Lesson 19: Range object

Range is one of the most important and most commonly used Excel VBA object. In fact, we have dealt with the Range object in previous lessons. Range has many methods and proeprties, we will examine a few of them here.

19.1 The Select Method

The Range object contains two arguments that specifies a selected area on the spreadsheet. The syntax is

Range(starting_cell,Ending_ Cell)

For example, Range("A1:C6") means the specified range is from cell A1 to C6. To select the specified range, the syntax is

Range("A1:C6").Select

where select is a method of the Range object

Example 19.1

Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()

    Range("A1:C6").Select

End Sub

19.2 The Columns Property

The columns property of the Range object is to select a certain columns in the particular range specified by the Range object. The syntax is

Range(starting_cell,Ending_ Cell).Columns(i).Select

Example 19.2

This example select column C in the range A1 to C6

Private Sub CommandButton2_Click()

    Range("A1:C6").Columns(3).Select

End Sub

You may also use Cells(1,1) to Cells(6,3) instead of A1:C6, the syntax is

Range(Cells(1,1),Cells(6,3)).Columns(3).Select

The output is as shown in Figure 19.1

Figure 19.1

19.3 Using With Range...End With

You can also format font the cells in a particular column in terms of type, color, bold,italic, underlined and size using the With Range...End With Structure. It can also be used to format other Range properties like background color. Using With Range....End With structure can save time and make the code leaner.

Example 19.3

Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()

  With Range("A1:C6").Columns(2)

    .Font.ColorIndex = 3

    .Font.Bold = True

    .Font.Italic = True

    .Font.Underline = True

    .Font.Name = "Times New Roman"

    .Font.Size = 14

    .Interior.Color = RGB(255, 255, 0)

  End With

End Sub

* Without using With Range...End With, you need to write every line in full, like this

Range("A1:C6").Columns(2).Font.ColorIndex = 3

The output:

Figure 19.2

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19.4 The Rows Property

Basically the syntax for the Rows property is similar to that of the Columns property, you just need to replace Columns with rows. The syntax of selecting a row within a certain range is

  Range(starting_cell,Ending_ Cell).Rows(i).Select

Example 19.4

This following code selects the third row within the range A1 to F3

  Private Sub CommandButton2_Click()

    Range("A1:F3").Rows(3).Select

  End Sub

Figure 19.3

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Example 19.5: Using With Range...End With for Rows

  Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()

    With Range("A1:F3").Rows(2)

    .Font.ColorIndex = 3

    .Font.Bold = True

    .Font.Italic = True

    .Font.Underline = True

    .Font.Name = "Times New Roman"

    .Font.Size = 14

    .Interior.Color = RGB(255, 255, 0)

  End With

  End Sub

The Output

Figure 19.4

19.5 Using the Set keyword to Declare Range

We can write Excel VBA code that can specifies certain range of cells using the set keyword and then perform certain tasks according to a set of conditions. In Example 19.6, we shall write the ExcelVBA code such that it can accept range input from the user and then change the mark to blue if it is more than or equal to 50 and change it to red if the mark is less than 50.

Example 19.6

  Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()

  Dim rng, cell As Range, selectedRng As String

    .selectedRng = InputBox("Enter your range")

    .Set rng = Range(selectedRng)

    .For Each cell In rng

    .If cell.Value >= 50 Then

      .cell.Font.ColorIndex = 5

    .Else

      .cell.Font.ColorIndex = 3

    .End If

    .Next cell

  .End Sub

Explanation:

The InputBox function is used to accept value from the users.

rng and cell are declared as a Range variable using the Dim statement while selectedRng is declared as a string that receive input from the user. Once the input is obtained from the user, it is stored using the Set method and the Range function.

For Each cell In rng...Net cell is a loop that can iterate through the selected range, one cell at a time. The If...Then...Else statements are to specify the color of the font according to the range of values determined by the conditions.

The Output

Figure 19.5

19.6 The Formula property

You can use the Formula property of the Range object to write your own customized formula.

Example 19.7

  Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()

    Range("A1:B3").Columns(3).Formula = "=A1+B1"

  End Sub

In this example, the formula A1+B1 will be copied down column 3 (column C) from cell C1 to cell C3. The program automatically sums up the corresponding values down column A and column B and displays the results in column C, as shown in Figure 19.6

Figure 19.6

The above example can also be rewritten and produces the same result as below:

  Range("A1:B3").Columns(3).Formula = "=Sum(A1:B1)"

There are many formulas in Excel VBA which we can use to simplify and speed up complex calculations. The formulas are categorized into Financial, Mathematical, Statistical, Date ,Time and others. For example, in the statistical category, we have Average (Mean), Mode and Median

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Example 19.8

In this example, the program computes the average of the corresponding values in column A and column B and displays the results in column C. For example, the mean of values in cell A1 and Cell B1 is computed and displayed in Cell C1. Subsequent means are automatically copied down Column C until cell C3.

  Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()

    Range("A1:B3").Columns(3).Formula = "=Average(A1:B1)"

  End Sub

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Example 19.9: Mode

In this example, the program computes the mode for every row in the range A1:E4 and displays them in column F. It also makes the font bold and red in color, as shown in Figure 19.6.

  Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()

    Range("A1:E4").Columns(6).Formula = "=Mode(A1:E1)"

    Range("A1:E4").Columns(6).Font.Bold = True

    Range("A1:E4").Columns(6).Font.ColorIndex = 3

  End Sub

The Output

Figure 19.7