5 Things I wish I knew When I started using Excel VBA

[@ChrisShawCDS]

Brilliant! I've been (casually) coding VBA in Excel for >20 years and I didn't know some of these! Doh! Please keep doing "Another 5" videos until you run out of ideas. :) Thank you!

[@Excelmacromastery]

That's really good to hear Chris. I think I'll be able to come up with another few useful tricks.

[@ThorstenStrauch]

The same is valid for me. Just one word: Whow!

[@muhammedwafa9646]

Please advise, I have a problem with my Excel sheets it has equations and simple codes to navigate between the sheets . But I have to work on 4 or may be 6 sheets at the same time. But Excel tends to crash every time and shows the message"Excel has stopped working " as soon as I got the enable macro button. Thank you

[@jacksonmacd]

Save here!

[@Husky_Passion]

for real ? lol, took me 3 months on self learning to know that

[@PJTarver]

This guy is the best out there by far. For anyone trying to learn VBA for Excel, start here.

[@elijahkehayias6531]

I have watched many, MANY! KZbin Videos in order to improve and learn VBA. You are by far the BEST. Explaining the Fundamentals is what teaching is all about, not just "tricks". I am definitely signing Up for your Course. Excel not an easy topic to learn and not every-one has the ability to teach. Thanks for your VIDS. HUGE THUMBS UP.

[@Porconion]

Many thanks. Especially the array part. I shed a tear. Happiness? The fact I wasted so much time in the past? It is just the powerfull simplicity at the end.

[@adamwstbrook]

The array portion was amazing! I didn't know it could use it like that. Definitely a game changer for me.

[@redmicrouser7954]

I love your calm pleasant speaking style. Bonus is succinct, well organized steps of instruction. I give an A+ to this Instructor.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks😀

[@gregbernard7861]

I have been an intermediate VBE coder for years (do not want to be advanced) - but your channel is great.

[@houstonsam6163]

Many thanks for such clear, well-organized, and focused content. I'm the "Excel guy" in my workplace; there are a few KZbin experts I rely on for effective tutoring to increase my knowledge. You're my KZbin subscription for VBA.

[@Excelmacromastery]

That's great to hear Sam. I'll be adding lots more content.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Hi everyone, I hope you will enjoy these useful things that I wish I knew when I started using Excel VBA. Please add any comment or queries below the video. Thanks all.

[@MohammedImranH]

Hi.. Which video editor, screen recorder do you use and audio recorder as well?

[@s.m565]

Thanks Paul, great stuff.

[@JanBolhuis]

Great video. Thanks. I'm on a mediocre level but codename was one of the 1st things I have learned from you. Now working on arrays.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for the feedback Jan.

[@warrenhall1750]

Paul, Taking a step back to see the fundamentals is an interest tour. I wish I had taken that step almost two decades ago. VERY well done. Thanks. Always a pleasure to "see" you.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks Warren. Glad you like it.

[@missile-shapedbourbon4060]

Just knowing that people can't break the macro by renaming the sheet is a dream! Thank you so much!

[@Excelmacromastery]

You're welcome:-)

[@michaelreese5085]

I knew all of them, but the way you use the watch window is something I've never seen and now will use more frequently! Thanks!

[@Excelmacromastery]

Glad you like it Michael.

[@simonbrowning5423]

At least 15 years of struggling with Arrays, Range limits and parsing text. I wish I’d known these too. You have one new sub. Thank you.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Great to have you on board Simon.

[@Patrick-ge2zn]

Many thanks, with arthritic fingers the less typing I do the easier it is for me . This site is a God send .Thanks again.

[@igotstoknow2]

'Codename' cleans up the code. Excellent! Subscribed.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Glad you like it.

[@grtraders]

Paul, I rarely comment on any of the youtube videos and just move on most of the time. However, I just wished to make an exception here. I just wish to say that by far you are one of the most brilliant tutors on the internet (that I have come around) in the excel vba arena. Please keep up the good work. It is a pleasure to watch your informative videos. Thanks, Ravi.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks so much Ravi. That is very high praise indeed.

[@jamesart9]

Wow, I have been using Excel professionally for 20 plus years and, damn, just learned 5 new things. How I managed without knowing this all these years astounds me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[@tuworlds]

i'm late but still wanted to say thank you for these tips. each and everyone of them is pure gem

[@mangobrother]

Using VBA for 2 decades. I did not know any these. Thanks a lot mate. More please... Cheers.

[@richch888]

Paul, I know what you are doing takes a lot of effort to produce. Thanks so much! Your tips are invaluable.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Glad you like them!

[@WTC_2U]

Hi Paul - I am new to this channel and wow, I am BLOWN away! I have written a zillion macros for work, and I completely confess I am amateur in the way I code. I do things very simply, mostly because I need to prove to myself that my loop or function or calculation a) captures and processes the records my logic says it should capture, and b) subsequent manipulation of that data is accurate. So, you can bet my code is bloated and often unnecessary. But it works. Once I am confident everything is working, i would LOVE to speed the code up, minimize where possible, and use all of the built in tools Excel VBA already provides. But I admit that I don't know them very well. Your channel - for me at least - provides the best, simplest, most complete explanations I think I have ever seen. I learned more about how to populate an array in one of your videos then I learned over the past 6+ years of tinkering with this stuff. THANK YOU! I hope you are able to keep it up. You have a fan in California!

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks very much for the feedback Terry. That is high praise indeed. I appreciate it.

[@Paladin101]

Literally started vba this month and found this priceless 🙂. As are your others, especially those relating to error handling.

[@charlielorenzo3644]

I still cannot figure it out where to start

[@ragnarok7976]

@@charlielorenzo3644 Might I suggest playing around with the macro recorder. It will write the shittiest code possible but I found it nice to get a rough idea of what regular tasks in excel look like when you automate them. Plus it can be kinda fun to use too!

[@ivanonanga2195]

Hi EMM, you cannot even imagine what you have done for me and my department... Thank you is not enough!

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks Ivan. You're very welcome.

[@blackinktraining9810]

Great video Paul. I teach a VBA course at a Canadian university and we cover a lot of those techniques. Nice to see someone else setting everyone straight!

[@Excelmacromastery]

Glad you like them:-)

[@rods6405]

Thanks been writing Excel macros and VBA since the 90s did not know the CurrentRegion property. You do have to burn a column to use it, not a big issue as you can just change the background colour of the first row of that border column. Can also get last row or column much nicer than other methods and also grab the data as an array Dim MyRange1 As Range: Set MyRange1 = Sheet6.Range("A1").CurrentRegion ' Get Last row and column Dim LastRow1 As Long: LastRow1 = MyRange1.Rows.count 'Get Array From Range Dim MyRows1 As Variant: MyRows1 = MyRange.Rows ' also works with MyColumns = MyRange.Columns

[@haiderbokhari1]

What can I say, your videos are BRILLIANT! Please keep making more! I feel my weekends are so much more productive!!!

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for your nice comment.

[@haiderbokhari1]

@@Excelmacromastery Thank YOU for sharing your knowledge!!

[@MD.TOUFIKULALAM]

Assalamualaikum sir i am toufikul alam from dhaka bangladesh. Brilliant idea. i am fan of you vba tutorials. greet thanks

[@sharminfariha4911]

The use of a variant array for copying range to an array and split function is very helpful. Thank you!!

[@Excelmacromastery]

You're welcome Sharmin.

[@davidlee522]

Your videos are so awesome, so well organized. Everyone can tell you put a lot of hard effort and making it so easy to follow and learn. You're amazing and raising the bar for everyone!

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks very much David. That is high praise indeed.

[@MichaelLass]

I have been learning Excel VBA for several months now and what a mess I coded. I learned so much more in 30 minutes of your videos, that I will rewrite my code for a third time to be much cleaner and more efficient. Thanks

[@Excelmacromastery]

You're welcome Michael.

[@wayneedmondson1065]

Hi Paul.. thanks so much. These tips are GOLD!! Thanks to videos like this, your excellent web site and blog, and your paid course options, becoming good at VBA is available to anyone willing to put in the time. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and skills.. much appreciated and valued. Thumbs up!!

[@Excelmacromastery]

You're welcome Wayne. As always, thanks for the great feedback.

[@venkyr81]

Thanks all 5 were new information for me. Thanks for sharing your invaluable knowledge!!

[@tranyarelisher4185]

I tend to use the sheet index but I am going to incorporate codename more now. You eliminated everything I hated with the array code... can't believe I have not seen that before...many thanks.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Glad to help

[@julianevans2256]

I've been using (and learning) vba for many years and only recently learned about Debug Compile from this video, I used it (along with Option Explicit) on my Personal.xlsb workbook and it took me days to clean up the code! Great tutorials

[@ragnarok7976]

Very nice. I was literally trying to solve the "user changes sheet name" problem with out locking down the entire workbook and #1 fits the bill perfectly... Not to mention the rest of these tips are great too!

[@byronquelal1647]

your channel is awesome! your code is very clean and elegant!

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks Byron

[@viola20353]

Thank you for these brilliant information. Specially the codename for the sheet and the current region and the other tipps.

[@Excelmacromastery]

You're very welcome!

[@smithsmith8288]

1st and 3rd one are easy and brilliant. i never knew that. it would be very helpful. thxs

[@wattjock]

Just started teaching myself Excel VBA, for very specific reasons, and very much appreciate your sharing you experience here for novices like me to benefit from! Definitely Subscribing to your channel and will most probably be buying guides from your website in the very near future once I master your basic info!

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks Watt. Glad you liked it.

[@harnesshouse]

Worksheet code name just solved a problem I was thinking about. Thanks!

[@Lutfitince]

Very nice videos, and great shortcuts. You not only explain the theory of the functions but also explain solutions to real life situations, and while doing you always have in mind the code speed, as using macros is about speeding processes up in the first place. All is great, but it will be even better if the videos are more organised. Thank you very much for the great content and especially the tips that really matter, game changers when dealing with troublesome scenarios and the pro insights that enable us perspective when approaching problems. Just what people need to get to the next level. Thank you very much again!

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for the feedback. Glad you like the videos.

[@DanBrill]

Great stuff. One thing I wish I'd known earlier is that when making an array from a range, it will always be a 1-based array, not 0-based, even if you use Option Base 0 for the module. Thanks, Chris! I've learned a lot from you.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Who's Chris?😄

[@DanBrill]

@@Excelmacromastery Ha! Sorry, Paul. You can tell I'm new here.

[@stephanweaver1960]

the array assignment shortcut discussed at ~5:00+ does not seem to work for filtered data? The following arr = Range("a1").CurrentRegion.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible).Value creates an 1-dim array containing the header row ONLY. That's even though the following does select the expected 2-dim range Range("a1").CurrentRegion.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible).Select

Thanks a lot. Your website is one of the best out there for excel vba. I just found that KZbin channel and immediately subscribed to it. Very useful videos.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for the feedback. Glad you like it.

[@jgenterprisesnew9552]

GREAT x 3 !!! I really enjoined this video, specially the SPLIT trick. Back in the 80's I worked writing code for a company that did a lot of mailing. We would get a "dirty" list of names, and had to "clean it up" before we could use it for mailmerge with WORD. I don't know if SPLIT existed then but if it did I wish I've know about it.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks. Yes, split is a great function - My next video will show examples of using split.

[@houstonvanhoy7767]

I suspect that VBA has a lot of built-in functions (like SPLIT, for example) that few VBA coders know about. If more people used VBA, perhaps that kind of knowledge would be more widespread than it is. But leave it to Sir Paul to dig it out, use it and explain it to us. Many thanks to the master!

[@rrrprogram8667]

This is the one of important lessons to take from experienced experts

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks glad you like it.

[@ThePablete15]

Muchas gracias por video! Estoy justo aprendiendo VBA y aprendiendo que los arrays hacen más eficiente mi código.

[@prakashsrinivasan7840]

Omg that codename is very useful thanks. Of course everything in excellent keep on videos like this

[@danwhiffen9235]

Omg that code name is great. I’ve been modifying my code for years because I link to another excel spreadsheet and the owner of that is always changing the name of the tabs and thus breaking my code. I’ll try it out tomorrow. Thanks

[@Excelmacromastery]

You're welcome.

[@camambara]

Thanks for sharing, I've learnt with you how to copy range to array easily, it helped me out a lot

[@ziggle314]

First-rate exposition. I will use these tips regularly. Thanks.

[@Excelmacromastery]

You're welcome

[@misterhorse8327]

Oh wow... Code Names just blew my mind right now.

[@marshallhosel1247]

Thank you for this straight forward tutorial.

[@simonliang6867]

The video is very useful for me.I learn a lot tickets,thanks.

[@biodreg1332]

I wish I had known the first hint! As for the code in 4:39 vs 5:29 it is worth pointing out that the code in the second solution runs much faster than in the first one. The speed difference is noticeable in big projects (large arrays and ranges).

[@mrashid229]

All your video lessons not only are lifesavers but inspiring too. Among many unknows simply not knowing 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐨𝐧 made my life unnecessarily difficult. Utilizing that along 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐬𝐞𝐭 and 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐳𝐞 wrote the function below in case someone wants to eliminate 1 or more rows at top/bottom or 1 or more columns at left/right. Any suggestion from you on this will be helpful for me/us, I guess. Private Sub TryGetRegion() Dim rg As Range ' Row 1 has the header and the bottom row is for calculations, data starts from A2 Set rg = GetRegion(shProducts, "A2", 1, 1) End Sub ' -- Returns a range based on current region of a requested cell and ' -- optionally clipping some surrounding rows/columns Public Function GetRegion(sh As Worksheet, PointerCell As String, _ Optional SkipTopRows As Long = 0, _ Optional SkipBotRows As Long = 0, _ Optional SkipLftCols As Long = 0, _ Optional SkipRgtCols As Long = 0) As Range Dim rg As Range: Set rg = sh.Range(PointerCell).CurrentRegion If SkipTopRows 0 Then Set rg = rg.Offset(SkipTopRows).Resize(rg.Rows.Count - SkipTopRows) If SkipBotRows 0 Then Set rg = rg.Resize(rg.Rows.Count - SkipBotRows) If SkipLftCols 0 Then Set rg = rg.Offset(ColumnOffset:=SkipLftCols).Resize(ColumnSize:=rg.Columns.Count - SkipLftCols) If SkipRgtCols 0 Then Set rg = rg.Resize(ColumnSize:=rg.Columns.Count - SkipRgtCols) Set GetRegion = rg End Function

[@adamploof3528]

Really glad to see some new VBA videos with such great instruction. I use VBA almost daily and find these tips really useful. Only feedback I have at the moment is that I wouldn't mind if the sounds of the mouse clicks were a lot quieter -- it's a little distracting. Please keep these coming!

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks Adam.

[@MichaelMadiganDublin]

Thanks for the videos - super helpful and very well presented.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for the feedback Michael.

[@sarfrazshah6604]

Hi Sir, nice to watch your videos, There is huge data with me in MS excel cell in text form, I want to put comma after each of three alphabets in cell, is there any way to do it through macros.

[@SMEEST55]

Your best video is that about using both arrays and dictionaries

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks Rik

[@MrMaster20011989]

My Excel file has with few cells having ||. how can I remove these characters using vba macro? example cell AC64 has 2020-07-24 17:00:00||2020-07-24 17:00:00 Any suggestions?

[@mariaalcala5159]

Great Video! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

[@ryanmattson1546]

Great job. Great teacher!

[@yannhk]

Very helpful to improve my coding. This is brilliant.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Great to hear!

[@lbarrera2197]

Thanks! very good tutorial. Short, clear and concise.

[@Excelmacromastery]

glad you like it.

[@srinivasraogampala4420]

He is really a genius... His codes are short and fast!!

[@querrythis]

HaHa! I am at a basic level, so this is so vital for me, as I am already guilty of doing the long winded methods. I am begining to realize as human, our logical construct is sequential, whereas the code logic handles in blocks. Would that be an accurate assessment?

[@reevesjim]

Thanks from Norway! I just klicked the subscribe button, and will be checking out a lot of your videos!

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks Jim.

[@JANtheDane]

Awesome advice! I was blown away by the simple Array code.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks Jan. Most people are amazed when the see it first - myself included.

[@JohnOvens]

Hi Paul, I agree - I wish that I knew them before starting out with VBA. Finding LastRow was generally trial and error.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for the feedback John.

[@tgirard123]

Holy crap, just what I needed. Subscribed. I've learned something new in every video.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks Timmy. Glad you like it.

[@ricabude]

Hi. Congrats for the video. Great delivery. I tested the codename technique, but it does not work with the codename, I get an error "execution timeout 424 - object needed". These codes work on macs too? . Any ideas? Thanks

[@timlambe8837]

Thanks for this great video! Sorry for commentating bit randomly but i was hoping to find the answer here. Is there a possibility to run code from the personal.xlsb without having it opened? Maybe stupid question but im just starting with VBA. Thanks Tim

[@eicosano]

I've been coding and this was very helpful in glad I stomped on your video thank you very much

[@Excelmacromastery]

You're welcome.

[@excelmastervba]

Hi, yes that would have been really great to know at the beginning already. Thanks a lot for sharing! 🙂

[@Excelmacromastery]

Glad it was helpful!

[@excelmastervba]

@@Excelmacromastery it was 👍🏻

[@irshadsaifi564]

Please suggest, how to start writing a VBA Macro Code, I just know how to record macro only, pls help for further learning.

[@thebronzefury1000]

Simple and brilliant.

[@ronkanij7020]

In stead of typing the full address of the destination cells you could use the size of the current region to determine the size. It is more flexible and you don't need to think column H +4 is column K. For example: Sub Arr() Dim rCR As Range Set rCR = Range("A1").CurrentRegion Range("H1").Resize(rCR.Rows.Count, rCR.Columns.Count).Value = rCR.Value End Sub If for example the number of rows increases you do not need to alter the above code.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks Ron. I was just using the full address for the example. Obviously in a real-world example it wouldn't be hard coded.

[@tomc.3987]

This is great. Thanks. I come from an Access background and am moving over to Excel. Current region is great for use with arrays. I use Ctrl + A to select it in my version of Excel.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks Tom. Keep in mind that Ctrl + A(select all) is different than Ctrl + * (i.e. select current region)

[@fordfactor]

Tip 1 I found a few years ago: makes things sooo much easier. I would add a related tip and that is to use Defined Names for cells: if you need to move the cells referred to in your code around on your sheet, the defined name goes with them and you don't have to change your code. Although you probably knew that already! :)

[@joaocustodio2094]

As always, very useful and clear. Thanks Paul.

[@Excelmacromastery]

You're welcome João.

[@NZMiranda]

Great videos Paul. Have helped me a lot. Thank you. If the user makes a copy of the worksheet in the same workbook, so there are now two worksheets in the workbook, the second worksheet is given a new codename. Is there a way to make the VBA work with this second sheet?

[@afilipppp]

so much time lost finding ranges... glad i clicked this suggested video. ty man

[@balalimbu3082]

can you help me on... 3 column data to convert in one row.. one after other in row.. thanks

[@ngassthy]

Thank you for the video. Really helpful. I believe we could get the current.region by clicking in a cell and CTRL+a

[@Excelmacromastery]

Ctrl+A is works differently that current region. It means "select all" in most applications.

[@kareemcf2010]

Hi, super useful videos... slowly making my way through all of them. In many of your videos i see you type shData.Range and this is picked up. I get the error that the variable is not defined. What am i doing wrong?! Can anyone help?

[@Excelmacromastery]

shData is the code name of the worksheet. You can see it in the Project Window on the left(Ctrl + R if not visible).

[@kevinpaul2742]

all tips are very usefull,thanks!

[@shengweili764]

Thanks for the tips, there are very useful. But I have a question on sheet naming. If I name a sheet from another workbook, how can I call on it easily? Nowadays I have to name a workbook objet, a sheet object, then set the sheet using workbook.worksheets("Name of the sheet") . I can't just call workbook.shtData for exemple????

[@amineelazzaoui9757]

thank you for this very usfull informations. I need your help to solve a textBox problem . When I add a "#,###" format number to the textBox and rest the userform the number become "####" -the textbox is connected with a cell by :ok ========> Sheets("BD_enveronement1").Cells(3, 1) = TextBox1.Value initialaize===> TextBox1.Value = Sheets("BD_enveronement1").Cells(3, 1)

[@careywong8893]

Thank you very much. It's really helpful.

[@VBAbyMBA]

please help! which free software is best for screen recording while in debug mode??

[@db7erry]

For Point #2, you say that the keyboard shortcut from Excel to select the current region is: Ctrl+Shift+8. This is not true; in fact, it is just a coincidence of your keyboard layout that allows this to work. The actual keyboard shortcut for the current region in Excel is: Ctrl+* Try Ctrl+* using the number keypad. That being said, I more often use Ctrl+A. The first use of Ctrl+A when a range is selected will result in the selection of the current region; if you use Ctrl+A an additional time after the current region is selected, it will select the entire worksheet. But the first use will select the current region while multiple uses of Ctrl+* will keep the focus on the current region.

[@SergyOrloff]

Timecodes in the description are wrong. For example, "current region" is at 2:50, not at 2:21. "Copying from Range to Array" is at 4:38, not at 4:08, and so on...

[@maciejdolinski1036]

Great video. As usual. It saved me a lot of time. Thank you, Paul.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Good to here Maciej

[@wisecatnoroboris]

Thank you so much for this video!

[@sandeepkothari5000]

Paul, I too wish I knew these beforehand.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks Sandeep. Glad you like them.

[@db7erry]

For Point #4 you should mention that the the default delimiter for the Split() function is a single space character. So, if a space character is the delimiter you kneed, as in your code example, specifying the space character is redundant. So, this is equivalent to the code line in the video: arr = Split(rg.Cells(i, 1))

[@Excelmacromastery]

It's better to explicitly show the parameter as it makes the code clearer.

[@db7erry]

@@Excelmacromastery Providing default arguments is explicit. Whether that is clearer or not is an opinion. My opinion is that if you are learning a language, you take on the responsibility to understand the nuances of the language. Seeing Split() work without a delimiter specified, it is extremely obvious what is happening.

[@mustafabakkal8364]

do you have an example to convert pdf to excell ,thx

[@ClaudioBOsorio]

Wow this is great Thanks for teaching those cool tricks!

[@Excelmacromastery]

No problem!