriptsforcorrectingtheproblemscausedby
scientificnotationnumbers:
' The script creates a csv file where the serial
' numbers are interpreted by Excel as scientific
' numbers
Option Explicit
Dim myFSO, myTS,row
Const forWriting = 2
Set myTS=myFSO.OpenTextFile("Serial-
data.csv",forWriting,TRUE)
myTS.WriteLine "SerialNumber,Action"
For row=1 to 100
' Here we use the same numerical trick to produce
' realistic looking serial numbers but with an 'e'
' in them so Excel misinterprets them as scientific
' notation
myTS.WriteLine(NOT ((row + row * 65536) XOR &H8888)) &
"e" & row & ",Incomming"
Next
myTS.Close
HereiswhatthecontentsofthecreatedCSVfilelooklike:
SerialNumber,Action
96118e1,Incomming
161653e2,Incomming
227188e3,Incomming
292723e4,Incomming
358258e5,Incomming
423793e6,Incomming
489328e7,Incomming
Hereisthescripttocorrectthisbehaviour:
' Change the CSV file innards to force Excel
' to treat them as plain text
Option Explicit
Dim
myExcel,myWorkbook,mySheet,row,myValue,myFSO,myTS,file
Contents,myShell,myDesktop,fixed
Const forReading=1
Const forWriting=2
myDesktop=myShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop")
BabySteps
Set myTS=myFSO.OpenTextFile(myDesktop & "/Date-
data.csv",forReading,FALSE)
myTS.Close
fileContents=Replace(fileContents,"e","ee")
Set myTS=myFSO.OpenTextFile(myDesktop & "/Date-data-
fixed.csv",forWriting,TRUE)
myTS.Close
' Read the newly updated CSV file into Excel and
' then recreate the dates in a way Excel cannot
' get confused (see previous lesson)
' Load the csv usign the Open Method of the
' Workbooks Collection
Set myWorkbook=myExcel.Workbooks.Open(myDesktop &
"/Date-data-fixed.csv")
' This loop goes down the Rows from the first data
' until the first Row in which the serial number
' is blank
For row=2 to 65536
If IsEmpty(mySheet.Cells(row,1).Value) Then Exit For
' This time we convert ee into e and the use the
' "Formula" techniques to force Excel not to
' interpret the serial number
fixed=Replace(myValue,"ee","e")
mySheet.Cells(row,1).Formula = "=""" & fixed & """"
' Finally, we correct the other Cell values
myValue=Replace(myValue,"ee","e")
Next
PleasenotethatinVBScript"""""actuallymeansaStringcontaining
justaquatationmark.So"""Hello"""isaString"Hello".Thisiswhat
the"="""&Fixed&""""isdoing;itisputtingtheString="nnnn"into
theCell'sformulawherennnnistheserialnumber.
Figure27:Again,Excelhasincorrectlyinterpretedthecontentsof
ourCSVfile.Ithasreadtheserialnumbers,andbecausethey
haveeinthem,ithasconvertedthemintostandardnotation
scientificnumbers.
Creating Reports
QuiteoftenExcelspreadsheetsthemselvesmakeverygood reports.
However,sometimewewanttowriteoutreportsinMSWordinstead.
Thereareamyriadofdisturbinglycomplexwaysofdoingthis.I,for
one,liketoavoidcomplexwaysofdoinganythingsohereisanice
simple way of creating reports in MS Word from Excel Macro
Scripting.
Thekeytothismethodisusing HTML. HTML beingthewaythat
web pages arecreated. Using HTML we can lay out text without
usinganywizardry.Really,itisveryeasyindeedtomaketablesand
listsetc.Forexample:
<table border=1>
<tr>
<td>Hello</td><td>World</td>
</tr>
</table>
Makessomethinglikethis:
Hello World
Tomakealistwecanput:
BabySteps
<ul>
<li>This is the first list element.</li>
<li>This is the second list element.</li>
<li>This is the third list element.</li>
</ul>
This'unorderedlist'willcomeoutsomethinglikethis:
Thisisthefirstlistelement.
Thisisthesecondlistelement.
Thisisthethirdlistelement.
Textthisisjustnormalparagraphwritingcanbelaidoutlikethis:
<p>This is paragraph text. We do not want any special
layout for this.</p>
Wecanputallthistogethertomakesomethinglikethis:
<p>Below is a simple table which I have created using HTML</p>
<table border=1>
<tr>
<td>Hello</td><td>World</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Things to remember about HTML are:</p>
<ol>
<li>Text is laid out using 'tags'.</li>
<li>A tag is text between < and >.</li>
<li>To avoid confusion, less than and greater than symbols are
replaced with special sequences of characters as seen in the
previous line.</li>
<li>Tags always come in pairs called 'open' and 'close'. Just
like the <li> and </li> pairs used to make this
list.</li>
</ol>
InthiscaseIhavecreatedanorderedlistbyusingolrathertan
theunorderedlistul.Ifwesavetheabovetextinafilewithcalled
text.htmlwecanreaditwithawebbrowser.
Figure28:Hereiswhatawebbrowserdisplayswhenaskedto
openoursimpletest.htmlfile.Wecanseethatthespecial
charactersequence<hasbeenconvertedto<and>has
beenconvertedto>.Thetagsinsidethetextlike<li></li>etc.
havecausedthetexttobelaidoutinthewaywewant.
Thisisallfineandwonderful,butwearesupposedtobecreatinga
MSWordreport,notanHTMLpage.Wellthisiswherealittleknown
featureofMSWord comesinto play. Bysimply savingthe fileas
test.docinsteadoftest.htmlMSWordwillmagicallyreadsitasa
normaldocument.However,MSWordwillstillapplytheHTMLstyle
layoutrules.
Figure29:Herewecanseetheresultsofopeningoursimple
HTMLtextasaMSWorddocument.IsavedtheHTMLinafile
calledtest.docandthenopenedthefileinMSWord.
BabySteps
So far we have looked at what happens with very simple HTML

indeed. Nowadays HTML has grown to become a rich system for
layingouttextandimages.MSWorddoesnotreallysupportallthis
complexity. However, we can enhance things a little. Also, it is
probablyabouttimewelookedatascriptcreatingthereport!
ThenextscriptwritesoutatableinHTMLintoa'.doc'file.Itusesa
slightlymoresophisticatedwayofdefiningthetableborder.
myReportFile.WriteLine("<TABLE STYLE='border: 0px;
border-top: 1px solid black; border-left: 1px solid
black;' CELLSPACING=0>")
myReportFile.WriteLine("<TBODY>")
for row = 1 to 10
myReportFile.WriteLine("<TR>")
for column = 1 to 2
myReportFile.WriteLine("<TD STYLE='border-bottom:
1px solid black; border-right: 1px solid black;'>" & row
& "," & column & "</TD>")
next
myReportFile.WriteLine("</TR>")
next
myReportFile.WriteLine("</TBODY></TABLE>")
myReportFile.Close
Whilst this script creates the data which it puts in the MS Word
document,itcouldhaveequallywellretrievedthedatafromanExcel
Sheet.
Figure30:ThisscreenshotisofMSWord2007displayingour
testreport.Theslightlymoresophisticateddescriptionofthe
borderscausesthenicesingleborderratherthanthedefault
doubleborderwhichwehaveseenintheearlierexamples.
Figure31:ThisscreenshotisofMSWord2003displayingour
testreport.ThisolderversionofMSWorddoesaslightlyless
accuratejobofinterpretingtheHTML;theborderontheleftand
topofthetableisthickerthanitshouldbe.Ihaveincludedthis
imagetoillustratethatthistechniqueisusefulandeasybutnot
100%consistentacrossdifferentversionsofMSOffice.
BabySteps

Rewritingthesamepieceofscriptoverandoverisabigwasteof
time.
SubroutinesandFunctionsletuswriteapieceofscriptoncebut
useitmanytimes.
FunctionsarejustlikeSubroutinesexcepttheygivesomething
back(theyhaveareturnvalue).
Datacontainingdatesisoftenacauseoferrors.
Theseerrorsarebecausedatestandardsareapplied
inconsistently.
Readingafile,changingittostopExcelmakingerrorsand
writingitbackoutagaincanpreventExcelmisinterpretingdata
likedatesorserialnumbers.
ReplaceisaVBScriptbuiltinfunctionwhichreplacesallthe
instancesofonesubstringwithanother.
Lesson 8: Working With Pivot Tables

Why Pivot Tables Are So Very Important
Puttingasidepeopleskills,PivotTablesaremanagementembodiedin
apieceofsoftware.Tomanagethesupplyofpumpkinsoneneedsto
knowthetrendsandpatternsin pumpkin deliveries; onedoesnot
need to know above every single pumpkin. Similarly, to manage
hardwarerepaircentresoneneedstoseewhatarethemostcommon
failuresandhowfasttheytendtobefixed. KnowingthatJoBlogs
hasamodemthattook10hourstofixmightwellbetoomuchdetail;
knowing that, on average, 100 modems need fixing each day is
criticalmanagementdata.
APivotTabletakesthe'toomuchdetail'informationandsummarises
it into something intelligible. For pumpkins, it could show the
numberofpumpkinsarrivingeachdayoftheweek.Ifitdidthis,it
wouldbesummarising'countofpumpkins'by'dayofweek'.Herewe
can start to see the core concept behind Pivot Tables. They
summarise one or more data fields by some grouping field. This
summaryisperformedusingoneofanumberofavailable summary
functions.Anotherexamplemightbe'average%ofpumpkinsrotten
on arrival' summarised by 'month of year'. There the data being
summarisedis'rottenpumpkinsonarrival'.Thesummaryfunctionis
'average'andthegroupingfieldis'monthoftheyear'.
Inshort,PivotTablesletone'see'intoamassofdetailandpickout
criticalmanagementinformation.Whatismore,theythenletus'drill
down' to see the underlying detailwhen we need it. Wewill see
moreofthissuperpowerfuldrilldownabilitylater.
Understanding Pivot Tables
TohelpexplainalltheconceptsbehindPivotTableswearegoingto
lookatafictionalexampleofcomputerhardwarerepairtimes. In
thisexample,thereisamultinationalhardwarecompany.Thetime
takentorepairvariousbrokencomponentsismeasuredinhoursfor
theUK,USandChina(Ch)offices.Themanagementchallengehere
isthatonlyrawdataisavailable. Whatwestartoutwithisjusta
Rowinaspreadsheetforeachrepair. Ifweintend,forexample,to
improvetheturnaroundfortheslowestoffice,wewillneedtoknow
whichistheslowestoffice.
Tothrowextrafuelonthisfire,wecanpretendthatthereisanew
companywidedirectivethatrepairsshouldbedoneinfourteenhours
orless.Howdowetrackthedifferentoffices'levelofcomplianceand
BabySteps
workoutwhatisgoingwrongwherecomplianceisnotmet? Well,
compliance levels can be worked out directly using a Pivot Table.
Then we can use that table to drilldown to the exact failing jobs
numberstothenfollowthemupwitha'phonecalltoelucidatewhat
ishappening.
Inshort,wewilluseaPivotTableto'see'whatishappeninginthe
businessatbothanoverviewanddetailview.
Creating An Example Pivot Table
Belowisascriptwhich'manufactures'data.Ihavehavedonethisso
thatthereisnoneedtohaveasetofdownloadableWorkbookstogo
with Baby Steps. Using a script like this is also a great way to
develop any Excel Scripting Macro project. We can manufacture
somenicecleandataandworkwiththattocreateourscript. Once
ourscriptworkswithcleandata,wecantryitwithrealworlddata.
Aswehaveseenearlier,realworlddatais'dirty';ithashumanerrors
init.Withthistechnique,wecanaddtheabilitytocopewithdirty
dataintoourExcelScriptingMacrosinthesureknowledgethatthey
workjustfinewithcleandata.
Option Explicit
' Script to make some data for Pivot Table work
Dim myExcel,myWorkbook,mySheet
Dim row,rTime,wOffice,wEquipment, office, equipment
Dim r1,r2
Set myWorkbook=myExcel.WorkBooks.Add()
mySheet.Cells(1,1).Value="Office"
mySheet.Cells(1,2).Value="Equipment"
mySheet.Cells(1,3).Value="Repair Time"
mySheet.Cells(1,4).Value="Job Number"
For row=2 To 301

wOffice=Fix(rnd()*4+1)
if wOffice = 1 then
office="UK"
elseif wOffice < 4 then
office="US"
else
office="Ch"
end if
mySheet.Cells(row,1).Value=office
wEquipment=Fix(rnd()*6+1)
if wEquipment=1 then
equipment="Modem"
elseif wEquipment=2 then
equipment="Hard Drive"
equipment="Monitor"
equipment="Keyboard"
else
equipment="Power Supply"
end if
mySheet.Cells(row,2).Value=equipment
rTime=Fix(rnd()*10+1)+Fix(Rnd()*(10+wOffice)+1)
mySheet.Cells(row,3).Value=rTime
mySheet.Cells(row,4).Value=Fix(Rnd()*999+1000) & "-"
& Fix(Rnd()*999+1000)
Next
Howthisscriptworks:
Fix(Rnd()*n+1) creates an integer number between 1 and n
inclusive. Rnd()makesa random numberbetween0and1. Well,
actuallyitisnottrulyrandom,itfollowsamathematicalpatternthat
appearstoberandom;thisiscalledpseudorandom.Fix()takesany
decimalandreturnsonlytheintegerpart.Forexample,ifRnd()gave
0.52thenRnd()*10wouldbe5.1andFix(Rnd()*10+1)wouldbe6.
Wecanusethisformulatomakeamixofatwhichofficerepairsare
done, what is wrong and the job number. Also, if one takes two
random numbers and adds them together, just like adding the
numberfromthrowingapairofdice,theresultwillfollowtheclassic
Gaussiancurve.Thatmeansthedistributionofresultsisabellshape
withthebulkofresultsinthemiddle.Ihaveusedthistechniqueto
createarealisticdistributionofrepairtimesfromthescript.
Finally, to give us some variation between offices and between
componentswhichneedrepair,Ihavemixedinthenumberswhich
choose office and device into the calculation of repair time. This
meanswegetthetypeofvariationthatwouldbebeinglookedforin
arealsituation.
BabySteps
Creating A Pivot Table And Scripting Macro

Belowareasetofscreenshotswhichwalkusthroughtheprocessof
creatingaPivotTable.ThetrickistodothiswiththeMacroRecorder
running. Doing so will ensure Excel does all the hard work of
creatingascript forus;weneed only translate and generalise the
Macroitwritesforus.IalwaysstartanewPivotTablebasedproject
by Macro Recording myself creating the table using Excel's Pivot
Tablewizard;itisjustsoeasytouse.InAppendixA,Ihaveshown
thesameprocessbutusingExcel2007.Thereareafewdifferences
intheuserinterfacebutalltheconceptsarethesame.
Figure32:TokickofftheprocessofcreatingaPivotTable,we
mustensurethattheSheetwiththedatainwhichweare
interestedisshowing.Then,selectingDatathenPivotTable
andPivotChartReportwillstartthewizardweneedtocreate
outPivotTable.
Figure33:NextwewillseethePivotTablewizardstartup.The
importantoptionsonthefirstpageofthewizardarewheretoget
thedatafromandifthewizardshouldcreateatableorachart.
ExcelcancreateaPivotTableoraPivotChartfromexternaldata.An
exampleofthiswouldbetocreateitfroman SQLdatabase.Whilst
thisisfabulouslypowerful,itisveryrarelyuseful. Fornowwewill
choosetotakethedatafromaSheet.Wecanalsoignoretheoption
ofusingmultipleconsolidationrangesbecause,tobehonest,itdoes
notworkverywell.
IhighlyrecommendalwayscreatingaPivotTablefirstbecausewe
canalwaysmakeachartfromitlater.Sothechoicesshouldbe:
1) MicrosoftOfficeExcellistordatabase.
2) PivotTable.
BabySteps
Figure34:Nowthatthewizard'knows'thatwewantaPivot
TablewehavetotellitfromwheretotaketheSheetdata.Thisis
doneusingastandardCellreferenceasshowabove.Excel
usuallymakesthecorrectguessastotheCellstouse.Ifitgetsit
wrong,wecancorrectitbyselectingtheCellswiththemouseor
typingtheCellreferenceintothewizarddirectly.
Figure35:Excelknowsthebasicsofwhatwewantatthisstage.
ItknowswewantaPivotTableandwhatdatawillbeusedto
createit.NextwemusttellExcelwheretoputthenewtable.By
farthetidiestsolutionistoalwaysputanewPivotTableina
newSheetusingtheNewWorksheetoption.
Figure36:Thisscreenshotshowsthenewlycreatedbutstill
blankPivotTableandthePivotTableFieldList.
Now the fun starts! We can start laying out our Pivot Table. To
facilitatethis,ExcelhasdrawnforuseanemptyPivotTable. The
tablehas4areas. Thisareasare'droptargets';wecandragfield
namesfromthePivotTableFieldListboxintotheseareasofthePivot
Tabletocontrolthewaythetableworks.
Atthetopoftheblanktableisthe Pagearea;wewilllookatthis
later. Ofmoreimmediateinterestisthe Rowarea totheleftofthe
table.ThissaysDropRowFieldsHere.Thisareaisforcontaining
fieldsagainstwhichdatawillbesummarisedinRowsgoingacross
thetable.AboveandtotherightoftheRowareaistheColumnarea
saying Drop Column Fields Here. This area is for fields against
whichdatawillbesummarisedinColumnsgoingdownthepage.In
themiddleisthe Dataarea. Thisiswherethedatawhichistobe
summarisedisplaced.
Inourexamplewehaverepairtimesfordifferentcomponentfailures
atdifferentoffices. Whatwewanttoknowisinformationonthe
repairtimeforaparticularcomponentataparticularoffice.Wealso
wanttobeabletocomparetheoverallperformanceofofficesand
theoveralltimesfordifferentcomponents.
WecandoallthisbymakingthePivotTablesummarisebyofficein
RowsandcomponentsinColumns. Thisway,tofindthedatafor
modemsintheUSoffice,wecansimplylookdowntheRowsuntilwe
find the US Row and then across the Columns until we find the
modem Column. This will find us the Cell which will hold the
number we are interested in. The Pivot Table will also give us a
BabySteps
summaryforeachRowoverall(foroffices)andColumnoverall(for
components).Thenextfewscreenshotsshowhowwe'tell'thePivot
Tabletodoallthesethings.
Figure37:Alltheinitiallayoutisdonewithdraganddrop.The
availablefieldsareshowninthePivotTableFieldListdialogue
box.TomakeOfficeaRowfieldweclickonisnameinthe
dialogueboxanddragitovertotheRowareawherewedropit
(asshowninthepicture).
Dropping the Office field name onto the Row area immediately
causes Excel to enumerate the unique values of this field as Row
headers.Itisalsoworthnotingthatshouldwechangeourminds,we
candragthegreyOfficebuttonExceladdsatthetopofthe Row
area.Ifwedragitbacktothedialogueboxfromwhichitcame,itis
theOfficefieldisremovedfromthePivotTable.Ifwedragittoa
differentarea(e.g.theColumnarea)Excelplacesitthereinstead.
Just like with the office field we can now draganddrop the
Equipmentfield.Thisfieldrepresentsthecomponentthatisbeing
repaired.WedragittotheColumnareaanddropitthere.
Figure38:ThisscreenshotshowsthePivotTablesetupto
summarisebyofficeinRowsandequipmentinColumns.The
nextstepwillbetotellExcelwhatdatatoactuallysummarise.
Figure39:DraggingtheRepairTimefieldfromthePivotTable
FieldListdialoguetotheDataareacausesthetableto
automaticallysummarisethesumofrepairtimesforalloffices
andequipment.
DraggingafieldintotheDataareatellsExcelthatitisthefieldwith
thedatatobesummarised. Excelguessesthemethodofsummary.
Inthiscase,Excelguessesthatitshouldsumthevaluesoftherepair
timefield.Forexample,ittakesalltherepairtimesforharddrivesin
Chinaandaddsthemtogether.Inourscreenshotabove(figure39)
thisgives80hours. Thisisnotactuallymuchusetous. Wecan
BabySteps
changethemethodofsummaryasisshowninthenextscreenshot.
Forthisexample,Ihavechosentosummarisebyshowingtheaverage
(numericmean)oftherepairtime.
Figure40:ByrightclickingoneoftheCellsintheDataareawe
getthecontextmenushowabove.ByclickingtheFieldSettings
optionwegetthePivotTableFielddialogueasshowninthe
nextscreenshot.
Figure41:ThePivotTableFielddialogueletsuschangetheway
thedataissummarised.
Figure42:Inthisexample,whenIhadchangedthesummary
methodtoaverageIgottheseverylongdecimalnumbers.To
makethislessugly,IusedthenormalrightclicktheFormat
Cellsmethod.
Figure43:Hereitis,ourPivotTableinitsdefaultlayout.Fora
lotofapplications,thismaywellbesufficient.Shoulditbe
necessarytobeautifythingsfurther,thenCellbackgrounds,
numberformatsandalltheseotherthingscanbesetbyhand.
However,doingsocanmakescriptingabittricky;itmightbe
bettertoinitiallyseeifoneofthebuiltinformatsmightdowhat
wewant.
BabySteps
Figure44:ClickingtheFormatReportbuttononthePivotTable
toolbarrevealstheAutoFormatdialogue.
Figure45:Therearequiteafewbuiltinformatstochoosefrom.
Itisworthbeingabitcarefulhowever,severalrelayoutthePivot
Tablefieldpositions,whichcanbeannoying.AclickoftheOK
buttonappliesaformattotheactualtable.
Figure46:OneofthethingsIlikeverymuchaboutPivotTables
isthenumberofbuiltinfeatures.InthisscreenshotIhave
clickedtheEquipmentfieldtab.Thisthenhasletmechoose
whichofthevariousvaluesoftheEquipmentfieldIactuallywant
displayedinthetable.Notonlyisthisacoolfeatureforme,itis
alsoavailabletowhomeverIgivemyfinishedtable.
Figure47:AnothermindblowinglyusefulfeatureofaPivotTable
isdrilldown.TogetthenewlycreatedSheetshownabove,I
doubleclickedontheCh/PowerSupplyDataareaCell.This
causedExceltopopulateanewSheetwithjustthatdatawhich
assummarisedtocreatethatCell.
With a Pivot Table we can use the summarised data to find the
informationweareinterestedinanddrilldowntofindtherawdata
BabySteps
thatwassummarisedtocreateit.Weshouldnotethateventhough
JobNumberisnotdisplayedinthe PivotTable,itisshowninthe
drilldowndata.
If,forexample,IfeltthattheCh/PowerSupplyaveragewastoo
high,Icould:
1) Drilldowntotherawdata.
2) Sortbyrepairtime.
3) MakeanoteofthetoptenJobNumbers.
4) Call the appropriate manager and discuss what might be
donetofixwhatevermadethesejobstakesolong.
Creating Pivot Tables Using Scripts
Looking At The Recorded Macro
The next block of code is the raw Recorded Macro as Excel 2003
created it from same session from which I took the above screen
shots.Atfirstblushitlooksabitscary(oratleastitdoesnotme).
However, taken step by step, the beast can be tamed. So, my
approachherewillbetodojustthat,lookatthescriptinlittlesteps
figuringoutwhatishappeningaswegoalong.
' Raw Recorded Macro
ActiveWorkbook.PivotCaches.Add(SourceType:=xlDatabase,
SourceData:= _
"Sheet1!R1C1:R301C4").CreatePivotTable
TableDestination:="", TableName:= _
"PivotTable1", DefaultVersion:=xlPivotTableVersion10
ActiveSheet.PivotTableWizard
TableDestination:=ActiveSheet.Cells(3, 1)
ActiveSheet.Cells(3, 1).Select
ActiveWorkbook.ShowPivotTableFieldList = True
With
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").PivotFields("Offi
ce")
.Orientation = xlRowField
.Position = 1
End With
With
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").PivotFields("Equi
pment")
.Orientation = xlColumnField
.Position = 1
End With
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").AddDataField
ActiveSheet.PivotTables( _
"PivotTable1").PivotFields("Repair Time"), "Sum of
Repair Time", xlSum
Range("B5").Select
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").PivotFields("Su
m of Repair Time"). _
Function = xlAverage
Range("B5:G8").Select
Selection.NumberFormat = "0.00"
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").PivotSelect "",
xlDataAndLabel, True
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").Format xlTable2
OK brace ourselves we're going in:

ThewholeprocessstartsbysettingupaPivotCache.PivotTablesare
aviewofData,theactualcalculationsthatcreatethatData(i.e.all
thesummarycalculations)aredoneinaspecialObjectfromtheClass
PivotCache. Each Excel Workbook has a Collection of PivtoCache
ObjectsjustlikeithasaCollectionofSheetObjects.Tocreateanew
PivotCache,wecalltheAddMethodofthePivotCachesCollectionof
aWorkbookObject.
ActiveWorkbook.PivotCaches.Add(SourceType:=xlDatabase,
SourceData:= _
"Sheet1!R1C1:R301C4").CreatePivotTable
TableDestination:="", TableName:= _
"PivotTable1", DefaultVersion:=xlPivotTableVersion10
Whatisthisallabout?HereisastepbystepguidetowhatExcelis
doinghere:
1) TakethePivotCachesCollectionoftheActiveWorkbook(that
whichwearelookingat)andAddanewPivotCache.
2) SetthedatasourcetypeforthisPivotCachetoxlDatabase.
3) Set the Range of Cells for this PivotCache to Sheet1!
R1C1:R301:C4.
BabySteps
4) NowthatwehavesetupthePivotCache,createaPivotTable
fromit.
5) MakethenewPivotTable'sdestinationbe.Thismakesit
appearinanewSheet.
6) GivethenewPivotTablethenamePivotTable1.
7) Finally, give the new Pivot Table a default layout of
xlPivotTableVersion10.
Soineffect,theselinescreateaPivotCacheObjectwhichworkswith
theRangeofCellswhichcontainstherawdata. Itthencreatesa
PivotTableObjectwhichworkswiththethePivotCachetocreatethe
datasummarywewant.
ActiveSheet.PivotTableWizard
TableDestination:=ActiveSheet.Cells(3, 1)
ActiveSheet.Cells(3, 1).Select
Thisactuallydoesnothingofuse,itcanbeignored!
With
ce")
.Position = 1
End With
With
This code uses the PivotTables Collection of the ActiveSheet (that

Sheet which wearecurrentlylooking at) tolocate ourPivotTable.
ThefieldswhichgointocreatingaPivotTablearecalledPivotFields.
EachPivotFieldhasaspecialObjectrepresentingit.ThesePivotField
Objects can be found in the PivotFields Collection of a PivotTable
Object.ThisiswhatthecodedoestofindtheOfficefieldandmake
itaRowfield.
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").PivotFields("Equipment")
.Position = 1
End With
Thispieceofcodeisjustthesameasthepreviousone. Theonly
differenceisthatitmaketheEquipmentfieldintoaColumn.
Repair Time", xlSum
ThispieceofcodeusesthesamemethodagaintofindthePivotTable
Object.Onceithasdoneso,itcallstheAddDataFieldMethodtoadd
theRepairTimefieldasaDatafieldwithatitleofSumofRepair
TimeandasummaryfunctionofxlSum.
Range("B5").Select
Thisdoesnothingimportanthowever,thenextbitdoes:
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").PivotFields("Su
m of Repair Time"). _
Function = xlAverage
Theabovecodeconvertsthesummarymethodfromsumtoaverage.
Again,mostoftheactualcodeismadeupoffindingthePivotTable
Object.WhenwetranslateovertoaScriptingMacro,wewillgetrid
ofallthismess.
Range("B5:G8").Select
Selection.NumberFormat = "0.00"
Theaboveisthebitthatsetsthenumberstojusthavetwodecimal
places.I'llshowaneasierwayofdoingthislater.Thesnagwiththis
approachisthatourscriptwillhavetoworkoutwhatRangetouse.
Itisbettertouseanapproachwhichavoidsthis.
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").PivotSelect "",
xlDataAndLabel, True
Thisisnotdoinganythinguseful.
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").Format xlTable2
ThisfinalpieceofcodesetstheformatofthePivotTabletothebuilt
informatwewanted.
I did mention that there is a better way of setting the Number
Format totwo decimal places. Thenexttwo screenshotsshould
how this is done from the graphic user interface. Whilst I was
creatingthesescreenshots,IhadtheMacroRecorderrunning,sowe
canseethecodethatcameoutaswell.
BabySteps
Figure48:WehavealreadyseenthatrightclickingintheData
areaandselectingFieldSettingscausesthePivotTableField
dialoguetobeshown.WecanclicktheNumberbuttononthis
dialoguetosetthenumberformatforthewholetable.
Figure49:ThisistheresultofclickingtheNumberbuttonin
thePivotTableFielddialogue.InthisscreenshotIamsetting
thewholePivotTabletouseatwodecimalplaceformat.
UsingthePivotTableFielddialoguetosetthenumberformatofthe
PivotTableresultsinthefollowingcode:
' Fixing the number format without using a Range
With
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").PivotFields(
_
"Average of Repair Time")

.NumberFormat = "0.00"
End With
HereIhavetranslatedthiscodeintoscripting:
' Fixing number format translated
With myTable.PivotFields("Average of Repair Time")
End With
Finished Product
OnceweunderstandwhateachpieceoftherecordedMacroisdoing,
itisstraightforwardtotranslateintoaScriptingMacro.HereIhave
placedallthetranslated Constants atthestartofthescript.Ihave
alsoreplacedallthoseclumsylookupstatementswithVariables. In
otherwords,eachtimeitusedtosaysomethinglike:
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").
Ihavejustput:
myTable.
Thefinishedproduct:
Option Explicit
Dim myWorkbook, myCache, myTable
Const xlPivotTableVersion10 = 1
Const xlRowField = 1
Const xlColumnField = 2
Const xlAverage = -4106
Const xlTable2 = 11
Const xlDatabase = 1
' Here we put code which creates an Excel.Appliation

' Object and which gets the Workbook Object
' Here I split that massive statement in the recorded

' Macro into two steps; this is the first step to
' create the PivotCache. Also note that Excel has
' recorded named arguments (name:=value) we have to
' replace these with unnamed arguments (Appendix E).
Set myCache = myWorkbook.PivotCaches.Add _
( _
xlDatabase, _
BabySteps
"Sheet1!R1C1:R301C4" _
)
' This is the second step which creates the
' PivotTable from the PivotCache
Set myTable= myCache.CreatePivotTable _
( _
"", _
"PivotTable1", _
TRUE, _
xlPivotTableVersion10 _
)
' Now we have the table in existence, we can add

' the summary methods to it.
With myTable.PivotFields("Office")
.Position = 1
End With
With myTable.PivotFields("Equipment")
.Position = 1
End With
' There is no point in a script of adding the

' Data field summarised as sum and then changing
' over to average. Here I have added it as average
' to start with.
myTable.AddDataField myTable.PivotFields("Repair
Time"), "Average of Repair Time", xlAverage
' Here is the nice clean number format approach

myTable.PivotFields("Average of Repair Time")
End With
' Next we can set the auto-format we want

myTable.Format xlTable2
' Finally, we can clean up a bit by getting rid

' of the field list and the PivotTable command bar
myExcel.CommandBars("PivotTable").Visible = False
myWorkbook.ShowPivotTableFieldList = False
Tricks To Improve Data To Help Pivoting

Banding Data
Backinthedefinitionofourtestdata,thereisasectionthereisa
new company wide directive that repairs should be done in fourteen
hoursorless.Atfirstlook,thereisnothingintherawdatatohelpus
here. Because there is nothing in the raw data, we cannot put
anythinginthePivotTable.So,ScriptingMacroscometotherescue.
WecanuseascripttoaddanewColumnwhichtheappropriatedata.
ThefollowingpieceofscriptputsinanewColumn.Thevalueofthis
Columnis1ifarepairtimewasover14hoursand0ifitwasnot.
mySheet.Cells(1,5).Value = "Over Limit"
mySheet.Cells(2,5).Formula = "=if(C2>14,1,0)"
mySheet.Range("E2:E301").FillDown
IhaveusedaformulaandtheFillDownbecausethisisaveryfast
approach.WecouldmakethescriptinspecteachvalueinColumnC
and put an appropriate value in Column E. The result would be
identical,butitwouldrunhundredsoftimesslower.
NowthatwehaveaColumnindicatingifadatumisovertimeornot,
wecanaddthesenewdataintothe PivotTable. Ihaveaddedthe
OverLimitfieldtotheDataareatwice.ThefirsttimeIhaveadded
it with a summary function of Sum. This results in a number
showing how many repairs were over the limit for a particular
combinationofOfficeandEquipment.ThesecondtimeIhaveadded
itwithasummaryfunctionofCount. Thissimplygivesthetotal
number of repair for a particular combination of Office and
Equipment.
Icallthisapproachbanding.Theideaisthatwetakedatawhichis
continuous(couldbeanythingoutofarangeofvalues)andsortit
intotwoormorebands.Inthisexample,wemaketwobands,over
14hoursandnotover14hours.Anotherexamplemightbepeople's
heights.Withheightswemightmakealessthan1.5meters,1.5to2
metersandgreaterthan2meters.
HereisthecodewhichcreatesthebandingandthePivotTablefor
ourrepairtimeexample:
Option Explicit
' ... Some other code goes here ...
Dim myTable,myCache
Const xlDatabase = 1
BabySteps
Const xlRowField = 1
Const xlColumnField = 2
Const xlPivotTableVersion10 = 1
Const xlSum = -4157
Const xlCount = -4112
Const xlAverage = -4106

Set myCache = myWorkbook.PivotCaches.Add _

( _
xlDatabase, _
"Sheet1!R1C1:R301C5" _
)
Set myTable=myCache.CreatePivotTable _
( _
"", _
"PivotTable1", _
true, _
)
With myTable.PivotFields("Office")
.Position = 1
End With
With myTable.PivotFields("Equipment")
.Position = 1
End With
myTable.AddDataField _
myTable.PivotFields("Repare Time"), _
"Average of Repare Time",_
xlAverage
myTable.PivotFields("Over Limit"), _
"Sum of Over Limit", _
xlSum
myTable.PivotFields("Over Limit"), _
"Count Of Jobs", _
xlCount
Figure50:HerewecanseethePivotTablewithbandeddata.I
haveincludedanenlargedviewoftheCh/HardDrivesummary
data.Wecanseethattherewere6jobsintotalofwhich2were
overthe14hourrepairlimit.However,theaveragerepairtime
is13.33hours,whichmightbeconsideredabitclosetothelimit
forcomfort.Rememberthough,theredataaretotallyinvented!
Cleaning Data
InLesson5wesawthatrealworlddatais'dirty'. PivotTablesare
particularly susceptible to this problem. If we considerour repair
timeexample;whatwouldhappenifinthedatathereisaRowwhich
has'ch'ratherthan'Ch'astheOfficecode?Thiswouldactuallyresult
inawholenewRowinthePivotTable.BoththedatainthenewRow
andintheold'Ch'Rowwouldbeincorrectbecausetheyshouldallbe
summarisedintothesameRow.
Simplyput,cleaninguprealworlddataisthedifferentiatorbetween
awelldonePivotTableMacroScriptandamisleadingmess.
The Page Area
Backwhenwelookedatplacingfieldsintodifferentpartsofablank
PivotTableImentionedthePagearea. Fieldsplacedheremakea
'filter'fortheentiretable.If,forexample,wehaddataondogsand
wewantedtoseeasummaryforjustonebreedatatime,thenwe
wouldputthefieldBreedintothePagearea.
BabySteps
Lesson 9: Working 'Outside The Box'

Accessing Binary Files
SofarinBabyStepswehavelookedatreadingandwritingtextfiles.
Sometimeswemightwanttoaccessbinaryfiles.Anexamplereason
fordoingthismightbetoreadthecommentinamp3file.
Thekeytoaccessingbinaryfilesfromscriptsistousethe ADODB
library which is supplied by Microsoft for free on all Windows
distributions. You will require ADODB 2.5 or later. If you want to
knowifyouhavethisversiothenthefollowingscriptwilltellyou:
dim adodb
set adodb=WScript.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
dim v
WScript.echo "Your ADODB Version=" & adodb.version
Anythingat2.5orlatershouldworkfine.
' This is a simple example of managing binary files in
' VBScript using the ADODB object
Dim inStream,outStream
Const adTypeText=2
Const adTypeBinary=1
' We can create the scream object directly, it does

' not need to be built from a record set or anything
' like that
Set inStream=WScript.CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
' We call open on the stream with no arguments.

' This makes the stream become an empty container
' which can be then used for what operations we want
inStream.Open
inStream.type=adTypeBinary
' Now we load a really BIG file. This should show

' if the object reads the whole file at once or just
' attaches to the file on disk
' You must change this path to something on your
' computer!
inStream.LoadFromFile "C:\temp\test.gif
' Copy the data over to a stream for outputting

set outStream=WScript.CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
outStream.Open
outStream.type=adTypeBinary
BabySteps
dim buff
buff=inStream.Read()
' Write out to a file

outStream.Write(buff)
' You must change this path to something on your

' computer!
outStream.SaveToFile "C:\temp\test.gif
outStream.Close
inStream.Close
IntheaboveexampletheStreamobjectisusedtoloadthecontents
ofthefileintomemoryandstoreitasaBytearray(whichisaspecial
way of storing data in memory which VBScript does not normally
use).Thebytearrayisthenpassedtoanotherstreamwhichiswritten
outtodisk.Notverymemoryefficient,butifwewantreallyefficient
binaryfilehandling,thenyoushouldprobablybeprogramminginC!
thistechniquecomesinhandyasaquickandeasyapproachwhich
doesnotrequireanynewcompiledexecutables.
Another way of achieving the same thing is to use the CopyTo
method.Thisdoesnotallowyouaccesstoanyofthedata,butis
moreefficientifyouarewantingtojustcopyafile.Butthen,ifallwe
wanttodoiscopyafile,whynotusetheScripting.FileSystemObject
CopyFilemethod?
OneproblemyoumightfaceusingthisapproachinVBScriptisthat
wecannotcreateaBytearray.Thefollowingscriptfails:
dim outStream
const adTypeText=2
const adTypeBinary=1
dim data
' Copy the dat over to a stream for outputting

set outStream=WScript.CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
outStream.Open
outStream.type=adTypeBinary
dim buff()
redim buff(255)
dim i
for i=0 to 255
buff(i)=i
next
' Write out to a file - but the script fails here
outStream.Write(buff)
outStream.SaveToFile "C:\temp\test.gif
outStream.Close
inStream.Close
ThescriptfailsbecausethearraycreatedisaVariantarray,notaByte
array.Whatdoesthatmean?Wellheregoes.
VBScript triestomakelifefortheprogrammersimple. Onewayit
doesthisistosaythatanyVariablecanholdanytypeofdata.Thisis
actuallyasortoftrickthatworksinthebackground. Variablesin
VBScriptarestoredasathingcalleda'Variant'.AVariantholdsnot
onlyavalue,butinformationontype.SoaVariableholdingaString
inVBScriptnotonlyholdsthedatafortheStringitsself,butanextra
datumwhichineffectsaysThisisaString.
Other pieces of software, ADODB being an example, do not use
Variants. VBScriptcantranslateforthem. SoADODB.Streamwill
passdatainafromVBScriptasanArrayofBytes.VBScriptaddsto
the Variablethe datum sayingThis is an Array ofBytes when it
reads from the ADODB.Stream. When VBScript writes to the
ADODB.Streamitstripsthisextradatumoffagain.
Allthis'magic'worksjustfineuntiltocomestocreatingaVariable
which holds a Array to be written to ADODB.Stream. VBScript
cannot create and Array of Bytes. It can only create an Array of
Variants. The magic does not automatically convert an Array of
VariantstoandArrayofBytes.Toworkaroundthisproblem,wecan
getADODB.StreamtocreateanArrayofBytesforusbywritingouta
textfileoftheappropriatelengthandthenreadingitin.Igavethisa
lotofthoughtanddecidedthatwritingupthismethodwouldbejust
fartoohardcorefor'BabySteps'.However,Iwillbehappytoanswer
anyemailsononthesubjectandmightwriteitupinmyblog.
Reading Data From Binary Files An Example
OK,hereweseethatwecanreadbinaryfilesaslongastheyarenot
toolarge.WecanreadthedatainthembygettingaBytearrayfrom
theLoadFromFilemethodoftheStreamobject,andwecanwriteto
them.Forthelastpieceofthissection,letusdosomething'real'with
thistechnology. Thescriptbelowlooksforallthe'.gif'filesin'My
Pictures'andliststhemalongwiththecontentsoftheGIFversion
label. TheGIFversionlabelisstoredatthestartofthe'gif'binary
files.
Option Explicit
BabySteps
Dim myShell, sendToFolder, myPicturesPath, myShortcut

Dim fso,myFolder, myFile, fileName, comment, myExcel
Dim myWorkbook, myRow, mySheet
' Find "My Pictures"
Set myShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
myPicturesPath = myShell.SpecialFolders("MyDocuments")
& "\My Pictures"
' Open "My Pictures" as a folder so we can see

' which files are inside it
Set fso=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set myFolder=fso.GetFolder(myPicturesPath)
' Set Up Excel To receive The Data

Set myWorkbook=myExcel.Workbooks.Add
myRow=2
mySheet.Cells(1,1).Value="Name"
mySheet.Cells(1,2).Value="GIF Type"
' Loop through each file found and see

' if its file extension is .gif
' If a file is a .gif file then call our function
' which opens it as a binary file and reads the
' version label
for each myFile in myFolder.Files
fileName=myFile.name
fileName=Lcase(fileName)
if Right(fileName,4)=".gif" then
' Read the version label
comment=GetGifComment(myFile.path)
' Place the data in the spreadsheet
mySheet.Cells(myRow,1).Value=fileName
mySheet.Cells(myRow,2).Value=comment
' Step down to the next Row
myRow=myRow+1
end if
next
' Make the spreadsheet look a bit nicer

With mySheet.Range("A1:B1").Font
.FontStyle = "Bold"
.Size = 12
End With
'Script ends here
function GetGifComment(gifFilePath)
dim inStream,buff,commentLen,commentStr,myIndex
dim myByte,myByteValue,myCharacter
set inStream=WScript.CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
inStream.Open
inStream.type=1
inStream.LoadFromFile gifFilePath
buff=inStream.Read()
inStream.Close
commentStr=""
for myIndex = 1 to 6
' Extract 1 byte from the buffer
myByte = MidB(buff,myIndex,1)
' Gets its numeric value
myByteValue = AscB(myByte)
' Convert that numeric value into a character
myCharacter = Chr(myByteValue)
' Append that character to the string
commentStr = commentStr & myCharacter
next
GetGifComment = commentStr
end function
ADODB.Stream Summary
Properties
Property Description
CharSet Sets or returns a value that
specifies into which character set
the contents are to be translated.
This property is only used with text
Stream objects (type is adTypeText)
EOS Returns whether the current position
is at the end of the stream or not
LineSeparator Sets or returns the line separator
character used in a text Stream
object
Mode Sets or returns the available
permissions for modifying data
Position Sets or returns the current position
BabySteps
(in bytes) from the beginning of a

Stream object
Size Returns the size of an open Stream
object
State Returns a value describing if the
Stream object is open or closed
Type Sets or returns the type of data in a
Stream object
Methods
Method Description
Cancel Cancels an execution of an Open call
on a Stream object
Close Closes a Stream object
CopyTo Copies a specified number of
characters/bytes from one Stream
object into another Stream object -
args Stream,[count]
Flush Sends the contents of the Stream
buffer to the associated underlying
object
LoadFromFile Loads the contents of a file into a
Stream object
Open Opens a Stream object
Read Reads the entire stream or a
specified number of bytes from a
binary Stream object
ReadText Reads the entire stream, a line, or a
specified number of characters from a
text Stream object
SaveToFile Saves the binary contents of a Stream
object to a file
SetEOS Sets the current position to be the
end of the stream (EOS)
SkipLine Skips a line when reading a text
Stream
Write Writes binary data to a binary Stream
object
WriteText Writes character data to a text
Stream object
IfthemodeofastreamisadTypeText(2)wewillgetanerrorifyou
trytouseReadorWrite.Equally,ifthetypeisadTypeBinary(1)the
ReadTextandWriteTextwillfail.Notealsothatifthestreamsareset
toTextandCopyToisusedtocopyafile,thefilewillbeconvertedto
textevenifitdidnotstartoutthisway.Theendresultisnormallya
corruptfile.IwouldstronglysuggestalwaysusingadTypeBinarywith
ADODB and using the FileSystemObject for all text file
manipulations.
Sending Key Strokes To Other Applications Through
SofarwehaveseentheabilityofscriptstoworkwithExcelusing
COM. How about using a script to work with Excel and another
application? Anexampleapplicationmightbe Notepad. However,
thereisnoCOMinterfacetoNotepad,sowearegoingtohavetouse
the WScript.SendKeys method.Sohereisaquickcribonhowthat
works.
Mostkeyscanberepresentedbythecharacterofthekeyitself.e.g,
thekeysequenceFREDcanberepresentedsimplyby"FRED".Hereis
asimplescriptwhichwillopenNotepadandtypeFREDintoit.Todo
that,itcreatesaObjectfromtheWscript.ShellClass.ThisObjecthas
a Method to 'run' an application. This Method is used to run
Notepad.OnceNotepadisupandrunning,thekeysequenceFRED
issenttoit.
Option Explicit
Dim WshShell
' Open notepad

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run "notepad", 9
' Give Notepad time to load (500 milliseconds)

WScript.Sleep 500
' Write FRED

WshShell.SendKeys "FRED"
Some special keys, such as the control keys, function keys etc are
encodedinastringenclosedby{braces}
Key Code
{ {{}
} {}}
[ {[}
] {]}
~ {~}
+ {+}
^ {^}
% {%}
BabySteps
Key Code
BACKSPACE {BACKSPACE}, {BS}, or {BKSP}
BREAK {BREAK}
CLEAR {CLEAR}
CAPS LOCK {CAPSLOCK}
DEL or DELETE {DELETE} or {DEL}
DOWN ARROW {DOWN}
END {END}
ENTER {ENTER} or ~
ESC {ESC}
HELP {HELP}
HOME {HOME}
INS or INSERT {INSERT} or {INS}
LEFT ARROW {LEFT}
NUM LOCK {NUMLOCK}
PAGE DOWN {PGDN}
PAGE UP {PGUP}
PRINT SCREEN {PRTSC}
RIGHT ARROW {RIGHT}
SCROLL LOCK {SCROLLLOCK}
TAB {TAB}
UP ARROW {UP}
F1 {F1}
F2 {F2}
F3 {F3}
F4 {F4}
F5 {F5}
F6 {F6}
F7 {F7}
F8 {F8}
F9 {F9}
F10 {F10}
F11 {F11}
F12 {F12}
F13 {F13}
F14 {F14}
F15 {F15}
F16 {F16}
TospecifykeyscombinedwithanycombinationofSHIFT,CTRL,and
ALTkeys,precedethekeycodewithoneormoreofthefollowing:
For SHIFT prefix with +

For CTRL prefix with ^
For ALT prefix with %
HereisafullerexampleinwhichwecreateasmalltableinandExcel
spreadsheet and use copy and paste to place the contents into
Notepad.
Option Explicit
Dim WshShell, myExcel, myWorkbook, mySheet
' Open Excel

' Create a Workbook and set myWorkbook to refer to it
' all in one go
mySheet.Cells(1,1).Value="Hellow"
mySheet.Cells(1,2).Value="World"
mySheet.Cells(1,3).Value="This"
mySheet.Cells(2,1).Value="Is"
mySheet.Cells(2,2).Value="An"
mySheet.Cells(2,3).Value="Example"
mySheet.Cells.Copy
' Tell Excel not to ask if the document

' should be saved or to show any other alerts
myExcel.DisplayAlerts = FALSE
' Shut down Excel as we do not require it any more

myExcel.Quit
' Open notepad

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run "notepad", 9
WScript.Sleep 500
' Do The Paste

WshShell.SendKeys "%e"
WshShell.SendKeys "p"
Stopping Excel From Complaining

In theaboveexampleofsendingkeystrokesto Notepad,Iuseda
trick to stop Excel complaining about closing without saving.
Sometimeswhenweareprocessingdata,wewanttouseaninstance
ofExcelbutnotbothersavingthechangeswemaketoit.Thewayto
dothisisbytheApplication.DisplayAlertsProperty.
BabySteps
Choice And Decision Processing

Yes Excel Really Is This Powerful!
Itisamazingbuttrue,Excelcanperformthesortofcomplexdecision
making tasks we more normally associate with software systems
whichcostmillions.Asasoftwarearchitect,Ihaveoftenbeenasked
to integrate choice/decision processing into software systems.
Achieving this is usually daunting in the extreme. However, with
Excelthechallenge fallsawayleavingastraightforward stepwise
approachandminimalcost.
What Is Choice/Decision Processing?
Should Burt get a newcar this year? Which airconditioner units
should be serviced and which replaced? Which invoices must be
honouredthismonthandwhichcanwaittillnext?
Alloftheseexamplesarechoice/decisionprocessingchallenges. In
computerscienceitiscalledlogicalprogramming.Itturnsoutthat
peoplefindithardtobeconsistentwithlogicaltaskslikethese. It
alsotakesa lotof timeforpeople to processdata throughlogical
sequences. Even when we layout careful rule sets, humans just
struggletoapplythemuniformly. Insomewaysthisisthegreatest
asset of humans. We constantly review decisions and bring in
external factors whilst considering them. Humans do not tend to
blindlyfollowobviouslyincorrectrules.Computersjustprocessdata
andrulesoverandoveragainwithoutvariationorconsideration.For
somesituationsthe'commonsense'ofhumansisideal;forotherswe
needtheuniformity,reliabilityandandspeedofacomputer.
WhilstweoftenthinkofExcelasanumbercrunchingtool,itturns
outtobejustfantasticatprocessinglogicalproblemsaswell.Excel
byitsselfisbrilliantatapplyingcomplex,orevenverycomplexrule
setstoadatatomakechoices.So,byitsself,Excelistheprefectfor
workingoutifBurtgetshisnewcar.MacroScriptingthenaddsthe
ability for Excel to munch through thousands of data sets making
decisionsforeach.
With a simple script, and Excel, we can make logical decision
processingsystemswhichareabletomakethousandsofdecisionsin
averyshortperiodoftime. Thisapproachcouldallocatenewcars,
newcomputersorevennewbenefitpackagestoentirepayrolls.Such
abilitieswithdedicatedsystemscostthousands,ifnotmillions,of
Pounds, Euros or Dollars to implement; most of us already own a
copy of Excel and can implement such a system for the price of
dinner.
First Off Just The Very Minimum Of Logic

Logic and logicalprogramming arealibrary'sworthofknowledge.
WewanttotakeaBabyStep.So,herewewilllookattheabsolute
minimumoflogicwecangetawaywithandstillbeonehundred
percentcapableofmakingExcelbaseddecisionsystems.
TRUE & FALSE
In this approach, all questions have one of two possible answers:
TRUEorFALSE.
WeaskaquestionbysayingIsthisTRUEorFALSE.Forexample,
takeablankspreadsheetandputthisformulaintothetoplefthand
corner:
=1>0
TheCellshouldshowTRUE.Whatwehavedoneisaskthequestion
Is1greaterthan0.ExcelhasansweredTRUE.
Therearenoprizesthenforfiguringoutwhat...
=1<0
...gives.Yes,itisFALSE.
WecansubstituteCellreferencesintotheseformulae.Soifweplace
thenumber1inCellA1and=A1>0intoA2thenExcelwillreport
thevalueofA2asTRUE. ChangeA1to0andA2willchangeto
FALSE.Figure51showsseveralsuchexamples.
Figure51:ThisscreenshotshowstheconceptofTRUE/FALSE
formulaeinExcel.Itthengoesontoillustratehowtoprocessthe
answerstothese'questios'usingAND,ORandNOT.Inthefirst
columnaretheExcelformulae(displayedvia
Tools/Options/Formulas)andinthesecondcolumnarethe
TRUE/FALSEresults.
BabySteps
Chaining Decisions To Make Rules

NowthatwecangetExceltoanswerlogicalquestionsitwouldbe
nicetogetittochainthequestionstogether.Ifweconsidertherule:
Yougetacarifyourcarisolderthan2yearsoldAND
youareinthesalesdepartment
Ihavecapitalised'AND'intheaboverulebecauseitdoesthejoining
workwhichchainstwoseparatelogicalquestionstogether.
Isourcareolderthan2years?
AND
Areyouinsales?
Consider,ifyouwould,aspreadsheetlikethis:
A B
1 Age Of Car (Years) 3
2 Department Sales
Wecantakethesedataandusethemtocreateadecision:
A B C
1 Age Of Car (Years) 3
2 Department Sales
3 Choice =B1>2 =AND(B3,B2=Sales)
IntheabovespreadsheetCellC3willdisplayavalueofTRUE.Ifwe
changeB2tobesomethingotherthan'Sales'orwechangeB1tobe2
orless,thenC3willdisplayavalueofFALSE.Inotherwords,Excel
haschainedtwochoicestogethertomakearule.
The key word AND() in an Excel formula means a special Excel
Function. A comma separated list of arguments goes in the
parenthesis. AND()isTRUEifandonlyifeverysingle argument is
TRUE.
=AND(TRUE,TRUE,FALSE) FALSE
=AND(TRUE,TRUE,TRUE) TRUE
=AND(TRUE,FALSE) FALSE
=AND(FALSE,TRUE) FALSE
=AND(TRUE,TRUE) TRUE
etc...
Sometimesismakesmoresensetoaskwhensomethingisnottrue.
ConsiderthatpeopledonotgetacariftheyliveinHolland(itistoo
flat to bother, one should use a bike). One way to look at this
decisionis:
ApersonmaybeeligibleforacariftheydoNOTlivein
Holland
ExcelhasafunctionNOT()thatdoesthisforus:
=NOT(1>2) TRUE
TheaboveformulaasksIsitTRUEorFALSEthat1is NOT greater

than 2. Well, 1 is not greater than 2, so the answer is TRUE.
Likewise,thefollowingformulawillgiveavalueofFALSE:
=NOT(1>0) FALSE
WecanuseournewtooltoaddthenocarsinHollanddecisionto
ourruleprocessingspreadsheet.
A B C D
1 Age Of Car 3
(Years)
2 Department Sales
3 Country France
4 Choice =B1>2 =AND(B3,B2= =AND(C4,
Sales) NOT(B3=Holland))
Intheexampleabove,BurtwillgetanewcarbecausethevalueofD4
willbeTRUE.IfhemovedtoHollandthenhewouldnotgetthecar.
Excelcanmakethatchoiceforususingthissimplestepbysteprule
system.
Thereareprobablythousandsofwaystoloadthisdecisionsystem
into Excel; using the way I have shown it issimple to create and
simpletomaintainthespreadsheet. Theapproachcanbesummed
uplikethis:
PlacedecisionsinaRow.
MakeonlyoneTRUE/FALSEdecisionsineacheachCellof
thatRow.
ChaintheCellstogethersoeachCell'sdecisionischainedby
ANDtotheresultoftheCelltoitsleft.
BabySteps
TherightmostCellinaRowgivestheactualoutputchoice
TRUE/FALSEoftherule.
Whatwehavedonesofarisbuildsingledecisionsintorulesusing
chaining. How about if there are more outcomes than just
TRUE/FALSEorGetacar/don'tgetacar? Whataboutmaking
Excelpickwhatsortofcartogive? Thisiswhere blocks and zeds
comein.
Blocks And Zeds
Rules are groups of decisions chained together. We place all the
decisionsforaruleinoneRow. Blocks aregroupsofruleswhich
interactwitheachother.Iftheoutcomeofarule hasnoimpacton
theoutcomeofanotherrulethenthetworulesareindifferentblocks.
Butiftheoutcomeofaruleaffectstheoutcomeofanotherrulethen
thetworulesareinthesameblock.
Considerthenextsetofdecisionswhichgotomakeuptworules.
TheideabeingthatifanemployeeisinSalesbutwillnotbegettinga
newcarthisyear,thentheygeta'bustimetableinstead.
A B C D
1 Age Of Car 3
(Years)
2 Department Sales
3 Country France
4 Get Car ? =B1>2 =AND(B3,B2=Sa =AND(C4,
les) NOT(B3=Hollan
d))
5 Get 'Bus =NOT(D4) =AND(B5,B2=Sa
Time Table? les)
NowExcelcomputestheanswerstotwoquestions:
1. DoesBurtgetanewcar?
2. DoesBurtgeta'bustimetable?
CellC5dependsonB5whichdependsonD4whichdependsonC4
whichdependsonB4.IfweconnectuptheseCellsinthisorderwith
aline(likejointhedots)thenwewilldrawaZshape.Plus,therules
inRows4and5makeupablockbecausetheydependoneachother.
So,theserulesmakeablockandazed.
Putting It All Together

Nowweare goingto lookat a completelyfreshexample. Inthis
examplewearegoingtointroducetheuseofmorethanoneblock
andanewfunctionOR.ORisthelastlogicalfunctionwewillneed
tolookat.
=OR(TRUE,TRUE) TRUE
=OR(TRUE,FALSE) TRUE
=OR(FALSE,FALSE) FALSE
=OR(FALSE,FALSE,TRUE) TRUE
ORgivesTRUEifanyofitsargumentsareTRUE.ItsaysIfmyfirst
argument OR my second argument OR my third argument ... are
TRUEthenIamTRUE.
In decision/choice work with Excel, we do not use OR to chain
decisions tomakeaRule. We use OR tocollect togetheranswers
fromRules. Forexample,wemightwanttosaysomethinglikeIf
Rule2OrRule4sayBurtgetsacar,thenhegetsacar.
Hereisthescenarioforournextexample:
ThereisacompanywhichisintendingtoupgradefromMSOffice
2003toMSOffice2007.
However,therearesomecomplexities.Firstoff,noteveryoneistobe
upgraded to 2007; thecompany has a deal by whichsome ofthe
Office2003licensescanberecycledtoallowupgradeofoldOffice
2000licenseforpeoplewhodonotrequirethelatestsoftware.Also,
therearethreetypesofOffice2007licensepackages:
1. Word,Excel,Outlook,PowerPointandAccess
2. Word,Excel,Outlook
3. Word,Excel
Therearethreedepartmentstothiscompany:
1. Admin
2. Sales
3. Supply
Admin require Office 2007 because some of the administration
systemsarebeingupgradedandrequirethethisversionofOfficefor
integration.
BabySteps
So, here are the rules for choosing what software to install on
people'smachines:
People in Admin who have Access version > 9 get license
package1otherwise,licensepackage2.
PeoplewithPowerPointgetPowerPointagain.
SalesonlyrequireWordandExcelbecausetheytraveland
willuseWebMailforemail.
SupplygetanupgradetoOffice2003(Office11)iftheydo
not already have it. There is only one Office 2003 license
package.
ThisexampleisrunusingthreeSheetsinoneWorkbook.Thefirstis
DataIn.ThisSheetiswheretheinformationabouttheemployeeis
placed. ThenextSheetislogic. Thisiswherealltherulesare
placed.logictakesitsinformationfromDataIn.Finally,thereis
DataOut.ThisSheetisjustapresentationreporttohelpmakethe
resultsunambiguous.
HereisthestructureoftheDataInSheet:
User Information
Title Datum
Name Fred
Department admin
Installed Software
Package Version (0 means Not Installed)
Word 11
Excel 11
Outlook 11
Powerpoint 1
Access 10
HereisthestructureoftheLogicsheet:
Is Admin Has Access > 9 Install L1
=DataIn!.B4="admin" =AND(A2,DataIn!.B12>9) =B2
IsAdmin Has Powerpoint Install L2
=AND(NOT(C2), =AND(A4,DataIn!.B11>0) =B4

DataIn!.B4="admin")
IsAdmin Install L3
=AND(NOT(C4),NOT(C2),D =A6
ataIn!.B4="admin")
IsSales Has Powerpoint Install L2
=DataIn!.B4="sales" =AND(A8,DataIn!.B11>0) =B8
IsSales Install L3
=AND(NOT(C8),DataIn!.B =A10
4="sales")
IsSupply Has Word < 11 Install 2003
=DataIn!.B4="supply" =AND =B12
(A12,DataIn!.B8<11)
IsSupply Has Excel < 11 Install 2003
=AND(NOT(C12);DataIn!. =AND(A14;DataIn!.B9<11) =B14
B4="supply")
AtthebottomoftheLogicSheet,ORfunctionsareusedtocollect
theoutputoftherules:
Install 2007, L1 =C2
Install 2007, L2 =OR(C4;C8)
Install 2007, L3 =OR(C6;C10)
Install 2003 =OR(C12;C14)
Thenatureoftherulesmeansthataemployeewillgetonlyoneof
thechoices.Inotherwords,onlyoneoftheinstalloptionswillshow
TRUE.
BabySteps
Figure52:Excelhastheabilitytodrawoutthedependencies
betweenCells.Bydoingthiswecanseethestructureofthe
BlocksandZedsinourWorkbook.Ihaveputdarkborders
aroundeachblocktomakeeasiertoseethestructureoftheLogic
Sheet.
Figure53:WorkingwithZeds!WeloadthechoicesintoExcelby
startingatthetopleftandworkingacrosstotheright.Thenwe
startagainattheleft.Eachlineinagroupislinkedtothe
answerofthelineabovesothatonlyonelineinagroupcanbe
TRUE.Thismeansthedependenciesinbetweenthelinesmakea
Zpattern.
Figure54:Intheabovegroup,therearethreelinesofchoices
yieldingthreepossibleoutcomes.ThebottomlinemakesaZwith
themiddleline.
Figure55:Herewecanseethegroupwiththreelinesofchoices
again.Thebottomlinecanonlybetrueiftheprevioustwo
choicelinesendupfalse.ThismeansthattherearetwoZeds
whichincludethebottomline.Thereasonthisapproachworksis
thatthetoplineismostselective,thesecondlineisslightlyless
selectiveandthebottomlineistheleastselective.Ifyoucannot
orderthelineslikethis,thechancesarethatyourrulesare
ambiguousandcoulddowithtweakingoralternatively,you
shouldsplitthegroupintotwo.
Figure56:ThenextBlockinourexampleisshownherewithits
ZedsrevealedbyExcel'sCelldependencytracking.
BabySteps
Figure57:HereisthelastoftheRuleblockswithitsinternal
structuredisplayed.Thedotteddependencylinenearthebottom
showsthewaytheresultoftheblockisreportedforwardontothe
DataOutSheet.
Figure58:InthisexampleIhavemadeaseparateDataOut
Sheetwhichderivesitsdatafromtherulesheetyetpresentsthe
resultsinanunambiguousway.
Moving From One To Many
Sofarinchoice/decisionprocessingwehaveseenanexplanationand
examples of processing for one input data set. In the previous
example that data set represented one person. However, at the
beginning of this section I discussed how this technique could be

appliedtolargenumbersofdatasets.
Itturnsouttobestraightforwardtojusttaketheworkdonesofar
andconvertittodoingmultipledatasets. Weneednotalterour
approachtothechoice/decisionWorkbookatall. ThethreeSheet
structure(DataIn,Logic,DataOut)isideal.Thetrickistodevelopon
thisWorkbookuntilitgivesthecorrectresultsforeverypossibleset
ofinputdata.Oncethisisdoneweleaveitalone.Themultipledata
setsystem'wraps'ourdecisionWorkbookinascriptwhichdoesthe
following:
1) OpenaWorkbookwithallthedatasets,oneperrowina
Sheet.CallthisWorkbookInput.
2) OpentheLogicWorkbook.CallthisWorkbookDecision.
3) OpenaWorkbookfortherecordingofthedecisions.Callthis
WorkbookOutput.
4) ForeachrowinInputtakethedatainthatRowandplaceit
intheDataInSheetinDecision.
5) ForeachloadingofadatasetintoDecision,taketheresult
fromDataOutinDecisionandplaceitinaRowinOutput.
Figure59:Thisdiagramshowsthewayascriptprocessesdatato
makea'oneatatime'decisionWorkbookturnintoapowerful
decisioncrunchingsystem.
BabySteps
Lesson 10: Speeding Scripts Up

Cell By Cell Access Is Slow
ThenaturalwaytomanipulatedatainExcelfromaScriptingMacro
isoneCellatatime.Theonlyproblemwiththisapproachisspeed.
It takes an appreciable amount of time to place data into a Cell.
SettingtheValueofasingleCellmightbefastenoughtoseeminstant
tothehumaneye,howeverdoingsoforthousandsofCellscantake
secondsorevenminutes.
Toillustratethisissue,hereisascriptwhichloadsonethousandCells
oneatatimeintoanewlycreatedWorkbook.
set myExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
myExcel.Visible = true
set myWorkbook = myExcel.Workbooks.Add
' Get the start time

startTime = Timer()
' Load values into 1000 Cells directly

for row = 2 to 1001
mySheet.Cells(row,1).Value = "Hello " & row
next
' Get the end time

endTime = Timer
' Lay out the results column headings,

' Work out the result using an Excel formula
' and make the Columns automatically set themselves
' to an appropriate width
With mySheet
.Cells(1,1).Value = "Data"
.Cells(1,2).Value = "Start"
.Cells(1,3).Value = "End"
.Cells(1,4).Value = "Time"
.Cells(2,2).Value = startTime
.Cells(2,3).Value = endTime
.Cells(2,4).Formula = "=C2-B2"
.Columns(1).Autofit
.Columns(2).Autofit
.Columns(3).Autofit
.Columns(4).Autofit
End With
BabySteps
ThekeypartofthescriptistheForloopinthemiddle. Itplacesa
differentStringintoeachoftheCellsinColumn1fromRow2to
10001.TheVBScript'builtin'functionTimer()isusedtorecordthe
numberofsecondssincemidnightbeforeandaftertheloophasrun.
Thedifferenceinthetworesultsisthetimeittookthelooptorun.
Timer()isusuallyaccuratetowithinaroundtwentymilliseconds,soit
makesquiteahandywaytotimetheperformanceofscript.
Figure60:Thisisascreenshotshowingtheresultofrunningthe
CellbyCellloadingscript.Itshowsthatithastaken51.3seconds
toloadaStringinto1000CellswhenthedataisloadedonCells
atatime.
AswecanseefromFigure60,ithastakennearlyaminutetoload
onethousandCells.IfweweretodothisfortenthousandRowsover
tenColumns,thenitwouldtakearoundonehundredminutes.Ifwe
imagine running a script that takes over an hour, then finding
somethinghasgonewrongandhavingtorunitagain,itiseasytosee
whyspeedingthingsupisgood!
Fortunately,thereareseveralwaystospeedupScriptingMacros.A
goodapproachisoftentodevelopthescriptusingasmallsetofdata
andloadingCellsoneatatime.Onceitisworkingcorrectlyitistime
tostartspeedingitupusingthetechniquescoveredhere.
Bulk Data Loading With Arrays
What Is An Array?
AnArrayisaspecialsortofvalueforaVariable. Wehavealready
seenthatVariablescanholdthingslikeString,Object,Dateetc.What
happens if we want one Variable to hold lots of Strings or lots of

Objects.ThisiswhereArrayscomein.
ToholdthreeStringswecouldput:
s1 = hello 1
s2 = hello 2
s3 = hello 3
OrwecouldcreateaVariableusingtheVBScript'dim'specialword:
Dim myString(2)
myString(0) = hello 1
That piece of code has a few things about it which could be

confusing.Ratherthepretendthatitdoesnot,letustackleithead
on.
1. WhydowedimmyString(2)whenwewant3elementsin
ourarray?
2. WhydowestartatmyString(0)?
3. Ithoughtputtingparenthesisaftersomethingmeantitisa
function.
WhenwecreateanArraywedonotdirectlytellVBScripthowmany
elementsitshouldhave;wetellVBScriptwhatthe'upperbound'is.
The'lowerbound'iszerobydefault.So,DimmyString(2)saysmake
anArrayfrom0to2.Thisanswersquestions1and2.Question3is
answered by history. VBScript has it origins in a language called
Beginner'sAllPurposeSymbolicInstructionCodewhichisrather
old nowadays. More recent languages have removed ambiguity
betweenFunctionandArraynotation.AswearestuckwithVBScript,
wehavetorememberwhatnamesdenoteArraysandwhichdenote
Functions. thiscanbemadeeasierbyalwaysusingacapitalfirst
letterforFunctionsandlowercaseforallVariablesincludingArrays.
Using Arrays Like Spread Sheets
set myExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
myExcel.Visible = true
set myWorkbook = myExcel.Workbooks.Add
' Get the start time

startTime = Timer()
BabySteps
' Create a 1000 by 1 array and load data into it

dim data(999,0)
for row = 0 to 999
data(row,0) = "Hello " & row
next
' Bulk load a 1000 by 1 Cells Range of the spread

' sheet from the array
mySheet.Range _
( _
mySheet.Cells(2,1), _
mySheet.Cells(1002,1) _
).Value=data
' Get the end time

endTime=Timer
' Here I have omitted the result printing and

' formating because it is identical to the previous
' script.
Figure61:Thisisascreenshotshowingtheresultofrunningthe
ArraytoCellloadingscript.Itshowsthatithastakenlessthana
fifthofasecondtoloadaStringinto1000Cellswhenthedatais
loadedonintoanArrayandthentheArraybulkloadedintothe
Cells.Thisis250timesfasterthandoingtheloadoneCellata
time.
Bulk Data Transfer With Copy/Paste

WhenwemovedataaroundbyhandweuseCopyandPasteallthe
time.ItisverymuchfasterthatCellbyCelltransferofvaluesandso
isidealforscripting.Hereisanexample:
Option Explicit
Dim myExcel,myWorkbook,mySheet
mySheet.Cells(1,1).Value="Hello"
' Please note that we must make sure the Sheet from
' which we Copy and that to which we Paste are the
' active (visible) ones. This is done via the
' Sheet.Select Method.
mySheet.Select
mySheet.Cells.Copy
myWorkbook.Sheets(2).Select
myWorkbook.Sheets(2).Paste
Don't Forget Formulae And Fills

Wehaveseenusingfillsbeforeinlesson8.Itismuchfastertofilla
Column witha formula thanto calculateCellvaluesoneby one.
Hereisanexample:
BabySteps
Appendix A: Differences With Excel 2007

Recording Macros:
RecordingMacrosisprettymuchexactlythesameinExcel2007.The
onlyrealdifferencesrelatetofindingtheoptionsinMicrosoft'snew
layout. Herearesomescreenshotsshowingthebasicsteps. The
conceptsareidenticaltothosedescribedinlesson4.
Figure62:Tostartrecording,wemustclickthe'Macro'pulldown
underthe'View'ribbon.
Figure63:Clickingthe'Macro'pulldowngivesustwooptions.
TorecordaMacro,wejustclick'RecordMacro'.Selectingthe
Macronameetc.isjustthesameasforpreviousversionsofExcel.
BabySteps
Figure64:Oncewefinishedperformingtheactionswhichwe
wantrecorded,the'View/Macro'pulldowngivesustheoptionto
'StopRecording'.
Figure65:TheView/Macropulldownletsusviewthecodeof
theMacro.Thewholeofthecodeeditorispettymuchidentical
tothatofpreviousversionsofExcel.
Showing The Developer Tab (Accessing VBA)
It would appear that the default install of Excel 2007 hides the
DeveloperTab. Tobeabletoseeit,andsogaineasyaccesstothe
CodeEditorandObjectBrowser,wecanfollowthesesteps.
Figure66:SteponeistoclickontheMSOfficesymbolinthetop
lefthandcornerofExcel'swindow.Doingsorevealsthemenu
shownabove.Atthebottomrightisabutton(highlightedinthe
picture)namedExcelOptions.Thismustbeclicked.
Figure67:ClickingtheExcelOptionsbuttonrevealstheExcel
Optionswindow.Onceonehasrecoveredfromtheshock,it
becomesvisiblethatthereisanoptionShowDeveloperTabin
theRibbon.ThetrickistoselectthisandthenclickOK.
BabySteps
Figure68:HerewecanseeournewDeveloperTab.Highlighted
inthisscreenshotistheVisualBasicbutton.Clickingonthis
openstheCodeEditor.TheCodeEditorandallitsoptions(e.g.
theObjectBrowser)aremoreorlessidenticaltothoseofearlier
versionsofExcel.
Creating A Pivot Table

TheconceptsbehindcreatingaPivotTableinExcel2007areidentical
tothoseforpreviousversions. Nevertheless,thestepsinvolvedin
doing so are slightly different and the wizard has changed
considerably. Ihaveshown thestepsinvolvedusingthefollowing
seriesofscreenshotswithcaptions:
Figure69:KickingoffcreatinganewPivotTablecomesfrom
clickingthePivotTablebuttonontheInsertTaboftheRibbon.
Figure70:ThePivotTablewizardstartswiththepopupshown
above.IhighlyrecommendthatNewWorksheetisselected.
MostofthetimeExcelwillautomaticallyguessthecorrectrange
ofCellsfromwhichtotakethedataforourPivotTable.Ifitdoes
not,wecandirectlytypetherangeintotheTableRangetext
box.AndalternativeistoselectarangeofCellsbydraggingthe
mouseovertheSheet.
BabySteps
Figure71:OncewehaveclickedOKonthefirstpopup,Excel
insertsablankPivotTableandthePivotTableFieldListboxas
showninthisscreenshot.Thisisreallyverydifferentfromthe
previousversionsofExcel.Wenolongerseeareasintheblank
PivotTablefordraganddrop.Constructingthetableisalldone
viathePivotTableFieldListbox.
Figure72:Tosummariseafieldacrossrows,wedragthefield
namefromthetoppaneofthePivotTableFieldListboxtothe
RowLabelsarea.
Figure73:TosummariseafielddownColumns,wedraganddrop
thefieldnamefromthetoppanetotheColumnLabelsarea.

Figure74:InthebottomrightofthePivotTableFieldListboxis
wheretheDatafieldnamesaredragged.Thisishighlightedinthe
abovescreenshot.ItstartsoutwiththedefaultSumfunction.To
setupthedatawhichwewantsummarisingwefirstdragthatfield
nametothisarea.JustaswiththepreviousversionofExcel,
changingtosummarymethoditsomethingotherthanSumisa
separatestep(describednext).
BabySteps
Figure75.RightclickingontheDataareaofthePivotTableField
Listboxbringsupthecontextmenushownabove.Atthebottom
ofthismenuistheValueFieldSettingsoption(highlighted).
Clickingthisrevealstheoptionsnecessarytochangethesummary
method(next).
Figure76:WenowgettheValueFieldSettingsbox.Inthe
screenshotabove,IamchoosingAverageformyDatafields
(whichMicrosoftnowsometimescallValuefields,butrelateto
theDataAreaofpreviousversionsofExcel).
Figure77:ValueFieldSettingsboxalsohasatabforShow
valuesas.Underthistabwecanfindabutton(highlighted)
whichbringsuptheFormatCellsboxforthePivotTable.This
canbeusedtosetthenumberformat.InthisexampleIhaveset
itto2decimalplaces(next).
Figure78:HerewecanseeournewPivotTableisdefaultlayout
witha2decimalplacenumberformat.
BabySteps
Figure79:ByusingtheDesigntab(highlighted)wecanpick
oneofthemanybuiltinlayoutsforourtableifthedefaultisnot
quiteasvisuallyappealingaswewant.
Inlesson8welookedatthe'raw'MacroforcreatingaPivotTablejust
asExcelhadrecordedit. Forinterestssake,hereistherawMacro
whichwasrecordedforthecreationthethePivotTableinthescreen
shotshere.Thereisverylittledifference.Asusual,aMacrosetupto
runforanearlierversionofExcelwill(probably)workinExcel2007,
butweshouldnotexpectthereversetobetrue:
' Raw Macro Recording For Creating A Pivot Table In
Excel 2007
Sheets.Add
ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet4").PivotTables("Piv
otTable1").PivotCache. _
CreatePivotTable TableDestination:="Sheet5!R3C1",
TableName:="PivotTable1" _
, DefaultVersion:=xlPivotTableVersion12
Sheets("Sheet5").Select
Cells(3, 1).Select
With
ce")
.Position = 1
End With
With
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").PivotFields("Equi
pment")
.Position = 1
End With
Repair Time", xlSum
With
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").PivotFields("Sum
of Repair Time")
.Caption = "Average of Repair Time"
.Function = xlAverage
End With
With
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").PivotFields( _
"Average of Repair Time")
End With
ActiveSheet.PivotTables("PivotTable1").TableStyle2 =
"PivotStyleLight19"
BabySteps
Appendix B: How This Book Was Written

Ifigureditmightbeinterestingtosomereadersofthisbooktoknow
themethodologywhichwentintowritingit.Well,itmightcomeas
somethingofashock. ThisbookwaswrittenonaLinuxcomputer!
ThesoftwareIusedwasasfollows:
Kubuntu7.10(Linuxoperatingsystem)
OpenOfficeWriter2.3(Wordprocessor)
TheGIMP2.4.0rc3(Graphicsmanipulationanddrawing)
Ksnapshot0.7(Screencapture)
Qemu0.9(VirtualMachineforrunningWindowsonLinux)
Inkscape0.45(Drawingpackagefordiagrams)
KPDF(PreviewingPDFcopies)
Filezilla3.0.0(Filetransfersonandoffthevirtualmachine)
TerminalSeverClient0.148(ViewingremoteWindows
machine)
Thebasicprocessofcreatingthebookwasto:
1) Writesectionsofitlonghand.
2) Godothescriptsandscreenshotsforthesection.
3) TypeitupandstickitalltogetherintoOpenOffice.
4) Readandcorrect(lots).
5) Printout.
6) Addstufflonghandtotheprintouts.
7) Repeatasnecessary.
ThekeytogettinggoodscreenshotswasusingQemuandKsnapshot.
Bysettingthedelayintakingasnapshottoaround10seconds,itwas
possible to prepare context menus in the virtual machine and the
Ksnapshotdiditsthing.TheGIMPwasthenkindenoughtoconvert
thesnapshotsintomonochromeanddothealterationsasnecessary.
Pagesizes,andthetemplatesizesforthecoverweresetaccordingto
the guidance from lulu.com publishers. Then exporting to PDF
formatisbuiltintoOpenOffice.
Ichose BitreamCharter and BitstreamVeraSansMono asthemain
twofontsbecauseoftheirclarityandeaseofreadingonthemediaof
thescreenandpaper. Also, BitstreamCharter hasatrueandeasily
identified italic form which helps with comprehension. One final
BabySteps
goodfeatureofthefontisthatisnarrow,meaningthatBabySteps
doesnothavetokilltoomanytreestobeprinted!
IpersonallyIprefernonseriffontsforheadings,especiallywherethe
body text has serifs. Unfortunately, Bitstream Vera Sans was too
broadforheadingssoIchose Arial (boringbutreliable).AlsoArial
makesaniceheadingfontbecauseitisclearandopensoiseasily
readwithoutdominatingthepage.
Figure80:Hereisme,onmyKubuntulaptop,writingthesection
ofBabyStepsonhowBabyStepswaswritten.
Appendix C: Why Script When Excel Has

Macros?
InBabyStepsIhavebeenshowinghowtowritescriptswhichopen
ExcelapplicationandmanipulateExcelspreadsheetsthroughthese
applications.Oneobviousquestionsiswhybotherwithscripts,why
notuseExcel'sbuiltinMacrosystem.
ThereareseveralreasonswhichIwilldiscussseparately.However,
theyalltendtorelatetoseparationofdataandcode.Anexcel
workbookwithMacrosattachedhasnoseparationofdataandcode;
whereeverthecodegoes,thedatagoeswithit.Thissimpleproblem
hasmyriadrepercussions.
Togooverthererepercussionsandthusthereasonsforscripting,I
shallusetheformatofformalargument.Ipresentaquestionand
answersessionwhereItrytoconvincemyselfthatscriptingisbetter.
Q:Firstoff,whybotheratall.IfIhaveaspreadsheetadIwantto
automateprocessingonit,IcanuseaMacro.
A:Considerthefollowingexample.Anautomateddataexportfroma
databasecreatesacommaseparatedvaluefileeachmorning.You
wantthatloadedintoExcelandprocessedassoonasitturnsup.
BecauseaMacroshastobeattachedtothedata,andyouhaveanew
datafileeachday,aMacroisnousetoyou.
Q:IcouldputtheMacrosintoanemptyWorkbookandloadthedata
intothateachday.
A:Yes,thatwouldwork.However,youwouldhavetoensurethat
youremptyWorkbookwasnotoverwrittenwiththenewfilled
Workbookeachtime.Thiswouldhavetoincludeensuringitdidnot
happenevenifExcelcrashedhalfwaythroughworkingetc.
Q:OK,Icandothat!HowabouttheMacrocontainingWorkbook
automaticallysavesitsselfasanewdocumentthenloadsthedata,
processesitandsavesitsselfagain.
A:Are,thatmightworkquitewell.However,thatisaverycomplex
approach.Tomakeitfunctionsinthefieldyouwillneedtorun
distributetheMacroonlybook.Eachtimeitruns,peoplewillhaveto
permititsMacrostorunbyhand,oryouaregoingtohavetodigitally
signtheWorkbookandthengetpeopletoacceptthecertificate.
Undersomeconditions,theuserswillnotevenbeabletoenablethe
MacrosbecausethesecurityleveloftheirExcelwillbelockedtohigh
andtheywilllackthepermissionstoreduceit.
BabySteps
Effectively,bythetimeyouhaveanExcelMacrobasedsolution,itis
morecomplexandunwieldythatthescriptbasedone.
Q:ButtheVBAenvironmentissoniceandeasytouseinExcel,andit
alsohastheMacroRecorder.
A:Yes,theVBAenvironmentiswelldesigned.However,a
professionalgradetexteditorlikethefreenotepad++isalsovery
good.Notepad++hassomedisadvantagesoverVBA'seditor,but
alsosomeadvantageslikeexcellentfindandreplace,tabbedediting
etc.
Theotherbigadvantagewhenitcomestoenvironmentisthatscripts
aretextfilesandtextfilesareeasiertoworkwiththatembedded
Macros.Forexample,youcanusefreetoolslikewinmergetofind
thedifferencesbetweentwocopiesofascript.Itiseasierto'cutand
paste'bitsofcodebetweenscriptsandscriptstakeupmassivelyless
spacethanExcelfiles.
WhenitcomestotheMacroRecorder,thatisaveryroughtool.The
beabletoreleaseaRecordedMacrointothefielditneedalotof
polishing.ThismeansthatoncehaveRecordedyourMacro,youwill
havetodosomeeditingonit.Giventhis,youcanjustaseasilycopy
itoverintonotepad++andeditthereasascript.
Theother'cooltool'intheExcelVBAenvironmentistheObject
Explorer.Thereisnothingtostopyoustillusingitalongwith
anythingelse(helpforexample)thatcomeswithExcel.
Q:Whataboutintellectualpropertyprotection?IcanlockMacros
withapassword.Scriptsarejusttextfiles.
A:MSproduceafreeprogram,thescriptencoder.Theoutputisat
leastassecureaspasswordprotectedExcelMacros.
One Final Thing
WithMSOffice2007,thedefaultfileformatforExcelisxlsx.This
formatdoesnotevensupportembeddedMacros.Thisindicateshow
theworldinmovingawayfromtheideaofembeddingcodeinto
documents.
Appendix D: VBScript Built In Functions &

Constants
Built In Functions
VBScripthasmanybuiltinfunctions. Wehaveseensomeofthem
beingusedinBabyStepssofar. Hereisadefinitivelistofthemall
anddescriptionsofwhattheydo.Ihaveaddedintothelistthehow
oftenitismyexperiencethataparticularbuiltinfunctionisactually
usedinExcelMarcoScripting.Itiswellworthtryingtoremember
thosewhichareusedfrequently.
The Functions Enumerated And Explained
Abs(rare)
Givestheabsolutevalueofanumber. ForexampleAbs(1)gives1
whilstAbs(1)alsogivesone.
Array(rare)
GivesaVariantcontaininganarray.
Asc(sometimes)
GivestheANSIcharactercodecorrespondingtothefirstletterina
string.Inchapter6welookedathowfilesarelistsofnumbersand
thatbymakingdifferentnumbersrepresentdifferentcharacters,we
couldencodetextintofiles.Well,Ascreturnsthenumberwithwhich
acharacterwillbeencoded.
Atn(almostnever)
Gives the arctangent ofa number. I have been workingin IT for
twenty seven years and have never used this function in any
computerlanguage,includin
CBool(sometimes)
Tries to convert what we pass to it into a Boolean (TRUE/FALSE)
value.Cbool(TRUE)givestrue.
CByte(almostnever)
GivesanexpressionthathasbeenconvertedtoaVariantofsubtype
Byte. TheuseofthisisbeyondmostthingsonemightdoinExcel
MacroScripting.
BabySteps
CCur(almostnever)
GivesanexpressionthathasbeenconvertedtoaVariantofsubtype
Currency.TheuseofthisisbeyondmostthingsonemightdoinExcel
MacroScripting.
CDate(often)
TakeswhateverwepasstoitandtriestoconvertitintoaDate.For
example,CDate(10January2007)willgiveadateofthetenthof
Januarytwothousandandsevenifthecomputerissettoworkin
English.
CDbl(sometimes)
ThisishandyforconvertingStringsintonumberswheretheStrings
arebeingreadfromafileforexample.
Chr(sometimes)
This is the logical opposite of Ansi. It converts a number into a
character using the type of encoding that files use to store text.
Chr(Ansi(A))isA.
CInt(almostnever)
UseCdblorCLnginstead.
CLng(rare)
ThisishandyforconvertingStringsintonumberswheretheStrings
arebeingreadfromafileforexample. However,mostofthetime
CDbl is a better choice unless for some odd reason integer (non
decimal)arithmeticisessential.
Cos(rare)
Givesthecosineofanangle. Thisishandyifyouareworkingin
engineeringetc.
CreateObject(Allthetime).
This is one of the first things we looked at. For example
CreateObject(Excel.Application)
CSng(almostnever)
TheuseofthisisbeyondmostthingsonemightdoinExcelMacro
Scripting.
CStr(rare)
ThisconvertswhateveryoupasstoitintoaString.Onemightthink
thatwewouldusethisallthetime;howeverthe&operatoriseven
more useful and does much the same thing. For example,
CStr(1.23)isthesameas"" & 1.23.
Date(sometimes)
Givesthecurrentsystemdate.
DateAdd(often)
Usetoaddtime(days,secondsetc.)todates.Seechapter7.Touse
putDateAdd(interval,number,myDate)wheretheintervalisonefrom
thisselection:
SETTING DESCRIPTION
YYYY Year
Q Quarter
M Month
Y Day Of Year
D Day
W WeekDay
WW Week Of Year
H Hour
N Minute
S Second
SotoaddoneweektothefirstofMarchtwothousandandsixwe
couldputDateAdd(D,7,DateSerial(2006,3,1)).
DateDiff(sometimes)
Thisfunctionworksoutthedifferencebetweentwodatesandreturns
theanswerasanumberofintervals. Thoseintervalsarethesame
intervalsasareusedinDateAdd.Togetthenumberofdaysbetween
the first of March nineteen ninety seven and thecurrent date, we
couldputDateDiff(D,DateSerial(1997,3,1),Date())
DatePart(rare)
Gives the specified part of a given date. It is called like this
DatePart(interval,date).
BabySteps
DateSerial(often)
CreatesaDateforaspecifiedyear,month,andday. Seechapter7.
TocreateaDaterepresentingthefirstofMarchnineteenninetyseven
wewouldputDateSerial(1997,3,1).
DateValue(never)
UseCDateorDateSerialinstead.
Day(rare)
Givesawholenumberbetween1and31,inclusive,representingthe
currentdayofthemonth.
Exp(rare)
Givese(thebaseofnaturallogarithms)raisedtoapower.
Filter(rare)
Givesazerobasedarraycontainingsubsetofastringarraybasedon
aspecifiedfiltercriteria. Theuseofthisisbeyondtheexamplesin
thisbook.
Fix(rare)
Gives the integer portion of a number. If we put Wscript.Echo
fix(1.5)wewillgetapopupboxsaying1.
FormatCurrency(almostnever)
Givesanexpressionformattedasacurrencyvalueusingthecurrency
symboldefinedinthesystemcontrolpanel. Formattinglikethisis
betterdoneinExcelitsselfinExcelMacroScripting.
FormatDateTime(almostnever)
Givesanexpressionformattedasadateortime.Formattinglikethis
isbetterdoneinExcelitsselfinExcelMacroScripting.
FormatNumber(almostnever)
Givesanexpressionformattedasanumber. Formattinglikethisis
betterdoneinExcelitsselfinExcelMacroScripting.
FormatPercent(almostnever)
Givesanexpressionformattedasapercentage(multipliedby100)
with a trailing %character. Formattinglike this is better done in
ExcelitsselfinExcelMacroScripting.
GetObject(rare)
GivesareferencetoaCOMobjectfromafile.Thismeansthatifthe
file has an 'binding' to a COM object (like .xls files are bound to
Excel)thenwecanuseGetObjecttoloadtheCOMobjectandgetthe
COMobjecttoloadthefile.Frankly,thisisamess;pleasedonotuse
it.
Hex(rare)
Gives a String representing the hexadecimal value of a number.
Hex(32)gives20andHex(255)givesFFetc.
Hour(rare)
currenthouroftheday.
InStr(sometimes)
Givesthepositionofthefirstoccurrenceofonestringwithinanother.
It also allows us to say where to start searching. So, Instr(,
AlexanderJulianTurner)willgive10andInstr(11,,Alexander
JulianTurner)willgive17.
InStrRev(rare)
Givesthepositionofanoccurrenceofonestringwithinanother,from
theendofstring.ItisjustlikeInStrbutitworksinreverse.
Int(almostnever)
Givestheintegerportionofanumber.UseClnginstead.
IsArray(almostnever)
GivesaBoolean(TRUE/FALSE)valuespecifyingwhetheraVariableis
anarray.
IsDate(rare)
Gives a Boolean (TRUE/FALSE) value specifying whether an
expressioncanbeconvertedtoadate.Sometimeswecangetavalue
fromaSheet'sCellanditishandytofindoutifExcelconsideredthis
valuetobeaDate.Thisbuiltinfunctionwilltellus.
IsEmpty(constant)
IfaCellorVariablehasnoteverhadanythinginit,thenthiswill
return TRUE otherwise it returns FALSE. Examples are
IsEmpty(mySheet.Cell(row,1)) or IsEmpty(myVariable). We use
IsEmptytofindemptyrowsinSheets.
BabySteps
IsNull(sometimes)
Gives a Boolean (TRUE/FALSE) value that indicates whether an
expression contains no valid data. If we work with data from
databasesthenwewillfindtheseusefulsometimes.Itisprobablya
bitbeyondthescopeofBabySteps.
IsNumeric(sometimes)
Gives a Boolean (TRUE/FALSE) value specifying whether an
expressioncanbeevaluatedasanumber.
IsObject(rare)
GivesaBooleanvaluespecifyingwhetheranexpressionreferencesa
validAutomationobject.TheonlytimeIseethisbeingusedifExcel
ScriptingMacrosisifsomethinglikeaWordDocumentisembedded
inaSheet.ThentheValueofaCellwouldactuallybeanObjectso
IsObject(myCell.Value)mightbeusedtodetectthis.
Join(sometimes)
Givesastringcreatedbyjoininganumberofsubstringscontainedin
anarray.Seechapter11.
LBound(rare)
Givesthesmallestavailablesubscriptforthespecifieddimensionof
anarray.
LCase(often)
Givesastringthathasbeenconvertedtolowercase
Left(sometimes)
Givesaspecifiednumberofcharactersfromtheleftsideofastring.
Left(DogWaffle,3)willgiveDog.
Len(sometimes)
Givesthenumberofcharactersinastringorthenumberofbytes
requiredtostoreaVariable.ThisisbyfarthemostusefulforStrings.
Forexample Len(DogWaffle) will give 10, i.e. thelength of the
String.
LoadPicture(almostnever)
Givesapictureobject.
Log(rare)
Givesthenaturallogarithmofanumber.
LTrim(rare)
Givesacopyofastringwithoutleadingspaces.Normallywejustuse
Trim().
Mid(often)
ReadchunksoutofStrings.Mid(helloworld,6)givesworldand
Mid(helloworld,6,2)giveswo.
Minute(rare)
currentminuteofthehour.
Month(rare)
currentmonthoftheyear.
MonthName(rare)
Givesastringspecifyingthespecifiedmonth. MonthName(1)will
giveJanuaryifthecomputerissettouseEnglish.MonthName(1)
willgiveJanvierifthecomputerissettouseFrench.
Now(often)
Gives the current date and time according to the setting of your
computer'ssystemdateandtime.
Oct(almostnever)
Givesastringrepresentingtheoctalvalueofanumber.
Replace(often)
Givesastringinwhichaspecifiedsubstringhasbeenreplacedwith
another substring a specified number of times. For example
Replace(10102007, , /) will give 10/10/2007.
Replace(10102007, , /,1,1) will give 10/102007 and
Replace(10102007,,/,4,1)willgive1010/2007.
Right(sometimes)
GivesaspecifiednumberofcharactersfromtherightsideofaString.
Rnd(sometimes)
Givesarandomnumberbetween0and1.
BabySteps
Round(sometimes)
Givesanumberroundedtoaspecifiednumberofdecimalplaces.For
exampleRound(Rnd(),2)givesatwodecimalplacerandomnumber
between0and1(e.g.0.24).
RTrim(rare)
Gives a copy of a string without trailing spaces. We tend to use
Trim()instead.
ScriptEngine(almostnever)
Returnsastringrepresentingthescriptinglanguageinuse.
ScriptEngineBuildVersion(almostnever)
Returnsthebuildversionnumberofthescriptengineinuse.
ScriptEngineMajorVersion(almostnever)
Returnsthemajorversionnumberofthescriptengineinuse.
Second(rare)
Givesawholenumberbetween0and59,inclusive,representing
thecurrentsecondoftheminute
Sgn(rare)
Givesanintegerspecifyingthesignofanumber. Ifthenumberis
negative, then this always give 1 otherwise it will give 1.
Sgn(0.0000123) gives 1 whilst Sgn(0) gives 1 and Sgn(131234)
gives1.
Sin(rare)
Givesthesineofanangle.
Space(sometimes)
Givesastringconsistingofthespecifiednumberofspaces.Space(4)
gives"".
Split(often)
Gives a zerobased, onedimensional array containing a specified
number of substrings. It is used Split(StringToSplit,String
Delimiter,MaxNumberOfPieces).myArray=Split(MyDogIsCute,
,3)willgivea3elementarraystartingwithelement0.Sofrom
thearraymyArray(0)willhavethevalueMy,myArray(1)willbe
DogandmyArray(2)willbeIsCute. IfwemissouttheMax
NumberOfPieces,itreturnsasmanypiecesaspossible.
Sqr(rare)
Givesthesquarerootofanumber.
StrComp(rare)
GivesavaluespecifyingtheresultofaStringcomparison.
String(sometimes)
Gives a repeating character string of the length specified.
String(5,.)willgive......
StrReverse(almostnever)
Gives a string in which thecharacterorderofaspecifiedstringis
reversed.StrReverse(Dog)givesgoD.
Tan(rare)
Givesthetangentofanangle.Thisisnotableonlyinthatitisused
moreoftenthanAtn!
Time(sometimes)
GivesaDatespecifyingthecurrentsystemtime.
TimeSerial(rare).
Gives a Date containing the time for a specific hour, minute, and
second.
TimeValue(rare)
GivesaDatecontainingatimeasworkedoutfromaStringetc.For
exampleTimeValue(12:00:00A.M.)orTimeValue(18:30:00).
Trim(constant)
Givesacopyofastringwithoutleadingandtrailingspaces.
TypeName(rare)
Gives a string that provides type information about a Variable or
Value.ItcanbeusefulforfindingoutwhattypeaCellValueis.
UBound(almostnever)
Givesthelargestavailablesubscriptforthespecifieddimensionofan
array.
BabySteps
UCase(sometimes)
Givesastringthathasbeenconvertedtouppercase.SeeLCase.
VarType(almostnever)
GivesavaluespecifyingthesubtypeofaVariable.
Weekday(rare)
Givesawholenumberrepresentingthecurrentdayoftheweek.
WeekdayName(rare)
Givesastringspecifyingthespecifiedcurrentdayoftheweek.
Year(rare)
Givesawholenumberrepresentingcurrenttheyear.
Built In Constants
VBScriptbuiltinconstantscanbeuseinplaceofVariablesexceptyou
canonlyreadfromthemyoucannotassigntothem.Forexamplethe
followingisOK:
dim myString
myString=vbcrlf
Butthisisnot:
dim myString
myString = "abc"
vbcrlf="abc"
TherearequiteafewVBScriptbuiltinconstants. Tobecompletely
honest,mostarenotreallymuchuseinExcelMacroScripting;they
are designed for other things using VBScript (like making web
pages). However, the String constants are quite useful so I have
describedthemhere.
Built In String Constants
Constant Value Description
vbCr Chr(13) Carriage return.
Chr(13) & Carriage returnlinefeed
VbCrLf
Chr(10) combination.
Form feed, this is never really
vbFormFeed Chr(12) used nowadays (it relates to old
style printers).
vbLf Chr(10) Line feed.
vbNewLine Chr(13) & Same as VbCrLf.
Constant Value Description

Chr(10)
vbNullChar Chr(0) Character having the value 0.
Not the same as a zero-length
String having string (""), used for calling
vbNullString
value 0 external procedures and not really
in Excel Macro Scripting.
Horizontal tab, like pressing the
vbTab Chr(9)
'tab' key.
Vertical tab, this is never really
vbVerticalTab Chr(11) used nowadays (it relates to old
style printers).
BabySteps
Appendix E: Named Arguments And The :=

Symbol
Why This Is Here
ByallrightsthissectionshouldbeinLesson4.Afterall,itisabout
translationofrecordedMacrosintoScriptingMacros. Theproblem
beingthatthereisalreadytoomuchinLesson4.Notonlythat,the
issuefacedhereisnotcommonlyfacedandrequiresmorefiddling
around than the rest of the translation stuff. So, I have it to an
appendix.
The Where, Why And When Of :=
:=isallaboutnamedarguments. IfweconsideraMethodthat
instructsanObjecttoboilanegg.ThisMethodwillhavearguments
thetellitabouthowtheeggshouldbeboiled:
Boiler.BoilEgg(egg,hardness,coolAfter)
Inmysillyexampletheargumentsaretheeggtobeboiled,howhard
theeggshouldbeandiftheeggshouldbecooleddownafterwards.
Ofthese,theeggargumentmustalwaysbepassedtoBoiler.BoilEgg;
however,thehardnessandcoolAfterargumentscouldhavedefault
values.Inotherwords,ifwedonotspecifythem,theBoilerjustdoes
thedefault.Forexample:
Boiler.BoilEgg(myEgg)
Thismightactuallymean,boilmyEgg,softandcoolafterwards.We
only need to specify the other arguments if we do not want the
default.So,tohardboilandcoolafterwardswecouldput:
Boiler.BoilEgg(myEgg,xlHard)
TohardboilmyEggandnotleaveittocoolwecouldput:
Boiler.BoilEgg(myEgg,xlHard,FALSE)
Theinterestingbitcomesifwewanttosoftboiltheeggbutnotnot
coolitafterwards. InExcelScriptingMacroswewouldhavetoput
somethinglikethis:
Boiler.BoilEgg(myEgg,xlSoft,FALSE)
EventhoughxlSoftisthedefault,westillhavetospecifyit. Thisis
becauseweneedtospecifythethirdargument(coolAfter)andthe
BabySteps
onlywayofdoingsoistospecifyallthreearguments.Ifmighttryto
put:
Boiler.BoilEgg(myEgg,FALSE)
Butthiswillcauseanerror.VBScriptwillnotbeabletotellthatwe
meantFALSEforcoolAfter;itwilltryandmakethehardnessFALSE
whichmakesnosenseatall.
MostofthetimeVBScript(whichisusedforScriptingMacros)and
VBA(whichisusedbytheMacroRecorder)asprettymuchidentical.
However,thereisafeatureinVBAwhichcouldhelpwiththeegg
boilingsituation. VBAsupportsnamedarguments. So,inVBAone
couldactuallyput:
Boiler.BoilEgg(egg := myEgg, coolAfter := FALSE)
Why specifies only two of the three arguments but by using the
argumentnamesstillworksjustfine.However,itisfarfromfinefor
usbecausewewanttotranslateitintoVBScript.Thisisarealworld
problem because the Macro Recorder sometimes uses named
arguments which we have to translate into the simpler argument
systemofVBScript.
How To Translate From Named Arguments
BackinLesson8welookedatcreatingPivotTableswithascript.The
rawrecordedMacrolookedsomethinglikethis:
CreatePivotTable _
( _
TableDestination:="", _
TableName:= "PivotTable1", _
DefaultVersion:=xlPivotTableVersion10 _
)
IntheabovecodewecanthattheMacroRecorderasusednamed
arguments for the CreatePivotTable Method. In general we can
assumethatithascreatedthisinthecorrectorderforusingasnon
namedargument. However,wecannotassumethatithasspecified
allthearguments.Inthiscase,simplyremovingthenameswillnot
work:
' This will fail!
CreatePivotTable _
( _
"", _
"PivotTable1", _
The solution is to use the Object Browser. We can Search for

CreatePivotTableintheObjectBrowser.Itwillthenshowuswhat
thefullsetofargumentsis,andwecanusethattocorrectlytranslate
therecordedMacrointoaScriptingMacrobelow:
CreatePivotTable _
( _
"", _
"PivotTable1", _
TRUE, _
)
Figure81:HereIhavesearchedforthedefinitionofthe
CreatePivotTableMethod.Ihavehighlightedthedefinitioninthe
picture.Wecanseethatittakes4argumentsratherthanthe3
thattheMacroRecordersupplied.
BabySteps
Errata
ThecodewhichgeneratedtheexampleforPivotTables(Lesson8and
AppendixA)incorrectlyusedthewordsreparetimewhichshould
have been repair time. Whilst the text of the book has been
corrected,someofthescreenshotsshowtheincorrectspelling.
Index
256.................................................72 CDate............................................78
65536.............................................72 Cell.................................................36
ActiveWindow.Zoom......................76 Cell reference................................98
ActiveWorkbook..........................107 Cell.Formula..................................76
Add.................................12p., 16, 50 Cell.Interior...................................37
AddDataField...............................109 Cells...............................................15
ADODB........................117, 119, 123 CELLSPACING..............................90
ADODB.Connection.....................117 Chains............................................48
AdTypeBinary......................117, 123 Characters.................59p.,60, 69, 80
AdTypeText..........................117, 122 Choice.........................................126
Alert boxes.....................................41 Class..................................11, 13, 16
AllUsersDesktop............................45 CLEAR.........................................124
AllUsersPrograms.........................45 Close........................................62, 64
AllUsersStartMenu........................45 Collections...............................16, 21
AllUsersStartup.............................45 ColorIndex.....................................39
ALT...........................................124p. Colour............................................37
AND.................................127p., 129 Column area................................100
Append....................................62, 69 COM.............................................123
Arabic numeral..............................74 Comma Separated Values.............80
Argument.....................................128 Comments...............................12, 19
Arguments...................................128 CompareMode...............................49
Array............................................140 Conditional....................................67
AtEndOfStream.............................64 Const.......................................63, 82
Audit..............................................61 Constants...................37, 40,68, 111
Auto Format.................................104 Copy....................................125, 143
Autofit................................47, 64, 76 CopyFile......................................118
Automate.......................................10 Count...............................16, 50, 113
Average.....................................102p. CreateObject...........................12, 17
Background...................................71 CreatePivotTable.................107, 112
Background colour........................36 CreateShortcut..............................46
Backgrounds................................103 CRM..............................................81
BACKSPACE................................124 CSV....................................81, 82pp.
Banding.......................................113 CSV Files.......................................80
Bands...........................................113 CTRL.........................................124p.
Binary..........................................119 Customer Relationship
Binary files..................................117 Management..................................81
Binoculars......................................40 D..............................................77, 79
Black..............................................90 Data area...........99, 101p., 105, 110
Blocks.................................130, 134 Data field............................109, 112
Blog........................................9, 119 Database....................................7, 10
Booleans........................................19 Date...............................................47
Border.........................37, 87p., 90p. Date standards..............................92
Border-bottom...............................90 DateAdd.............................77, 78pp.
Border-left.....................................90 Dates.......................................74, 84
Border-right...................................90 DateSerial......................77, 79p., 84
Border-top.....................................90 Day...........................................77, 79
BREAK.........................................124 Day Of Week..................................93
Browse...........................................41 Day Of Year....................................77
Bugs...............................................41 Days...............................................80
Capitals..........................................56 Death.............................................74
CAPSLOCK..................................124 Decision......................................126
Carriage-return..............64, 65p., 68 Definition.......................................38
Case sensitive................................40 DELETE.......................................124
BabySteps
Democratisation..............................9 Folder Object................................67

Dependency tracking..................135 Folders.....................................47, 59
Desktop........45, 47p., 51, 57, 67, 83 Fonts..............................................45
Detail view.....................................94 For.................................................29
Developer Tab.....................146, 147 For Each............................28, 29, 67
Dice................................................95 For Each Loops..............................28
Dictionary................49, 51, 53, 56p. For loops.....................................27p.
Dictionary Object Methods...........50 ForAppending................................62
Dictionary Object Properties........49 Format....................59, 69, 80p., 112
Dictionary Objects.........................49 Format Cells................................103
Directory........................................59 Format Report.............................104
DisplayAlerts.........................47, 125 Formats....................................103p.
Double border...............................90 Formula...........76, 86, 113, 128, 143
DOWN..........................................124 Formulae..............23p., 81, 127, 143
Download.......................................59 ForReading.....................63, 83, 85p.
Drag and drop.................24, 51, 100 ForWriting......................60, 82p., 85
Drag-And-Drop-Scripting..............29 Function....................71, 72, 84, 128
Dragging........................................24 Functions.............................71, 92p.
Drill-down..........................94, 105p. Gaussian........................................95
Drop...............................................24 Generalise.....................................96
Dropped.........................................29 GetFolder.......................................67
Editor.............................................14 Graphical Interface.......................39
END.............................................124 Grouping........................................93
End Function..........................71, 73 H....................................................77
End If.............................................68 HELP...........................................124
End Sub.........................................71 Hexadecimal..................................39
End With.......................................20 HOME..........................................124
ENTER.........................................124 Hour...............................................77
Enter key.......................................60 HTML.......................................87pp.
Equal..............................................12 Human error..................................53
ESC..............................................124 Icon................................................24
Excel 2003...................................106 If........................................67, 68, 84
Excel 2007.....................................72 In...................................................28
Excel constant.........................36, 37 Incomplete data.............................48
Excel Macros.................................10 Indentation....................................20
Excel.Application........................12p. Index..............................................15
Exists.............................................50 Infinite Loop..................................24
Exit For..........................................84 Information....................................93
Exiting the loop.............................27 INSERT........................................124
Expert programmer......................10 Insert Tab....................................149
External data.................................97 Integer...........................................95
Favorites........................................45 Interior....................................37, 71
Favourites......................................45 Internal Macro...................32,44, 36
Field List........................................99 Interior..........................................39
Field Settings.....................102, 110 Interpret........................................75
File.................................................59 Interpreting.......................76, 84, 91
File Object.....................................67 Interpretor.....................................42
Files...............................................69 Interval..........................................77
FileSystemObject60, 62, 67, 83, 123 IsEmpty.......................26, 29, 72, 84
Fill................................................143 Item...............................................50
FillDown......................................113 Jargon............................................10
Fills........................................23, 143 Java..................................................8
Filter............................................115 JDIT..................................................8
Find bugs.......................................41 Key.................................................50
Fix.................................................95 Key Strokes.................................123
Folder.......................................67pp. Keyboard.......................................36
Keys.........................................45, 50 Ol...................................................88
Language.......................................75 Open......................................16, 117
Layout..................................100, 103 Open Source..................................31
Layout character...........................60 Opening.........................................47
LCase....................................53, 67p. OpenTextFile............62p., 82p., 85p.
LEFT............................................124 Option Explicit.....................42, 43p.
Li.............................................88, 89 OR.......................................127, 131
Line Feed.......................................64 Ordered list...................................88
Line-feed..................................65, 68 Orientation..........................108, 112
Listing............................................66 Overview........................................94
LoadFromFile..............................117 Overwrite.......................................69
Logic....................................127, 134 Overwriting...................................66
Logical programming.........126, 127 P....................................................88
Loop...............................................23 Page...............................................89
Loop tape.......................................23 Page area..............................99, 115
Loops.............................................23 Paragraph......................................88
M.............................................77, 79 Parenthesis....................................16
Macro Recorder......32p., 37, 39, 96 Paste...................................125, 143
Management Information.............93 Pattern...........................................39
Merge............................................50 PatternColorIndex.........................39
Merging.............................48, 57, 68 Performance................................140
Method....................................12, 16 PGDN...........................................124
Microsoft.........................12, 47, 117 PGUP...........................................124
Microsoft Office.............................97 Pivot Cache.................................107
Milliseconds................................140 Pivot Chart.................................96p.
Minute...........................................77 Pivot Table. 93p., 96p., 100p., 103p.,
Misinterpreting.............................92 106, 108, 113
Module...........................................35 Pivot Table ....................................98
Month......................................77, 79 Pivot Table Field..........................102
Month Of Year...............................93 Pivot Table Field List................100p.
Mouse......................................24, 36 Pivot Table Field List box.............99
Mp3.............................................117 Pivot Table tool bar.....................104
MS Word......................31, 87, 89, 90 Pivot Tables..............................105p.
MS Word 2003...............................91 PivotCache.......................107p., 111
MS Word 2007 ..............................90 PivotCache Object.......................108
My Computer.................................45 PivotCaches.........................107, 111
My Documents...............................45 PivotField....................................108
MyDocuments..........................45pp. PivotField Object........................108
N....................................................77 PivotFields........................109p., 112
Named Arguments......................173 PivotFields Collection.................108
NetHood........................................45 PivotTable Field...........................110
Network Neighborhood................45 PivotTable Object.....................108p.
New Worksheet.............................98 Podcast............................................9
New-line..................................60, 66 Position................................108, 112
New-lines.......................................31 PrintHood......................................45
Nodepad++...................................36 Programmatic interface................40
NOT..................26, 82, 85, 127, 129 Programmer..................................10
Notepad............14, 31, 60, 123, 125 Programming language.................18
Notepad++.................31, 32, 44, 60 Properties......................................21
Now...............................................47 Property...................................13, 16
NumberFormat................47, 79, 111 PRTSC..........................................124
Numeric mean.............................102 Pseudo scripts...............................11
NUMLOCK..................................124 Pseudo-random.............................95
Object......................................11, 13 Pumpkin........................................93
Object Browser......37, 38, 39pp., 44 Punctuation...................................56
Objects...........................................16 Q....................................................77
BabySteps
Quarter..........................................77 Space.............................................60
Quit................................................47 Spaces...........................................56
Quotation marks............................81 SpeciaFolders.Item.......................46
Random.........................................95 Special Folder................................46
Range............................................36 Special Folders...........45, 47, 51, 67
Raw................................................75 SpecialFolders......45, 57, 67, 83, 85
Read..............................65, 118, 122 Split...............................................84
ReadAll.................................65p., 83 SQL Database................................97
Reading...................................59, 62 Standard Directories.....................45
Readline......................................64p. Start Menu.................................45p.
ReadText......................................122 StartMenu.....................................46
Real world.....................................53 Startup...........................................46
Recent............................................45 Stream.........................................118
Recorded.....................................106 Strings...........................................18
Recorder........................................36 Strip Spaces..................................64
Recording Macros.........................32 Style....52, 55, 89p., 120, 155, 170p.
Regional configuration..................75 Sub................................................71
Remove..........................................50 Subroutines.............................71, 92
RemoveAll......................................50 Sum...........................................112p.
Replace...........................83p., 86, 92 Summarises...................................93
Report.........................................89p. Summary.......................................93
Reports..........................................87 System.FileSystemObject.............60
Researching.....................................8 TAB..............................................124
Restrictions...................................10 TABLE...............................87, 88, 90
Returns..........................................73 Tables.............................................59
Ribbon................................147, 149 Tags...............................................89
RIGHT.................................67p., 124 TBODY...........................................90
Rnd................................................95 Td..................................................87
Row area...............................99, 100 Template Files...............................46
Rule.........................................8, 130 Templates......................................46
Rules...............................8, 128, 130 Text..........................................14, 90
S....................................................77 Text Editor.....................................31
SaveToFile...................................118 Text File.......................60, 62, 69, 80
Saving............................................47 TextStream...............60, 65p., 69, 82
Scientific notation.........................85 TextStream Object.....60, 62, 65, 69,
Script translation..........................44 82
Scripting Macros...........................44 Then........................................68, 84
Scripting.FileSystemObject. .86, 118 Time...............................................47
SCROLLLOCK.............................124 Timer...........................................140
Search........................................40p. Translate........................................96
Search engine................................39 Translated.....................................36
Second...........................................77 Translating....................................37
Security.........................................10 Translation....................................36
Select.............................................36 Trim...............................................64
Selection........................................36 Typos.............................................71
Send-to..........................................46 UCase............................................73
SendKeys.............................123, 125 Ul...................................................88
SendTo...........................................46 Unordered list...............................88
Sheet..............................................15 UP................................................124
Sheet.Select................................143 Upload...........................................59
SHIFT.......................................124p. Upper case....................................72
Shortcut.........................................46 Upper-case.................................73p.
ShowPivotTableFieldList.............112 Value..............................................50
Sleep............................................123 Variable...................................13, 43
Small business.................................8 Variables.................................17, 18
Solid...............................................90 Variant.........................................119
VBCRLF.........................................68 WScript.Shell.................45p., 57, 67

VBScript. .18, 19, 24, 42p., 53, 77p., WW................................................77
92, 119 Www.nerds-central.com..................9
View............................................39p. XlAutomatic................................38p.
Visible............................................13 XlAverage....................................109
Visual Basic...................................34 XlColumnField.....................108, 112
Visual Basic Editor........................35 XlDatabase..........................107, 111
Visual Basic For Applications........39 XlPivotTableVersion10.....107p., 112
W...................................................77 XlRowField..........................108, 112
Web browse...................................89 XlSolid..................................37, 39p.
Week Of Year.................................77 XlSum..........................................109
WeekDay........................................77 Xlsx................................................68
Wend..............................................26 XlTable2.......................................112
While.......................................26, 29 XOR..........................................82, 85
While Loops..........................27p., 29 Y....................................................77
Windows.......................13, 24p., 117 Year..........................................77, 79
Windows Explorer.........................46 YYYY........................................77, 79
Windows local................................75 Zeds.................................130, 134p.
With...............................................20 Zoom..............................................76
With statements............................20 _.....................................................26
Wizard.....................................96, 98 :=.................................................173
Work flow.........................................8 .doc................................................90
Workbook.......................................16 .vbs................................................24
Workbooks............................12p., 16 .xls.................................................68
Workbooks.Add..............................12 &....................................................28
Write...........62, 66, 83, 86, 118, 122 >................................................89
WriteLine...........................64, 85, 90 <.................................................89
WriteText.....................................122 <....................................................89
Writing...........................................59 =....................................................12
WScript....................................24, 29 >....................................................89
WScript.Arguments..................24pp. ~..................................................124
Wscript.Echo....................41, 42, 44 ...........................................31, 44
WScript.SendKeys.......................123

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HowToBecomeAnExcelGod(withoutreallytrying)

Reading From A Text File..............................................................62

Forward: Run The World From Excel!

Who can benefit from Excel Scripting Macros?

Why 'Baby Steps'

Introduction: What is this all about then?

Lesson 1: Basic Concepts

set myGlassOfWinne = CreateObject(aGassOfWine)

' Do stuff with the Objects, in this case

To explain what is described in the comments to the code above:

This simple piece of code actually causes Windows to create a

set myExcel = CreateObject(Excel.Application)

3) Save your magical words as step1.vbs on your desktop.

'Take Home' Ideas from Lesson 1

Lesson 2: Building Block Concepts

' Find the first Workbook in the Collection

' Do the same this time but to get a Sheet

' Finally, find one particular Cell

' Now we have the top left Cell of

' Cause Excel to create a Workbook (it starts

' Find the first Workbook in the

' Do the same but this time to get a Sheet

' Finally, find one particular Cell

' Now we have an Object for the top left Cell of

' Now we can re-use the mySheet Variable to get

One way of thinking about this is to say that Numbers, Strings,

' Start the process by writing a value into

' We can then take that value and work with it

' This will make the value of B1 be 2

' Here is the with, note the extra indentation

'Take Home' Ideas from Lesson 2

as 'loop tapes'. Figure 2 shows graphically how this mental model

' WScript.Arguments is a special Collection into

' The Workbooks Collection has a special method

Now that we have automated the loading of a Workbook we can

IsEmpty(). Itproduces a Booleanvalueof true or false. Itisthis

' Note that the Sheets Collection starts at

' row is a Variable in which we store the number

' This loop will carry on until the current

To achieve this the script has performed the following steps

' For loop:

Note:ifbob = 3thenRow number = & bobproduces

However,usinga ForEach ismuchsimpler(andactuallyfasterfor

'Take Home' Ideas from Lesson 3

Lesson 4: Getting Tooled Up.

Once we have requested to start the Macro Recorder, we need to

Unfortunately, we cannot actually see the recording happen as it

Translating Recorded Macros

RangeandCellObjectshaveaMethod Select() whichsimplyselects

The Interior PropertyofaCellorRangeObjectisaspecialObject

Using The Object Browser

'Take Home' Ideas from Lesson 4

Lesson 5: Starting To Work With Data

Identifier Folder Contents

Identifier Folder Contents

Using 'SendTo' As A Really Easy Way To Run Scripts

Set myShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

Set myShortcut = myShell.CreateShortcut(sendToFolder &

Saving And Opening From Special Folders

' Open Excel

' Tell Excel not to complain about overwrite files and

' Save Excel Workbook to Desktop

Merging Between Workbooks

Customer Name Part Number Quantity Date