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VBA Control Arrays

This document discusses control arrays in VBA. It defines a control array as a group of controls that share the same name, type, and event procedures. While VBA does not natively support control arrays like VB6 and VB.NET, they can still be created. Control arrays are useful because they allow writing event code once that applies to all controls in the array, reducing code and resources. The document provides two examples: 1) Using existing textboxes on a userform and assigning them a shared KeyPress event, and 2) Dynamically creating textboxes at runtime and adding them to a control array with a shared KeyPress event.

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cannemre
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196 views

VBA Control Arrays

This document discusses control arrays in VBA. It defines a control array as a group of controls that share the same name, type, and event procedures. While VBA does not natively support control arrays like VB6 and VB.NET, they can still be created. Control arrays are useful because they allow writing event code once that applies to all controls in the array, reducing code and resources. The document provides two examples: 1) Using existing textboxes on a userform and assigning them a shared KeyPress event, and 2) Dynamically creating textboxes at runtime and adding them to a control array with a shared KeyPress event.

Uploaded by

cannemre
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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VBAControlArrays

7
Posted on: 08-5-2011 by: Siddharth Rout

These are the few things that we will be covering in this post:

What is a Control Array?

Can we create Control Arrays in VBA?

Why do we need a Control Array?

Examples of Control Arrays in VBA


a) Using existing textboxes in the UserForm and assigning a same set of event procedures
b) Creating new textboxes at runtime and assigning them same set of event procedures

WHATISACONTRO LARRAY?
A Control Array is a group of controls that share the same name type and the same event procedures. They
are a convenient way to handle groups of controls (Same Type) that perform a similar function. All of the
events available to the single control are available to the array of controls.

CANWECREATECONTRO LAR RAYSINVBA?


Even though, VBA doesnt allow us to to create Control Array like in vb6 and vb.net, we c an still create
Control Array in VBA.

WHYDOWENEEDCONTRO LAR RAYSINVBA


Control Arrays mainly have these advantages:

Controls in a Control Array share the same set of event procedures. This results in you writing less amount of
code.

Control Arrays uses fewer resources.

You can effectively create new controls at design time, if you need to.

EXAMP LESO FCONTRO LARR AYSINVBA


We will be covering the following here:
a) Using existing textboxes in the UserForm and assigning a same set of event procedures
b) Creating new textboxes at runtime and assigning them same set of event procedures
Using existing textboxes in the UserForm and assigning a same set of event proc edures.
Lets say you have 10 textboxes in your UserForm (see image below):

And you want all 10 to be numeric textboxes. Numeric textboxes are those text boxes where you can only
type numbers. If it was just 1 TextBox, you would have a code like this:

Private Sub TextBox1_KeyPress(ByVal KeyAscii As MSForms.ReturnInteger)


Select Case KeyAscii
'<~~ 48 to 57 is ASCII code for numbers. 127 is for 'Delete' and 8 is for
'Backspace'
Case 48 To 57, 127, 8
Case Else
KeyAscii = 0
End Select
End Sub

Now imagine writing this code 10 times for each and every textbox?
This is where we will use Control Array of Textboxes and assign them the same procedure.
To start with, add a new Class. You can do that by right clicking on the VBAProject Insert Class
Module. See the two images below.

Now paste this code in the code area of the Class1 Module:

Public WithEvents TextBoxEvents As MSForms.TextBox


Private Sub TextBoxEvents_KeyPress(ByVal KeyAscii As MSForms.ReturnInteger)
Select Case KeyAscii
'<~~ 48 to 57 is ASCII code for numbers. 127 is for 'Delete' and 8 is for
'Backspace'
Case 48 To 57, 127, 8
Case Else
KeyAscii = 0
End Select
End Sub

and in the UserForm Initialize event, paste this code:

Option Explicit
Dim TextArray() As New Class1
Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
Dim i As Integer, TBCtl As Control
For Each TBCtl In Me.Controls
If TypeOf TBCtl Is MSForms.TextBox Then
i = i + 1
ReDim Preserve TextArray(1 To i)
Set TextArray(i).TextBoxEvents = TBCtl
End If
Next TBCtl
Set TBCtl = Nothing
End Sub

And you are done! Now when you run the UserForm, all the textboxes will now show the same behaviour.
To test it, simply run your UserForm and try typing anything in the textboxes. You will notice that you will not
be able to type anything other than numbers or pressing the Delete and the Backspace button. Similarly
you can create other events for textboxes like change(), click() etc.
Creating new textboxes at runtime and assigning them same set of event procedures.
Now lets take another scenario. Instead of creating textboxes at design time and then assigning them same
set of event procedures, what we want to do is to create these textboxes at run time and then assign them
same set of event procedures.
Lets say your UserForm now simply looks like this:

Create the Class module as I have shown above and then paste the code which I gave above for the Class
module.
Paste this in the the Initialize event of the UserForm:

Option Explicit
Dim TextArray() As New Class1
Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
Dim ctlTBox As MSForms.TextBox
Dim TBoxTop As Long, i As Long
'~~> Decide on the .Top for the 1st TextBox
TBoxTop = 30
For i = 1 To 10

Set ctlTBox = Me.Controls.Add("Forms.TextBox.1", "txtTest" & i)


'~~> Define the TextBox .Top and the .Left property here
ctlTBox.Top = TBoxTop: ctlTBox.Left = 50
'~~> Increment the .Top for the next TextBox
TBoxTop = TBoxTop + 20
ReDim Preserve TextArray(1 To i)
Set TextArray(i).TextBoxEvents = ctlTBox
Next
End Sub
and you are done :)

To test it, simply run your UserForm. You will see that the TextBoxes automatically get created and you will
not be able to type anything other than numbers or pressing the Delete and the Backspace button. This is
how your UserForm will look:

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