How To Manipulate Data in Excel Using VBA

Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool that can be used for data manipulation. In order to make the most of the software, you need to use VBA. Visual Basic for Applications, or VBA, gives Excel users the ability to create macros, which are powerful time-saving custom functions for data manipulation and analysis. Macros process VBA code in order to manage large data sets that would otherwise take up a lot of time to modify. For example, with VBA you can create a macro to automatically format certain fields that meet your determined criteria.

VBA Example Script Used in Excel

Sub ConfigureLogic()

Dim qstEntries

Dim dqstEntries

Dim qstCnt, dqstCnt

qstEntries = Range("QualifiedEntry").Count

qst = qstEntries - WorksheetFunction.CountIf(Range("QualifiedEntry"), "")

ReDim QualifiedEntryText(qst)

'MsgBox (qst)

dqstEntries = Range("DisQualifiedEntry").Count

dqst = dqstEntries - WorksheetFunction.CountIf(Range("DisQualifiedEntry"), "")

ReDim DisqualifiedEntryText(dqst)

'MsgBox (dqst)

For qstCnt = 1 To qst

QualifiedEntryText(qstCnt) = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Qualifiers").Range("J" & 8 + qstCnt).value

'MsgBox (QualifiedEntryText(qstCnt))

logging ("Configured Qualified Entry entry #" & qstCnt & " as {" & QualifiedEntryText(qstCnt) & "}")

Next

For dqstCnt = 1 To dqst

DisqualifiedEntryText(dqstCnt) = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Qualifiers").Range("M" & 8 + dqstCnt).value

'MsgBox (DisqualifiedEntryText(dqstCnt))

logging ("Configured DisQualified Entry entry #" & qstCnt & " as {" & DisqualifiedEntryText(dqstCnt) & "}")

Next

includeEntry = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Qualifiers").Range("IncludeSibling").value

'MsgBox (includeEntry)

logging ("Entrys included in search - " & includeEntry)

End Sub

How To Analyze and Manipulate Entries in a Spreadsheet

In order to use VBA for data analysis, you will need to check the settings in Excel for the Developer tool. To find it, locate the Excel Ribbon and search for the Developer tab. If it is not displayed, you will need to activate it in the Excel Settings menu.

Next, create a new worksheet and name it "Qualifiers." We will use this sheet to check for all of the things that qualify the selections.

Next, set up the qualifiers on the sheet according to the code. It must be entered manually; cut and paste will not work.

ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Qualifiers").Range("J" & 8 + qstCnt).value

How To Locate the Range and Construct an Array

The range in the function above is cell J9. The range function notes an 8; however, the actual range is 9 because:

For qstCnt = 1 To qst

The above statement starts at 1, not 0. Therefore, the list starts at 9. In this case, note (qstCnt=1).

To construct an array out of entries on the Qualifiers worksheet, place random words in cells J9-J13. Once the rows are completed, we can move forward with finding and manipulating data in Excel.

Private Sub CountSheets()

Dim sheetcount

Dim WS As Worksheet

sheetcount = 0

logging ("*****Starting Scrub*********")

For Each WS In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets

sheetcount = sheetcount + 1

If WS.Name = "Selected" Then

'need to log the date and time into sheet named "Logging"

ActionCnt = ActionCnt + 1

logging ("Calling sheet: " & WS.Name)

scrubsheet (sheetcount)

Else

ActionCnt = ActionCnt + 1

logging ("Skipped over sheet: " & WS.Name)

End If

Next WS

'MsgBox ("ending")

ActionCnt = ActionCnt + 1

logging ("****Scrub DONE!")

Application.ScreenUpdating = True

End Sub

There is an example of a working tab counter.

Dim sheetcount

Dim WS As Worksheet

sheetcount = 0

logging ("*****Starting Scrub*********")

For Each WS In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets

sheetcount = sheetcount + 1

After initialising the sheet count, set it to 0 in order to restart the counter.

Logging() is another subroutine that keeps track of all actions in order to audit selections.

The next For loop sets up the Active Workbook for counting. WS is the initialised and ThisWorkbook. Worksheets is the active tab in the book. Since we have not named the workbook, this module will run on any active workbook. If you are working on multiple workbooks and have the wrong one activated, it will attempt to run on it. To avoid errors, take precautions to name your specific workbook or only work on one at a time.

Every time the loop fires, it adds one variable to the sheet count to keep track of the number of tabs. Then we move to:

If WS.Name = "Selected" Then

'need to log the date and time into sheet named "Logging"

ActionCnt = ActionCnt + 1

logging ("Calling sheet: " & WS.Name)

scrubsheet (sheetcount)

Else

ActionCnt = ActionCnt + 1

logging ("Skipped over sheet: " & WS.Name)

End If

Here, we look for the Selected tab.

If the variable WS is equal to Selected, then we log it and fire the subroutine Scrub Sheet. If the variable WS is not equal to Selected, it is logged that that sheet was skipped and the action is counted. The above code is an example of how to count the number of and locate a particular tab.

The following listng is all of the different methods that can be used to manipulate data!

Have FUN!

How To Count the Number of Sheets in a Workbook

Dim TAB

For Each TAB In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets

'some routine here

next

Find the Last Row, Column, or Cell on a Worksheet

Dim cellcount

cellcount = Cells(ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("worksheet").Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row

Filter by Using Advanced Criteria

Range("A2:Z99").Sort key1:=Range("A5"), order1:=xlAscending, Header:=xlNo

Apply Auto-fit Property to a Column

Columns("A:A").EntireColumn.AutoFit

Getting Values from Another Worksheet

dim newvalue

newvalue = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("worksheet").Range("F1").value

Inserting a Column into a Worksheet

Dim Row, Column

Cells(Row, Column).EntireColumn.Select

Selection.Insert

Insert Multiple Columns into a Worksheet

Dim insertCnt

Dim Row, Column

For insertCnt = 1 To N

ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("worksheet").Select

Cells(Row, Column).EntireColumn.Select

Selection.Insert

Next

Adding a Named Range to a Particular Sheet

ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("worksheet").Names.Add Name:="Status", RefersToR1C1:="=worksheet!C2"

Insert an Entire Row into a Worksheet

Dim Row, Column

Cells(Row, Column).EntireRow.Select

Selection.Insert

Copy an Entire Row for Pasting

ActiveSheet.Range("A1").EntireRow.Select

Selection.Copy

Delete an Entire Row

ActiveSheet.Range("A1").EntireRow.Select

Selection.Delete

Select a Particular Sheet

ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("worksheet").Select

Compare Values of a Range

Dim firstrange

Dim Logictest

Logictest = "some word or value"

If (Range(firstrange).value = Logictest) then

'some routine here

End If

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