Embedding BASIC Routines in Excel

[Denis.Sharon]

I'm new to Excel/VBA programming. Forgive my naivety. I want to embed BASIC routines within an Excel worksheet but don't know how to go about it.

Some basic questions (admittedly VERY basic) are how to pass parameters to and from the routine, etc. Can anyone suggest a straightforward source of information on how to get started (or otherwise offer assistance)? Thank you. Denis Sharon

[Richard Buttrey]

Hi Denis,

Visual Basic code (or Macros if you prefer) are held in the Visual Basic Environment (VBE). This is a 'layer' that's 'attached' to all workbooks and you can get to this in several ways.

The simplest way is to press ALT-F11. This will open up the VBE and you should see two windows on the left hand side. A 'Project Explorer' window and a 'Properties' window. The Explorer window will list all the objects available for coding - i.e. workbooks and sheets within workbooks. And when you've added other objects, like Code Modules or User Forms you'll also see those listed too.

For any object you select, the Properties window will show you all the properties that relate to that object, and you can either change the properties by selecting them in the properties window, or programatically by referring to them in code that you write.

In the VBE choose the 'Insert Module' option from the menu and you'll see a 'Module1' object added to the Explorer window, and your cursor will appear in the code window for the module. From the Menu choose Insert Procedure, or manually start typing in the code window 'Sub MyFantasticNewSub' and enter, and you will have created Procedure in which you can start to add code.

In the Excel environment you can also right click on an object, or say the sheet tab, and you'll see a 'View Code' option. Clicking this will also open up the VBE and take you directly to the code area that relates to that object.

There are several books on the shelves that deal with VBA programming for Excel, it's really a matter of personal choice. I found 'Writing Excel Macros' by Steven Roman

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Excel-.../dp/1565925874

useful, along with the Excel VBA Programmers Reference Guide, by Bovey, Bullen and others.

http://www.amazon.com/Excel-2002-VBA.../dp/0764543717

HTH