Copyright © 2018 by William B.

Skates

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Excel VBA
 Step-by-Step Illustrated Guide for Complete Beginners to
Master VBA

Introduction
What is Excel VBA?
Recording the Macros
Chapter 1: VBA Variables
Declaring Variables and their scope
Chapter 2: Strings
Chapter 3: VBA Macros
Worksheet Ranges
Chapter 4: Loops
Chapter 5: Arrays
Chapter 6: Functions
Conclusion
 Excel Macros
Step-by-Step Illustrated Guide for Complete Beginners to
Master Macros
Introduction
Chapter 1: What are Macros?
Macros
More brief definition of a Macro
Macro Recorder
Is Macro Recorder enough for all our automation needs?
Chapter 2: Getting Started with VBA
What can you do with VBA?
Using the VBA
The developer option
Examples of function procedures
Referring to an object inside the sub-procedure
Referring to property of the object ‘Columns’
Chapter 3: Macro Security
Security settings
Trusted Locations
Storing macros in your Personal Macro Workbook
Macro settings
Chapter 4: Recording your first Macro
Steps to record your first Macro
Running a Macro
Assigning a macro to a button
Saving a Macro-Enabled Work Book
Chapter 5: Absolute vs. Relative Macro Recording
Absolute Macro Recording
Relative Macro Recording
How to perform Relative Macro Recording?
Example of Relative Macro recording
Chapter 6: VBA Excel Objects
Excel is an object too!
Example of uses of an object
 Properties of objects
Chapter 7: Sending Email from Excel
Steps for sending the email
Chapter 8: Debugging
Bugs
Debugging in Excel
Moving down the code, statement by statement
Conclusion
 Excel Formulas and Functions

Step-by-Step Illustrated Guide for Complete Beginners to

Master Formulas and Functions

Introduction
Chapter 1: What are formulas and functions?
Chapter 2: Text Formulas
Chapter 3: Comparison Formulas
Chapter 4: Operators
Chapter 5: Absolute vs Relative Cell References
Chapter 6: SUM
Chapter 7: IF
Chapter 8: AND
Chapter 9: LEN
Chapter 10: OR
Chapter 11: NOT
Chapter 12: XOR
Chapter 13: SUMIF and SUMIFs
Chapter 14: COUNT and COUNTA
Chapter 15: AVERAGEIF and AVERAGEIFs
Chapter 16: LARGE and SMALL
Chapter 17: COUNTIF and COUNTIFS
Chapter 18: VLOOKUP
Chapter 19: HLOOKUP
Chapter 20: A few notes about Pasting, Ordering and Filtering
Conclusion
 Introduction
Getting Started!

Hello, there future Excel Programmers! Thanks for viewing this book.
This book has been designed to be your go-to book for excel
programming. It is drafted in simple English to make your programming
experience fun and easy. It’s fine even if you don't have the slightest
idea about Excel VBA, this book will help you get a grab on the
programming in no time. (With just a little effort) Before going further, I
would like to tell my prospective readers that who exactly is the target
audience for this book. Please find below my assumption about you:
You do have an access to a computer (A laptop or a desktop). The
computers, in turn, have a connection to the internet.
You are a frequent user of the Microsoft Excel tool

What is Excel VBA?

I am sure you must be excited to jump into the bandwagon of the Excel
Programmers. Well, hold your horses a little for now, as this chapter will
first give you some critical background information that will help you
become an fantastic Excel Programmer. The term VBA stands for Visual
Basic for Applications. This programming language was developed by
Microsoft Company. VBA is the tool that is going to help us control and
customize the functionalities of the Excel. Throughout this book, you
will get to see the term “Macros” a lot as well. Before you confuse
 yourself, let me explain what macros is. The codes that are written to
perform operations in excel is known as Macros. VBA, however, is the
programming language platform where Macros are written. This is how
VBA and Macros are interlinked. The VBA tool can be convenient to
perform thousands of different tasks. Here are a few scenarios:
It can help in analyzing data
It can help us in forecasting and budgeting of data
Automating our reports to save up time and improve efficiency
Conveying data into visuals such as charts, graphs etc
them, the Word doc should look like the PDF file.
I can go on and on with the tasks it can perform, but hopefully, you do
now have an idea about its functionalities. In a nutshell, VBA tool helps
to speed up the operations performed on excel. Let's take an example,
every day you get an excel sheet containing a list of employees with
some necessary information. You have to manually perform some
formatting like to make the name bold, make the phone number right
aligned, and add some colors to the rows. Now if the list of employees
is long so doing it manually every day can be an extremely tedious task.
This is basically where the VBA tool comes in handy. You can write a
macro code regarding all the formatting steps, place a button on your
sheet and finally bind the macros with the button. Just one hit and you're
good to go.

***

Jumping into the VBA Tool

Before we jump deep into the swimming pool, learning to swim

 should be our topmost agenda. This section is going to give
you a feel of the entire VBA tool. It will give you a good grab
on the basics.
To get started on the VBA tool, we first need to access the
most crucial tab: Developer. Follow the steps to access the tab:
1. Open the Excel tool
2. Right Click on any area of the Ribbon and then select the
customize option

3. Once the customize tab is open, you can find the developer
option in the second column
4. Check the Developer Option
5. Click Ok

Congratulations! You now have a brand-new tab on your Excel

tool: Developer. By clicking on the developer tab, we will be
navigated to the section that is of interest to all the VBA
programmers.
We will now be performing our very first exercise on the VBA
tool. The macro that we are going to write will perform the
following functions:
Type name into a cell
Enter the current date and time into a cell
Bold the text entered in the name cell
Change the font size of the date cell to 14
***
 Recording the Macros
In this section, we will be performing an exercise to learn how
to record the Macros. Excel has a built-in functionality in
which the user doesn't have to manually write the code. The
tool has the option to record all the operations that you are
performing and then finally generate a macro code for it.The
macro we will write now won’t win us the first prize in a VBA
programming competition but to reach your final destination
one needs to take baby steps. Following are the steps that we
will follow to write our very first code.

1. Open the Excel Tool

2. Click on the developer tab
3. Select a cell on the excel worksheet. Click on any cell
4. On the developers' tab, click on the Record Macro Button
5. As shown below, the Record Macros box is displayed
6. Now we will be entering a name for the Macros. The default
name is Macro 1 but its always advisable to give a better name
1. Click in the shortcut key and enter a shortcut key. For now, we
will be entering shift+N so our shortcut key will be
ctrl+shift+N
2. On macro dialogue box, the option that says “store in:” should
be set to “This Workbook”
3. Click Ok. The macros will now start to record.
4. Type your name on the cell where you want to display it
5. Now in the adjacent cell, enter the below formula

6. Now we will convert the formula to its value. For this right
click on the date cell, select copy. Now right-click on the cell
again, and select paste values(V).
7. Now Select the cell where you entered your name. Go to the
home tab, traverse to the font section and select bold(B). Also,
change the font size to 14.
8. Now to stop recording, go to the developer section. Select stop
recording.
Cheers! Your first project for the Excel VBA macro is finished.
To ensure that your macros are working fine, you should test
your code. Move the cursor to an empty cell, press
Ctrl+Shift+N. Within a snap, the excel code will be executed.
Your name, date and time will be displayed on the sheet. You
can also view the code that has been recorded by the excel
tool. Go to the developer tab, and click on macros. You can
now view the code that was automatically generated

behind the operations that you just performed.

Below is the code that was generated.
The first statement recognizes as the sub procedure and gives
the name of the macro that you entered. The second statement
identifies that cell "B2" is selected. B2 means a second column
and second row on the excel sheet. The third statement then
highlights the name you entered on Cell B2. Cell b3 is then
selected and then the Now() formula was entered.
Selection.font.bold= true indicates that the cell formatting was
changed to bold. The sub-procedure finally ends the code by
the End sub Procedure.
 Chapter 1: VBA Variables
Value holders

Let me introduce you to real programming language element called

variable. Just like other programming languages, VBA has elements
common to them. The main agenda of the VBA tool is to manipulate
data. VBA can store the data to the computer's memory. Some of the
data that you create is stored in variables. A named storage location in
the computer's memory is known as a variable. Excel gives us the
flexibility to name the variables whatever we want them to be. To assign
a value to the variable, we use the equal sign operator. Let's look at
some of the examples of the variables.

There are specific rules when declaring variables in the VBA tool:
The first letter of the variable should be a character. The rest can
be numbers, letters, or punctuation characters
There is no distinguishment between the upper-case and lower-case letters
when declaring variables
A variable name should be without any space
Special characters such #, $, %, &, or! cannot be used in the variable name
The size of the variable name should not exceed 255 characters

To better understand the variables, most programmers use mix cases, for
 example, PerformanceRate or Employee_Salary.

The VBA tool also puts some restriction on the variable names. Words
such as Dim, End, With, Sub, Next and For cannot be used by the
programmers as these words are reserved by VBA. If any of these words
arise in your code, you will get a compile error.

***

Getting Familiarize with the VBA Data Types

When I say the word data type, I am mainly referring to a way

in which the program written in VBA stores data in memory.
VBA gives us the leverage to not to assign a data type to every
variable, but if you leave it on VBA there's definitely some
cost to it. The automatic assignment of data types may result in
slower execution and wastage of memory. Applications that are
small in size may not be affected by the automatic declaration,
but the large and complex application does have an impact on
them. It's always a good practice to declare the data type of the
variables that you are going to use. Although the list is long,
below are the most common types of data that VBA can handle.

Data Bytes Range of Values

type Used
Byte 1 0 to 255
Boolean 2 True or False
Integer 2 -32768 to 32768
 Long 4 -2,147,483,648 to
2,147,483,648
Double 8 -1.79E308 to -4.94E-
324 for negative
values
Currency 8 -922,337,203,685,477
to
922,337,203,685,477
Date 8 1/1/0100 to
12/31/9999
String 1 per Varies
char
Variant Varies Varies

A good rule of thumb is to use the variable with the smallest size but it
should also serve your purpose.
***
 Declaring Variables and their scope

By now, I am sure you must be familiarized with about

variables and their data types. In this section, we will now be
declaring a variable to a data type. if a variable is not declared
in your macros, the VBA itself will define it to default data
type: Variant. For example, if a particular variable is by default
set to be a variant, and it contains a text string that looks like a
number (eg 123), this variable, however, can be used for both
the numeric and string calculations. As mentioned earlier, it is
always a good practice to declare the data type of your variable
else the VBA tool will assign the data type as variant and the
variant results in time-consuming checks and this ultimately
uses memory. One good way to force yourself to declare the
data types of the variables is to write the following statement
as the first statement in your VBA module:

This statement forces you to declare all data types of your

variables, as it will throw a compile error if any variable is left
undeclared.
A variable is using declared by using the Dim statement.
Let’s look at some examples:
 All the variables in the above example have been defined a particular
data type apart from the variable "X". The variable X will, however, be
treated as a variable.
Apart from Dim, to declare variables we can use three other keywords:
Private
Static
Public

Let’s look at an example to get a good picture of the declarations of the

data type of variables.

When the above VBA code is executed, a message is prompted

on the screen. The message box is as follows:
 Chapter 2: Strings
Playing with characters

Now let’s have fun by playing with the strings in the VBA tool. Strings
fundamentally compromise of characters that are arranged in a
sequence. The characters in the string can consist of alphabets, special
characters, numbers or any of these. The characters in the string must be
enclosed with double quotes.

There are numerous functionalities of the string. The table below

displays some of the functions that are performed on strings.

Function name Returns

Str() A string
representation of a
number

Val() A numerical
representation of a
number
Trim() To remove spaces
in a string
Left() To get a portion of
the string from the
left side

Right() To extract a
portion from the
right side
 Mid() To extract any part
of the string
Len() To retrieve the
number of
characters in the
string

StrCov() To convert the

string to some
other format

UCase() Convert all

characters to
uppercase

LCase() Convert all

characters to lower
case

The Excel VBA handles two types of strings:

Fixed-Length Strings
Variable-Length Strings
As far as the fixed-length strings are concerned, they mainly contain a
fixed number of characters. The maximum number of characters they
can store is 65,526. The second type of string is the Variable-Length
String. The variable-length string can store a massive number of
characters. Whenever you declare a string, it's always a good practice to
declare the maximum length of the string otherwise the VBA tool will
handle it on its own. Below is an example of declaring a fixed length
string.
Let’s write a macro code and play with some functionalities of the
string. I would like to call the procedure as “Play_With_Strings”.

Now let's decode it step-by-step. The first four statements in the

procedure are the part where the variables are declared. All the first
three variables have been set as strings and the last one has been
declared as an integer. Now after the variable declaration section, we
begin by assigning values to the variables. I first stored a name in the
Name variable. Now next I wanted to find out the location of the space
between my first name and the last name. Space is located through the
InStr() function. The InStr() has three input parameters. The first
parameters decide from where position should the function start
searching in the string. The second parameter is the string that needs to
be traversed,and finally, the third parameter defines what needs to be
searched. In this example, in the variable value "Anum Haroon", we
want to search the location of the space. Once this is found out, the
value is stored in SpaceLoc variable. Now we want to retrieve the first
and last name and then store in the variables respectively. To do this we
will be using the Left() and Mid() function of the string. The Left()
function has two inputs. The first input is the string whereas the second
input defines the position till where the string needs to be extracted. So
by passing the SpaceLoc and the Name variable we can get the first
name. To get the last name, we will be using the Mid() function. The
Mid() Function has three inputs that are the string, the start, and the end
position. We will be passing the name variable, the SpaceLoc position
and then the end position which is basically equal to the string length.
The last statement is written in the VBA Code to generate an output on
the screen. We will again be binding the VBA code to a button. Once the
button is executed, the following values will pop up on the screen.

Not too bad prospective Programmers! You now must be having a good
understanding of how you can play with the string functions. String
function can be convenient especially when you have to manipulate
large datasets. Instead of retrieving all the functionality manually you
can write a macro code, bind it with a button and you're good to go.
 Chapter 3: VBA Macros
Jumping to an advanced level

So far, we have covered some basics of the VBA Macros. We will now
be pacing up our game by jumping over to an advanced level.
VBA Macros has considerably made the lives of excel users easy. With
the implementation of VBA Macros in your worksheet, you can
significantly save up time by automating your operations of excel.
Instead of working on large data sets manually, formatting thousands of
records, applying formulas to manipulate data, you can write a VBA
Macro, bind it with the excel sheet and do all the operations within
seconds.

In the section, we will be working on some examples of VBA Macros.

This section will compromise of the following subtopics:

Worksheet Ranges
Exploring some Excel Settings
Pacing up your VBA Code

***
 Worksheet Ranges

The VBA programming has got a lot to do with the ranges on the
worksheet. The following points need to be kept in mind whenever we
are working with range objects:

If you are not associating the worksheet name to the range in your code,
then you must ensure that the sheet on which you want your macros to
run must be in the active state

Excel gives the users the ability to select multiple ranges

The Macro recorder doesn’t always create the best code. You can always
edit the Macro generated code to make it more efficient
One of the most frequently used operations of the Excel Macros is
copying a range. If you are using the macro recorder to generate you a
code while copying a range, you will get the below code.

One other operation of the range function is the Selection ability. We

often want to select a block of cells and then do some operations on it.
Instead of giving reference to each cell, we can collectively refer the
entire block of cells in one statement. Please find below an example of
the Selection operation on the range statement.

In the above code, the VBA procedure is beginning to select the cells
from the active cell. It is then extending the range until a blank cell
arises.

One other exciting feature of VBA Macros is the selection of the entire
column or the entire row. The following is an example of the selection
of the entire row.
Similarly, the entire column functionality of excel can also be used to
select the entire column.
***

Exploring some Excel Settings

The operation of some procedures in Excel Macros can be

changed by one or more Excel’s settings. One interesting
setting is the Boolean setting. In this setting, you give a False
or a True value to the excel procedure and then the setting is
altered accordingly. Let's look at an example. In Excel Macros,
you can give page breaks on your worksheet. You can turn on
the Page break feature of excel by passing a real value to the
DisplayPageBreaks procedure.

Similarly, we can turn off this feature by passing a false value.

***

Pacing up your VBA Code

VBA is a first way to perform data manipulations on your worksheet. In

this section, we will be discussing some useful tips to further optimize
the VBA Code to pace your operations.
One feature of excel is that whenever you execute the Excel Macros, the
updates are visible on the screen. This, however, can have an impact on
the performance of your code. You can, however, disable the setting. To
do this, write down the below code.

This will turn off the screen updates while the Macros is being executed.
To turn on the feature again, execute the below code.

One other way to speed up your Macros is by disabling the automatic

calculation feature. If there are a lot of complicated formulas on your
worksheet, by setting the calculation mode to the manual can
significantly speed up things in your code. Execute the below statement
to make the calculation manual.

Macros display alerts messages to the users while the code is being
executed. In this case, if the Excel is unattended and the Macros is
executing then the alert message will bring the code to a halt. They
require the humans to respond to the alert messages. However, there is
an option to disable the alert messages so that the Macros is not brought
to a halt.

You can also turn the alerts by writing a statement at the end of your
code. To do this, we will just change the DisplayAlerts statements to a
True condition.
Another to pace up the speed of your Macro Program is to ensure that
you declare variables at the start of your code. It is imperative that you
declare the data type of all the variables. Although Excel doesn't throw
an error if a variable's data type is left undefined but Excel won't know
the exact size of the variable. As a result of this, Excel might assign
space much more extensive than what it is required. This will result in
extra memory consumption and can also decrease the performance of
your code.
 Chapter 4: Loops
Repeating blocks of VBA

Loops are essential as they make macros more capable and they also
make the code easier to write. Instead of writing numerous statements
for every cell on the worksheet, loops help to simplify your code.
Several types of loops are supported in VBA.
For-Next loop in the programming language is referred to as the
simplest type of loop. There is a control variable that acts as a counter to
the loop condition. The counter begins from the start value and
continues to be executed till the end value is reached. Code that is
written between the For statement and the next statement is repeated in
the loop. Let’s look at an example.
In the above example, we are performing a multiplication operation in
the For-Next Loop. The counter will begin from 1 and continue to
execute till the counter value is reached 50. There is the only statement
written in the For-Next loop. The statement multiplies the counter value
with the Product value and stores it in the Product variable. When the
For-Next loop counter value is reached till 50, the Product value will be
displayed on the screen. However, it is not advisable to change the
counter value in the For-Next Statement as it can generate unpredictable
results. For-Next loop can also include Exit statement within the block.
The Exit statements are placed in the For-Next block to terminate the
loop immediately.
In the following example, an Exit Statement has been inserted in the
For-Next loop.
The MsgBox will display the value of i. The value of i is incremented.
As shown in the above example, when the value of I will be equal to 4,
the code will enter in the if statement. In the if statement, the value of i
is first multiplied by 10 and then it will be printed on the screen. Soon
after this, an exit statement will be executed which will end the loop
immediately. When the above code is executed, the following output
will be displayed on the screen sequentially.
The exit statements can be beneficial especially when we want to handle
exceptions or errors in our code. If for example, there is a chance that a
garbage value can come in a specific variable. I don't handle the garbage
value, there is a chance that loop will be executed till infinity. This can
result in memory overload. To cater to this scenario, the exit statements
are placed so that the loop is terminated immediately.
Another type of loop is the Nested For-Next loop. The nested statement
comes in handy when you want to loop through tabular data or
multidimensional data. A table has data placed in both columns and
rows. One loop is used to traverse through the columns whereas the
other loop can be used to traverse through the rows. This is how you use
the nested For-Next loop.In the following example, we will be filling up
data in both the rows and the columns.
In this example, we will be filling up a 3 columns x 3 rows table. The
outer for loop fills up the data in the columns whereas the inner for loop
fills up the data in the rows. The output of the code can be seen below.

Another type of looping structure which is supported the VBA is the

Do-While loop. The statements in the Do-While will keep on executing
repeatedly until the mentioned conditioned is fulfilled.

In the above example, a Do-While loop is inserted. The Do statement

checks whether the active cell is empty or not. If the cell is not empty,
the active cell is multiplied by and then the next cell is select. Whenever
the code will encounter an empty cell, the do-while loop will break. One
should always ensure that there should be some break statement in the
loop else the loop will keep on executing till infinity. This, however, can
result in memory overflow. Loops considerably save up the space of the
code and make it look compact and less complicated. However, loop
statements do not reduce the time the code takes to execute.
 Chapter 5: Arrays
Storing collection of elements

Arrays are usually supported by all programming languages. Arrays are

also supported by VBA thus making life easier for programmers. An
array is used where we want to collect data of similar type into one
single variable. In an array, data is stored in a sequential manner. Each
element in the array is provided an index number. The index number can
be stated as a reference to the elements stored in the array. For example,
we can define an array to store the names of the days of the week. If the
array is named as Weekdays, the first element in the array will be stated
as Weekdays(1). Similarly, the second element will be stated as
Weekdays(2), the third as Weekdays(3) and so on.In order to use the
array, it is mandatory to first declare the data type of array. VBA does
not give us the flexibility to leave an array undeclared. Just like other
regular variables, an array can be declared by either using a Dim
statement or a Public statement. However, one additional thing about the
array is that you need to mention the number of elements the array will
hold. The syntax for declaring an array can be seen below.

You declare the first index number, the keyword To and then finally the
last index number. All this is enclosed inside the parentheses. One
flexibility VBA offers is that you don't necessarily have to mention the
lower index every time. In this case, VBA assumes that the lower index
is 0. For example, the above statement can also be written as:
VBA by default assumes the lower index to be zero. However, if you
don’t want VBA to assume the lower index to zero, you can use the
Option Base statement to force VBA to change the lower index
accordingly. For example, if you want VBA to assume the lower index
to be always set to 1 then you should write:

You also need to ensure that this statement is written before the
declaration of the array.
So far, we have discussed one-dimensional arrays. A more natural
explanation of the one-dimensional array is a single line of a value of
the same data type. When we want to have more than one dimension in
an array, this is known as the multi-dimensional array. VBA can handle
up to 60 dimensions in the multi-dimensional array. However, this is a
sporadic case in which 60 dimensions are being used in the VBA code.
A multidimensional array is also declared using the Dim statement.

This is a multi-dimensional array. The first index of the multi-

dimensional array ranges from 1 to 10, whereas the range for the second
index is from 1 to 100. This results in the declaration of 1000 elements
in the array. The numbers are stored in a tabular arrangement of 10 rows
x 100 columns. To refer any element in the array, you have to mention
two index number. The first index number will be the row and the
 second index number will be the column. For example, if we want to
assign a value to the element in the 2nd row and 4th column, we will
write it as:

The value 10 will be stored in the element of the array that is placed in the
2nd row and 4th column. Dynamic arrays are also supported by VBA. The
advantage about using a dynamic array is that you don't have to declare the
number of elements it will hold at the start of your code. The array size is
declared at runtime. Dynamic arrays help to save memory.
 Chapter 6: Functions
Performing Specific Tasks

Let's first define what exactly is a function. A function can be called a

procedure that performs some sort of calculation. A function returns a
single value. Let's take an example, the Sum function will return the
sum of the values that it will intake. Similarly, in VBA macros the
function undergoes a specific calculation and then finally return a single
value.
The function that you utilize in your VBA code primarily comes from
three areas:
Worksheet functions
Some Built-in functions
Customize functions that are defined according to your needs

***
Playing with built-in functions

Well the good thing about using VBA is that it has made the life of
programmer easy by defining some built-in Functions. You don’t have
to write every function from the scratch. You just need to know the
exact name of the function and Voila!
Let’s look at some built-in functions of the VBA tool.
The above procedure has been created to display the system date. In this
scenario, we have used the built-in excel function, Date. The Date
function doesn’t require any input arguments. We can also retrieve the
time by writing Time instead of Date. Time again is also a built-in
function of the excel tool.
Let’s look at another example

In the above example, we wanted to retrieve the string length of the

name. We, therefore, used the excel built-in function, Len().
If we want to retrieve the year or the month from the system date.
In the above procedure, we are basically using the Built-in Month
function to retrieve the Month from the System Date. Further, we are
also using the MonthName Function in order to display the month
name.
There are specific functions in the VBA tool that come up with some
additional functionalities. For example, the MsgBox is a convenient
function. Every time a user uses the MsgBox function in its Macros, a
screen is popped up at whatever line it is executed. This MsgBox can be
very handy to prompt the user about the values that are stored in the
variables. Moreover, it also helps to debug the code and find out any
potential errors in the code. There is another convenient function which
is known as the InputBox function. The InputBox function gives the
user the capability to enter a value into a simple box that is displayed.
The value that is retrieved through the InputBox can be further
manipulated in the macros that we have written.
The VBA tool facilitates the user with lots of built-in functionality. The
question is that how do you locate those functions? Well, that's not an
issue at all. You can retrieve a list of all the built-in function by typing
VBA followed by a period as shown in the diagram below
In order to find out the details linked to a particular function, enter the
name of the function in the VBA module, move the pointer on the text
and then press F1. You will be prompted with a new window screen and
help wizard will open up.
Although the list of inbuilt functions is exceptionally long, I have
compiled some important ones in the table below.

***
Exploring the worksheet functions

One other interesting feature of the Excel VBA is the worksheet

functions. A worksheet is an area where the cells are placed and the data
is manipulated on the cells. In a nutshell, the worksheet is the
workspace where basically all the calculations and the manipulations
take place. When we are accessing functions using the
"WorksheetFunction" expression, the manipulation or calculation is
performed on the active sheet. By active sheet, I basically mean the
sheet that is currently open on the screen.
Let’s look at an example of a worksheet’s sum function.

In the above example, "Total_Amount" is the variable in which the sum

of the cells is being stored. Range("B1: B3") refers to the cells on the
worksheet of which the sum has to be taken. VBA also gives the user's
to access the Sum function directly either from the Application part of
the WorksheetFunction part. VBA has the ability to figure out what
exactly you are performing. Smart Right? The following three
statements have exactly the same output.

I personally prefer to perform my calculations using the

WorksheetFunction to have a better understanding of the code that is
executing. Let’s look at some more Worksheet Functions.

To calculate the Min Value in a range

In the above example, the Minimum value is calculated from the range
of cells from B1 till B10. The value is stored in the variable MinNum.
The output of the above expression can be seen in the diagram below

Similarly, you can also calculate the maximum value from the Range
using the Max() function of the worksheet.

Vlookup Function
If you have ever interacted with an excel programmer, I am sure you
must have heard about the Vlookup Function. You can never be an
Excel Guru if you don't know how to implement the Vlookup Function.
Vlookup is a potent function as it can help you the exact information
from a table of any size. The Vlookup Function intakes four
parameters. The first parameter represents the item that needs to be
searched in the table. For example, in the below example we are looking
for the product B. The second Parameters represents the range in which
it needs to be looked up, the third parameter represents the column
number that we want to return as a result, and finally, the four parameter
intakes a true or a false value. The true value tells the vlookup to return
a value that can be an approximate match whereas the false value tells
the vlookup to only return a value when there is an exact match. In the
following example, the user will be entering the product name in order
to retrieve its price from the table. The product name will be entered
using the InputBox Function. The price of the product will then be
displayed on the output screen using the MsgBox Function.

As shown in the below diagram, the input box is prompted on the screen
when the Macros is executed.

In the example, the Product B was Entered. On pressing the Ok button,

the Output was displayed.
The Input was passed to the Vlookup Function. The Vlookup Function
traversed on the Product B and returned the Price of the Product.
 Conclusion
And We are almost done!

By the end of this chapter, you must have become very much familiar
with the Excel VBA. In this section, I will just briefly gives some
essential guidelines.
It is always a good practice to declare your variables at the start of your
code. Leaving your variables undefined will only save you from few
seconds but later on, you will have to bear with the consequences. So
make a habit to declare all the variables at the start. This will
significantly impact on your code quality.
Once you are done finalizing your code and everything is running
perfecting, make sure you do the last minute cleanup of your code.
Make sure all the code lines are indented. This will help you understand
your code better when you will review it later. Make sure all your
variables are declared and the description of the variable should be
relevant to their actual operation. For example, if a variable will be
holding Amount in it so a good practice it is to name it as "Amount"
rather than naming it as XYZ. It is always a good practice to add
comments in your code. Do a quick check to remove any redundancy in
your code.

As Macros can compromise multiple procedures, therefore you

shouldn't avoid putting all the calculations in one procedure. For
example, the procedure for calculating Sum should be in a separate
procedure. The procedure for converting string values to date value
should be in a separate procedure and so on.
One last advice is to make sure that you take a backup of your code
every now and then. It takes an effort to make a correct macro code and
there is always a chance that your Excel Workbook can get corrupted.
So to save yourself from all the re-work, make sure to take a backup
after every few days.
 EXCEL
MACROS
Programming For Complete Beginners, Step-By-Step Illustrated

Guide to Master Excel Macros

Introduction
Getting Started!

The aim of this book is to provide complete information about the

Macros in excel. Starting from the very basic explanation of Macros,
we will dig deeper, step by step in each chapter briefly detailing all the
important properties of Macros and what you need to know to get
started in this domain.

A very disciplined approach is taken for writing this book which will
be very easy for readers to understand, who we assume are very new
to this topic. We will explore all the areas relating to Macros and will
also go in to the VBA(Visual Basic for applications). We will also
mention some important techniques for recording Macros and how
Macros are actually stored in excel(Which format?).

After reading this book, the reader will have complete knowledge
about Macros, VBA(Visual Basic for Applications), the relationship
between VBA and Macros, what is the difference between Absolute
Macro recording and Relative Macro Recording, what are VBA Excel
Objects, how to send an e-mail directly from Microsoft excel and a
dedicated chapter defining a complete approach for debugging. Apart
from this many other small level details will also be explained, so that
our reader doesn’t feel the need to google anything and deviate from
the actual topic.

Chapter 1: What are Macros?

Macros

A macro is basically a program/action which is a replacement for recurring

mouse or keyboard actions in Microsoft Excel. Macros are used to help
save the time of users by automating some repetitive tasks that you have to
do over and over again. In Excel, creating a Macro which is also termed as
recording a macro is done using Macro recorder. The recorded Macros are
written in Visual basic for Applications(VBA). For now, you only need to
know that VBA is a programming language which is used for creating
Macros. Since Excel is a Microsoft product, VBA is also developed by
Microsoft.
More brief definition of a Macro
Now you have a basic idea about Macros. You know that they are written in
VBA, but how can a person specifically define a Macro to a professional
person. For example, you cannot say that Macro is a VBA. We all know
Macros are written in VBA but professionally the correct way to define a
Macro to a technical person or programmer is: “Macros are Visual Basic
procedures that are used to automate tasks in Excel, saving users time and
efforts”.
Macro Recorder
One way of creating Macros is by writing instructions or by coding directly
in VBA editor. This approach is used by developers who are properly aware
of Macros and are familiar with coding to a great extent.

Another approach is used to generate VBA code automatically. This

approach is useful for novice users who are not familiar about coding
or syntax of the VBA. This approach is achieved through Macro
Recorder. As you interact with data in the excel, the Macro recorder
examines your actions and them automatically generates VBA code
respectively.
For further convenience, we can link the macros to different keyboard
shortcuts. In this way, the keyboard shortcuts will act as commands for
triggering a Macro.
Is Macro Recorder enough for all our automation needs?
Now, one might ask, if you have Macro Recorder, what is the purpose of
manually giving instructions for a Macro in a VBA editor? The answer to
this is very simple but is of immense importance if you want to know about
significance of coding in Macros: There are certain functionalities which
Macro Recorder cannot record or provide automatically. For example,
Macro Recorder cannot provide loop functions and screen prompts. To
achieve this functionality, you need to code in VBA editor.
Chapter 2: Getting Started with VBA
VBA (Visual Basic for Applications)

VBA is a programming language that is developed by Microsoft, in

Excel the Macros are programmed in this language. So, it is very
important for you to know about VBA because you will be spending
most of the time coding Macros in this language.

Now before moving further, you should know that the VBA is not
limited or restricted to Microsoft Excel only, it is also very
consistently used with applications like MS-word and MS-
Access(Microsoft’s own database Application).
What can you do with VBA?
Some tasks require complex calculations which cannot be satisfied with in-
built functions of Excel. This is where VBA plays its part, you can write set
of instructions for performing calculations and create Macros comprising of
these instructions. You can use these Macros again and again as long as it
satisfies your needs. This would not be possible without the ability to build
customize Macros.

Creating custom commands, new spreadsheet functions and functions

for performing repetitive and frequent actions, all of this can be done
by coding Macros using VBA.
Using the VBA
As mentioned before, all of the coding is done in VBA editor. To open VBA
editor from Excel, just press ‘Alt+F11’ and a new window will open as
shown in the figure below:

This is where you will write your Macros. When inside VBA editor,
click on ‘insert’. Few options will be displayed in a drop-down list.
From the drop-down list select the ‘Module’ option. This will open a
new window. In this window, you will write your Macro commands.
Don’t worry, we don’t expect that you will write commands yet. We
just wanted to show you the place in the editor where we will be
writing our Macro commands.
Now, since you know how to open VBA editor and ‘Module’ for
typing Macro commands, its time that we learn about the developer
option.
The developer option
Before we start programming in VBA, we need to do one more step: Enable
the Developer option. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Open a workbook in Excel.

2. Right click on the ribbon inside Excel workbook.

3. Click on customize ribbon.

4. Check the developer option.

As you can see in the picture given below, we have checked the
developer option.

Shortcut for opening VBA editor

Earlier we showed you a shortcut for opening VBA editor, a different
way, which takes couple of more steps, is to click on the ‘developer’ in
the workbook ribbon, then click on the Visual Basic button, resulting
in the opening of new window in VBA editor.

(Shortcut: Alt+F11)
Examples of function procedures
Here we shall look at the method of writing function procedures. Function
procedures are very helpful in VBA code as they can be written to return a
value and can be called as many times as you like.

To write a function we use the reserved keyword “Function” followed

by a user-given name. An argument can also be passed to the function.
An argument is basically a parameter with which we can interact with
inside the function body to generate some useful result.
For example:

Function sum(a, b)
sum = a+b

End function

The function in the above code takes two parameters ‘a’ and ‘b’, adds
them and stores the result in a variable called Sum.

With the above example, you must have had an idea about importance
of function parameters. You can pass as much as 255 arguments to a
function or you can pass non. That’s right, you can even write a
function without giving an argument.

Example of sub-procedure
Referring to an object inside the sub-procedure
Excel VBA contains a very interesting function called “HasFormula”. This
“HasFormula” lets you know that whether a specific cell inside the excel
workbook contains a formula or not. If the cell contains a formula, it returns
true, otherwise it returns false.

Sub check ()
Dim checkFormula As Boolean
checkFormula = Range(“B1:B2”).HasFormula
MsgBox checkFormula
End Sub

In the above check() sub procedure, first of all we defined a variable

with ‘checkFormula’ type ‘Boolean’ and then used ‘.HasFormula’ with
the Range(“B1:B2”) which returns true or false depending on whether
or not the cells B1 and B2 contain a value or not. MsgBox is another
function which is used for displaying values.
Referring to property of the object ‘Columns’
We shall study about Excel objects in detail in the chapter 6. We shall write
a function that sets the value of a specific range to “”, i.e. It clears the
contents of a particular range.

Function clearRange()
Columns.(“A:A”).clear

End Function

The second line in the above function clear the contents of the cell :
“A”.
 Chapter 3: Macro Security
At this stage, you have a basic concept about Macros and VBA. In this
book, we will be moving very slowly towards more advanced topics,
addressing all the aspects of every single topic.
Macro security is very easy yet very sensitive topic. The reason it is
considered sensitive is because if not understood properly it can be
dangerous for your computer because without proper security you can
get viruses through Macros, which ultimately can take the control of
your whole computer and can harm your privacy.
Security settings
Inside Excel workbook under the ‘developer’, there is an option called
‘Macro Security’. Click on the ‘Macro Security, and a new window will
appear with a list of options. The name of this window is Trust Center,
highlighted as shown below.
Trusted Locations
In ‘Trust Locations’, all of your trusted locations for opening files will be
listed. If you want to add a new location, always make sure that the new
location is trustable and secure. Otherwise you can get dangerous malware
and viruses from unknown sources. Never add unknown location for
opening files, if you want to have a secure and computer-friendly
environment (who d0esn’t want it).
Storing macros in your Personal Macro Workbook
To store the Macros in your personal Macro Workbook, first you need to
create a Macro. To create a Macro go to ‘Developer’ tab. Under the
‘Developer’ tab click on ‘Record Macro’. You will be asked to type in the
name for your Macro to save in the workbook as shown in the figure below.

You will see a text field as shown in the figure above that says, “This
workbook”. Since we want to store the macro in our personal
workbook, we will click on the list for it to drop down. Then click on
Personal Macro Workbook and then press ‘OK’. Now as the name is
set we shall perform actions which we want to store in the Personal
Macro Workbook. After that click on Stop Recording under the
‘Developer’ tab as shown in the figure given below.
Now close this workbook and you will be asked if you want to save
the changes. Click on ‘save’. You have successfully stored Macro to
your Personal Workbook.
Macro settings
Another very important option inside the trusted window is ‘Macro
settings’. This option gives you variety of choices as shown below in the
figure:

Now we will explain the options in Macro settings:

Disable all Macros with notification

With this option Macros will be disabled, but you will be alerted if
there are any security notifications regarding Macros that are present.

Disable all Macros without notification

All the security notifications and all the Macros are disabled with this
option

Disable all Macros except digitally signed Macros

Macros are disabled, but if the Macros is signed by a trusted published
then it will run.
Enable all Macros (not recommended)

With this option you can run all types of Macros whether trusted or
not. This setting is usually not recommended as it makes our machine
vulnerable to viruses and malware software.
Chapter 4: Recording your first Macro
If you have understood the VBA then this is just piece of cake for you.
Recording the Macro doesn’t mean that you will write the code in
VBA and it will show the output in Excel workbook. The latter is true
that the output will be showed in the Excel workbook, but prior is
partially true. We said partially because ultimately VBA code is
responsible for Macro behavior, but you will not write it. It will be
automatically written.
Steps to record your first Macro
Now before we start, we would like to mention something here, the steps
we follow will create a Macro which will do a task we want Excel to do.
You can follow any steps you want as long as you understand the
concept(how to record and use Macro).

1. Go to ‘developers’ tab.

2. Click on ‘Record Macro’

3. When the Macro has been clicked, any action you perform will be
monitored by Excel and will be converted to VBA code.

4. In this example, we will be determining Annual pay of person. We

will use a formula called ‘product’ which you all are aware of: It
multiplies two quantities.

5. While the Macro is recording, we will perform steps as shown in the

figure given below.

6. After we have performed these steps, we will stop recording and

save our macro.

7. Create a shortcut for your Macro. The shortcut will be of your

choice, so you can choose any shortcut. For this example, we will be
choosing ‘Ctrl+c’ as our shortcut key for calling our Macro.
Running a Macro
Once we have saved the Macro, now we can call the Macro using our
shortcut key. As soon as we shall press ‘Ctrl+c’, all the steps you did while
recording Macro will be repeated and you will see the output on the Excel
sheet.

We mentioned earlier that all of the moves that you do while recording
Macro are converted to VBA code. So, where is this VBA code? This
VBA code is stored in Module.
As shown below, following are the lines that were generated while I
was performing steps during Macro Recording.

The above window shows the operations performed during Recording

converted to VBA commands. Two words are highlighted, these show
the name of the Macro. Active Cell refers the current cell where
pointer is pointing.
Assigning a macro to a button
Follow these steps to create your first Macro and assign it to a button:
1. Inside the ‘developer’ Tab, click on insert.

2. Click on the button as shown below.

3. Then left-click once, then should be able to see a button as follows:

4. Right-click on by keeping the mouse arrow on the button.

5. Select properties.
6. Select the name of the button and its caption. What you write in the
caption will appear on the button.

7. As an example, here is the name and caption of my button.

8. Now left-click on the button twice and a new window will open in VBA
editor. This is where you can code yourself in the sub-procedure which will
take the commands. For example, you can write the code that what happens
when you click the button. This is just one of the possibilities, you can
make it perform several other tasks as well. Again, it all depends on you,
you can write code according to your needs.
9. Add any command, for your learning, I have added a simple
command which will show a message “This button is clicked”,

whenever anyone clicks the button.

10. Now if you have created a button and want to delete, whatever the
reason, you can do so easily by clicking on the ‘design mode’ under
the ‘developer’ and then selecting the button and pressing the
following keyboard button “delete”. There you go, button deleted.

After following all these steps, you have successfully created your first
Macro. It was easy, wasn’t it? If you keep following all the steps
systematically and keep learning patiently then you will be able to
master all Macro techniques easily.
Saving a Macro-Enabled Work Book
When we work with Macros inside the Excel, we need to save the
workbook in a Macro-enabled format. The reason for this is that it provides
an added security from external threats. To do that first we have to click on
‘file’ tab on the top left of the screen. Now if you move down some options
you will see an option that says, “save as”. Click on it and then you will be
asked to select the location for saving the macro. Choose any location
according to your need or priority. Once you have selected a location, click
on the drop-down list as shown in figure below.

Click on the format that says, ‘Excel Macro-Enabled

Workbook(*.xlsm)’. You have successfully saved a Macro enabled
file.
Chapter 5: Absolute vs. Relative Macro
Recording
If you performed the Macro Recording activity in the “Recording your
first Macro”, you may have noticed that no matter how many time you
run the Macro it always occupied the first four rows. It didn’t matter
where you pointed in the Excel worksheet, no matter which cell you
are pointing, whenever we ran the Macro, it filled first four rows.
Now, this is approach might not be effective as in worksheet you have
to deal with large amounts of data and therefore, you cannot keep the
number of rows fixed. You may have to work on 1000’s of rows or
may be even more. We need something that can put data relative to
previous data. This is where the concept of Relative and Absolute
Macro recording steps in. Here we will briefly explain both
approaches and guide you which approach is the best one.
Absolute Macro Recording
In absolute Macro Recording, actual references of the cells are recorded.
This means whenever you will run the Macro with absolute references it
will affect the fixed references only. Those fixed references are the
references provided while you were recording Macro. Affection of the fixed
reference means actual cells are affected every time whenever you run
Macro.
Relative Macro Recording
In Relative Macro Recording, it doesn’t matter which cell references you
interact with during the Macro Recording. When you will run the Macro
after saving it, it will affect those cells which you are pointing to currently
or it will affect cells relatively from original cells.
Which approach is best?
Without a doubt Relative Macro recording is feasible for us because
absolute Macro recording is of no use as it keeps updating the same cells
again and again. Relative in the other hand affects cells relatively. It doesn’t
keep updating or writing the same cells again and again. So, the choice is
easy, Relative Macro Recording is more helpful compare to Absolute
Macro Recording.
How to perform Relative Macro Recording?
For this purpose, you just have to perform one step before starting Macro
recording. Click on the ‘Use Relative Reference’ under the ‘developer’ tab.
When you will run Macro after saving it, it won’t update the same cells
again and again. If you don’t use the relative approach, then for absolute
recording, you don’t have to do anything, it automatically does absolute
Macro recording. Check out the figure below for further assistance in
Relative Macro

recording:
Example of Relative Macro recording
The beauty of relative Macro recording is that you can run the Macro
anywhere in the sheet, it will execute and show the results in the cells that
you have selected(currently).

Here is an example in which we create a Macro in the cells: F6, G6

and H6 and generate the result in some other row or specifically in
three cells other than these.

Steps:
1. Go to ‘Developer’ tab.

2. Under ‘Developer’ tab, click on ‘Use Relative References’.

3. Click on ‘Record Macro’.

4. When you click on ‘Record Macro’, a new window will open as

shown in the figure below that will ask you about Macro name and
where you want to store the Macro.
5. Now click on any cells you wish to update and write something in
them.

6. We chose the cells ‘F6, G6, H6’ and wrote something as shown in
figure below:
7. After you are done updating cells, click on stop recording. You have
successfully saved a relative Macro.
8. Again under ‘Developer’ tab, click on Macros. A window will open
as shown below. Click on run Macro.

9. It doesn’t matter which cell you have selected; three cells will be
updated in row with the cell you have selected.
 Chapter 6: VBA Excel Objects
If you are familiar with programming languages like Java and C++
then these topics will be very easy for you. VBA Excel object is used
for the same purpose for which we use object in Java or C++. So,
learning VBA Excel objects for you wouldn’t be difficult. The only
thing you need to learn is the syntax for calling the objects. As for my
readers who are novice to this topic, you don’t have to worry as I will
be explaining everything briefly relating to objects and their purpose.
So, keep on reading to grasp this concept like an expert.

Excel objects
The reason for all the explanation was to help you understand Excel
objects properly in an effortless manner. As we said, objects perform
some tasks. There are some objects inside Excel that perform tasks
that are very useful to us.
Excel is an object too!
As mentioned above objects perform tasks for you. Here, the whole Excel
application is an object too. It performs variety of tasks for us. Excel
performs tasks like creating graphs or charts, organizing data, providing the
ability to users to access Excel file from a range of different device, from
different locations!
We also mentioned that an object can contain other objects. Same is
the case for Excel. An Excel is an object which contain other objects.
We shall present a list four objects that are very popular in Excel. We
shall also be explaining in these concepts.

Following is the hierarchy of objects in Excel that a user will deal

with, during most of his/her time spent on Excel:
1. Application Objects
2. Workbook Objects
3. Worksheet Objects
4. Range Objects
(https://www.tutorialspoint.com/vba/vba_excel_objects.htm)

All of the objects are under the Application object. To call an object
that is under Application object, you have to use ‘.’. You cannot call
an object directly using Application object, you can call it with the
reference of previous object which has to be called too.

To get to a workbook that is named ‘workbook’ you have to write the

following line:
Application.Workbooks(“workbook.xlsx”)

Similarly, to open a specific worksheet in a workbook write the

following line:
Application.Workbooks(“workbook.xlsx”).Worksheets(1)

The 1 inside the Worksheets parenthesis is used when there is only one
worksheet in a workbook.

Now suppose you want to retrieve a value from a cell named “B3”,
then you have to move further down the hierarchy to get this value.
You need to write the following line in VBA to access this value:
Application.Workbooks(“workbook1.xlsx”).Worksheets(1).Range(“A1”).Value
Example of uses of an object
As mentioned earlier, each object has its own methods and properties. The
methods are basically the functions which an object performs. Here we will
give you an example on how to create a new worksheet in Excel using the
object “Worksheets”.

Let’s create a new worksheet with name : “Hello”

Once inside VBA editor press “Ctrl+G”, it will open up an immediate

window in which you can start writing VBA code immediately. Write
following line:

Worksheets.Add().Name = "Hello"

Now press enter. Go to back to Excel and you will see a new
worksheet created under current workbook as shown in the
screenshot given below
Properties of objects
Every object performs some tasks and each object consists of qualities or
attributes that describe what the object is. For example, a car is an object
and its properties are engine, color, model etc.

Similarly, VBA objects have properties which describe them. With the
help of VBA we can modify the properties of settings. Confusing?
This example will clear your concept.

The ‘worksheets’ object has property ‘range’ and the range object has
the property value, written as:

Worksheets(“Book1”).Range(“A”).Value()
Now, value is a property of Range and we can play with its
characteristics. You can set the value of a cell using this property and
you can display this value in a message box using the function
‘MsgBox’.

To display the value, you can write the following code:

Sub displayValue()

Value = Worksheets(“book1”).Range(“A”).Value

MsgBox Value

End Sub
Similarly, to set a value of a cell you can write the following code:

Sub setValue()

Worksheets(“book1”).Range(“A”).Value = “Set Value”

End Sub
In the above example, we used the property value of the Range in two
ways:
1. To display the value

2. To set the value of the cell.

Chapter 7: Sending Email from Excel
The topic we are going to discuss in this chapter can be very useful
commercially if understood and applied in real-life situations properly.
Every one of you must have used email sending and receiving
platforms like Yahoo, G-mail, Hotmail, Outlook etc. But, have you
used Excel to send email to someone or have you sent bulk of emails
to same person at the same time? We assume your answer is :‘no’.
Well, in this chapter you will be expert in sending bulk of emails to
multiple people or even one person.
Again, we will be using Visual Basic to achieve this task. If you have
read this book from the very start, by this time you must be completely
aware of how important VBA programming in Excel is.
Steps for sending the email
First of all go to ‘Developers’ tab after opening Excel workbook. Click on
Visual Basic. A new window will open. Click on ‘Tools’ tab inside VBA.
Click on references. A new window will be displayed on your screen
containing bulks of libraries. Don’t be overwhelmed by a large number of
libraries. We will use only one of it.
Scroll down the ‘References-VBA project’ window. You will see a
library called Microsoft outlook 16.0(Version as of now) Object
Library. Check this Library and click ‘Ok’.

Now its time we actually start coding for sending an email to some
person/organization.

To do it first of all click on ‘Insert ’ in VBA window. In the drop-down

list click on ‘Module’. You have successfully created a module. Now
it’s time for writing some code!

Inside the Module, type in following code.

Sub SendMail()
Dim olApp As Outlook.Application

Dim olMail As Outlook.MailItem

Set olApp = New Outlook.Application

Set olMail = olApp.CreateItem(olMailItem)

With olMail

.To = ‘[email protected]’

.Subject = “Message from Excel”

.Body = “Body of the message”

.Display

‘ ’olMail.Send
End With

End Sub

When you write this code inside VBA and hit run, Excel will take you
through a series of steps for configuring the email from which you
want to send the email. After that email will be sent to the specific
email you typed inside VBA code in front of ‘.To’.
So, it was easy sending an email through VBA? Sending email to
many users is also easy you just add two more lines of code in the
above code and Taddaa! Its done.

We need to add a ‘loop’ to the code. For the readers from ‘non-
programming’ background, loop is just a statement in a code which
allows us to execute a specific section of code repeatedly as many
time as we like.
Coming back to our topic of sending bulk emails, following changing
in the above code can help you send emails to multiple receivers(99 in
our case):

Sub SendMail()

Dim olApp As Outlook.Application

Dim olMail As Outlook.MailItem

for i=2 To 100

Set olApp = New Outlook.Application

Set olMail = olApp.CreateItem(olMailItem)

With olMail

.To = Cells(i,1).Value

.Subject = Cells(i,2).Value

.Body = Cells(i,3).Value

.Display
‘ ’.Send
End With

End Sub
In the above code we applied Bold to some of the text to let you know
about the changing or difference between initial code and this code.
 Chapter 8: Debugging
As with all the chapters before, we shall begin this chapter by
discussing a couple of terminologies. We shall discuss debugging
Excel later in this chapter in detail. First of we should know what is
debugging and how its effects our coding or to be exact: our computer
program. Mind you, the concept of debugging is not limited to Excel.
It is applied to almost every program in the computer. Why do we
need it? Well, bear with me through this chapter and you will grasp the
concept of ‘Debugging’.

Debugging

Debugging is the process of removing “bugs” from computer programs that

are the reasons for deviation of computer programs from expected behavior.
Bugs
Definition from Wikipedia:
“A software bug is an error, flaw, failure or fault in a computer
program or system that causes it to produce an incorrect or
unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways. The process of
fixing bugs is termed "debugging" and often uses formal techniques or
tools to pinpoint bugs, and since the 1950s, some computer systems
have been designed to also deter, detect or auto-correct various
computer bugs during operations.”

The importance of debugging is obvious from the definitions and

explanations of both the “Bugs” and “Debugging”. Now, let’s jump
straight into “debugging in Excel”.
Debugging in Excel
The debugger tools in Excel allow us to pause program execution at any
stage and then check the value of variables and the continue executing the
program. Exciting, Isn’t it?

This can be done by using a breakpoint in the program. Setting a

breakpoint is very easy and doesn’t require any rocket science. All you
have to do is to move the cursor to the statement where you want to
pause the program’s execution and press F9.

Here
is an example of simple breakpoint in program:

The red circle at third line shows that a breakpoint has been set here.
When you run the program, the VBA editor halts program execution
when it reaches breakpoint. After you have checked your program, to
continue the execution, click on small green ‘play’ button to complete
the program’s execution and get normal output as always.
You can set the breakpoint of the program in another way, you can
write one word in the VBA editor Module to halt programs execution.
The word is: ‘Stop’. Write this word anywhere in the program where
you want to set the breakpoint. When the sequential execution of
program will reach this statement, our program will enter into
debugging code.
Moving down the code, statement by statement
When you set a breakpoint, the program halts its execution at the place
where it is set. Suppose you want to move through some section of code
step by step. This can be done by pressing F8. Each time you press F8, you
move to next step. This is very useful and fast way of debugging rather than
setting breakpoints at many points in the program!
 Conclusion
If you understood the major concepts behind all the chapters in this
book, you can call yourself the ‘Macro expert’. But we would
encourage you to practice the concepts conveyed in this book. By
practicing, you will better grasp complex concepts. As they say,
‘Practice makes a man perfect’. If you want to make yourself an expert
and perfect candidate for ‘Excel Macro’ jobs then you have to practice
the concepts repeatedly to get a strong grip on them.

In this book, we tried our best to explain concepts at the very basic
level. The purpose of explaining each and every step at the basic level
was to make a layman understand what Macros are and what are their
applications and how to apply them in real life. We tried our best to
cover all the major topics regarding ‘Excel Macros’ in this book.
 EXCEL
FORMULAS
AND FUNCTIONS

For Complete Beginners, Step-By-Step Illustrated Guide to Master

Formulas and Functions

 Introduction

Spreadsheets have been with us for a long time. The best-known and
most widely used spreadsheet is Microsoft Excel. Excel is easy to use
for most daily number crunching tasks and it comes with formulas and
functions that perform a host of tasks. Tasks such as summing,
manipulating text, averaging, comparing, answering what if
questions…

Assuming you know the meaning of such basic spreadsheet terms, as

row, column, and cell, and you know how to do such basic operations
as copy and paste, this little book will introduce you to a number of
the formulas and functions of Excel. It will give you the ability and
confidence to use them successfully.
 Chapter 1: What are formulas and functions?

A formula is an expression used to calculate the value in a cell.

For example, here is a very simple problem where A2 contains 5.7 and
B2 contains 6.4. The task is to put the products of these two numbers
in into cell C2. See diagram below.

We can do this by selecting c2 and writing the very simple formula =

A2*B2 then pressing enter [it does not matter if you write a2*B2,
A2*b2 or a2*b2, as uppercase and lower case letters are treated the
same when referring to columns].

When this is done it leads to the value of the product appearing in the
cell C2. [The word 'TEXT' and the expression fx = A2*B2, which are
shown in the diagram appear automatically. You can ignore them.]
Another simple example is adding the contents of the cells A2, A3,
A4, and putting the results in A5.

Again, we select A5 and write = A2+A3+A4.

After we press enter the result is obtained and ends up in A5.

So far so good, but what if you needed to add the contents of 100 cells.
It would take a long time to write = A2+A3+A4+ A5…… +A100 +
A101 and you would probably make an error.

Fortunately, the creators of Excel anticipated many needs of users

decades ago and created functions. For this particular problem, we use
the sum function.

Select cell c102 and type, '= SUM(a2:a101) '[this is called the
function declaration].

then press enter and cell a102 has the sum, which in this case was
6086.
A function is a predefined formula, which performs calculations with
the contents of cells.
Parameters
You may notice in the expression, '=SUM(a2:a101)' the interesting
phrase a2:a101. This is the range of the function. The range of a
function is the set of cells on which it acts. The range of the SUM
function is called its parameter, as it can vary. We will have different
ranges to which the SUM function is applied.

There are a vast number of functions in Excel, which you will become
familiar with as you master the use of this amazing tool. This little
book will look at some of the more important functions.
 Chapter 2: Text Formulas

The Excel TEXT formula or function is a most interesting one.

Date format

The Excel TEXT formula or function can be used to bring about

changes of date and number format. Here is an example, suppose we
wanted to change a column of dates in a certain format

and wish to change them into the form mm/dd/yyyy. In order to do

this, we use the Text function.
We can pick any column of 7 cells to put them in, so let's put them in
the column starting at a2. Select a2 and type the function declaration,'
=TEXT(b2,"mm/dd/yyyy") '
If you do this, Excel automatically offers you possible functions to
make your task easier. You are sensible to use them.

Once you filled the function in press enter and you will find the
correct expression in a2.
You can quickly fill in the rest of the column by using the 'handle' at
the side of a2.

Then drag down.

Currency
Another possible use of the TEXT function is to convert a column of
numbers
into currency format.

Note the first number is contained in e2. Suppose the new column will
start at f10. Select f10 and type the function declaration, ' =
TEXT(e2,"$##.##") '

Press enter.

Now use the handle and move down to get the remaining conversions.

TEXT can be used in many ways like the two examples shown.
If we look at the structure or syntax of the TEXT function through a
declaration, '=TEXT(e2,"$##.##")', we see the parameters of the
TEXT function are TEXT( value, format_text ). Value, as the contents
of cells, is values; format_text, as the function acts to change the
format of the value.
 Chapter 3: Comparison Formulas

Sometimes you wish to compare two columns.

You test whether two specific cells match with the IF function [We
will say more about this later]. Begin a formula with =IF( and enter
the two cell locations, with = between them. Put in a comma then
enter relevant text, in quotes, to show if the cells match. Put in another
comma and then the relevant text, in quotes, if there is a non-match.

Now press Enter to complete the formula.

Use the handle to complete the comparison.
 Chapter 4: Operators

Excel has operators in four categories. These are arithmetic operators,

comparison operators, text concatenation operators, and reference
operators.

The arithmetic operators are the usual +, -, × and ÷ operators except

that in Excel × is written as * and ÷ as/. There are two other important
arithmetic operators. These are % [percentage, which calculates a
percentage] and ^ [caret, this raises to powers. See below].

Press enter

The comparison operators are as they are in arithmetic and they are: >,
< , < , > , =, ≠, however Excel uses <= for < , >= for > and <> for ≠.

Text concatenation may be a new idea for some of you. There is only
one text concatenation operator and that is & [ampersand]. Here is
how it works, suppose you had the string [word], "nice" in a2 and
"cat" in b2
then = a2 & b2 gives "nicecat".

All this operator does is join words or strings into one word or string.

Another type of operator, which may be new to you is the type

referred to as a reference operator. Here are the reference operators.

: is the colon operator and refers to all references in a range from one
cell to another including the endpoints.

Example. a2:a4 refers to a2, a3, and a4.

, is the comma operator and joins two ranges together. Here is an

example a2: a4, b2: b4 refers to a2, a3, a4, b2, b3, b4. It is the
equivalent in mathematics of the union operator [ ].

Finally, we have the single space operator. This is just an empty space.
It produces references to common cells and ranges.

Example. a2:a4 a3:a5 gives a3, a4. Obviously, a3 and a4 are the only
common cells of the ranges a2, a3, a4 and a3, a4, a5. It is the
equivalent in mathematics of the intersection operator [ ∩ ].
A very important consideration in constructing formulas is the
precedence or order of operators, in order to get the correct result. All
formulas begin with = and if you are dealing with numbers the order is
similar to the order of arithmetical operators as described by
BEDMAS [Brackets → Exponents → Division and
Multiplication → Addition and Subtraction] or PEMDAS
[Brackets → Exponents → Multiplication and Division → Addition
and Subtraction] taught in high school.

Here is how the precedence of Excel operations works.

: [colon], single-space, , [comma], negation [as in -7], % [percentage],

^ [caret], * and/[neither is above the other], + and - /[neither is above
the other], & [ampersand], =, <,>,<=, >=,<> [comparison].
 Chapter 5: Absolute vs Relative Cell
References

When you working with Excel, you must know about what is called
relative vs. absolute cell reference.

The problem is this: if you COPY A FORMULA containing cell

references, generally the CELL REFERENCES CHANGE!
The diagrams below illustrate this.

Now copy these three cells to a1,b1,c1 and look what happens.

These cell references are named "relative" cell references, as they

change relative to where the formula is copied.

Sometimes, you don't want cell references altering when a formula is

copied. If that is the case then you use what is called absolute cell
references. In order to use absolute cell references, you put a "$"
before the column letter if you want that to always remain the same.
Similarly, you put a "$" in front of the row number if you want that to
remain the same.
The following diagrams should help you grasp this very important
idea.

In this diagram, we are using relative references. Now copy the cell
C2 to D3.

Note how the cells have changed from A1 B3 and B1 C3.

Now let's do this using Absolute References.

The first diagram is as we got last time because "nice" is actually in

the cell A1 and "cat" is actually in B1. Now let's copy the cell C2 to
D3, as we did before
This time we got 'nicecat' instead of 'gooddog' because the reference
was to A1 and B1 exactly and not just to the two cells immediately to
the left of the cell we were copying.

When you create spreadsheets decide before copying a formula the

cell references that are relative and those that are absolute.

You will realize the absolute importance of these ideas when we look
at the VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP functions later.
 Chapter 6: SUM
We had a look at the SUM function in chapter 1. If you have forgotten
this have another read. However, here is another look at this
extraordinary function.

This time, we're going to sum 3 columns of numbers.

In order to do this, we shall use the : and , operators discussed in the

last chapter. In D12, write,' =SUM(b2:b11,c2:c11, d2:d11) ' then
press enter. The sum of these numbers is 1754.
 Chapter 7: IF
In many ways, the IF function is the most important function Excel
has. Earlier, we showed how it could be used for comparisons. Here is
another example of this. We are going to have two columns of
numbers. Using IF, a column to the right will have the word "CAT" if
the number in the left column is no less than the number in the right. If
this condition is not met, in other words, if the number in the left
column is less than the number in the right then we will get "DOG".
Here are the columns.

Into cell a2 type the function declaration,' = IF(b2>=c2,

"CAT","DOG") ' then press enter.
Now, you can use the 'handle' to complete the use of the function.

Now before leaving the IF function, we will consider another

extremely useful property of this extraordinary function:- NESTING.
In this context, nesting has nothing to do with birds. It is the ability of
the IF function to make itself one of the choices. Here is an example to
show this.

Example. We are given the following column of numbers.

Into C column beside the numbers in B column, there will be
sentences saying," Bi has a number with x digits." Thus by 188, there
will be, "188 has 3 digits. The next diagram will show how this is
done using the IF function.

Using the 'handles' solves the final part of the problem.

Structure or Syntax of IF
If we look at the structure or syntax of the IF function through a
declaration, ' = IF(b2>=c2, "CAT","DOG") ', we see the parameters
of the IF function are IF( logical test, result if TRUE, result if FALSE
). Logical test, which is either TRUE or FALSE, as the contents of
cells are values; Result if TRUE; Result if FALSE.
 Chapter 8: AND

Another widely used Excel function is the AND function. It is either

TRUE or FALSE depending on whether two conditions are both true
or not.

Here is an example, which illustrates this. We need to compare the

sizes of the numbers contained in the rows of this table using the AND
function.

Into cell C2 type the function declaration,' =AND(A2<50,B2<50)'

then press enter.

Now use the handle to complete the task

The only row, which had A and B cells both less than 50 was row 4.

Here is another example of the same type. Find the rows in which the
C and D cells are both less than 50 in the table below.
Into cell E2 type the function declaration, ' =AND(C2<50,D2<50) '
then press enter.
Now use the handle to complete the task.

In this case, only rows 3 and 10 had C and D cells where the number
was less than 50.
Structure or Syntax of AND
If we look at the structure or syntax of the AND function through a
declaration, ' =AND(C2<50, D2<50)', we see the parameters of the
AND function are AND( logical test, logical test). The parameters are
two logical tests, the combination of whose results give different
results.
 Chapter 9: LEN
The LEN function is one of a large number of Excel functions, which
handle strings [words]. The LEN function has a very simple format =
LEN (string). The function returns the number of letters in a string,
which is often in a cell.

Here is an example. We have a column of names and need to write

beside it the number of letters in each of the names.
The input in cell B2 is = LEN [A2].
Now press enter. This action produces

Then we use the handle to produce

There are many string functions in Excel. With Excel string functions,
you can do all sorts of things, such as joining text from different cells
to make a new one string, removing parts of a string depending on
their position or surroundings, substitution into parts of a string, etc.
Sometimes, these functions are referred to as text functions. This
sometimes leads to confusion with the TEXT function, which we
looked at in Chapter 2 .

The LEN function is a string function, some other very important

string functions are the LEFT and Right Functions. The LEFT
function gets a substring that contains a given number of left
characters from a string. Similarly, the RIGHT function gets a
substring that contains a given number of right characters from a
string.

The following example shows how the LEFT function works.

Example. There is a column of names from which we want the two

most left characters.
The input in cell B2 is = LEFT (A2,2).
Now press enter. This action produces

Then we use the handle to produce

The RIGHT function is used in an identical way.

The Upper Function is a simple function UPPER(string), which acts to

convert all letters or characters in a string to upper case.

Here is an example of its use, UPPER('cat') = CAT.

Here is the result of its use combined with the handle on a column of
names.

There are many more string functions in Excel but we will only look at
one more, which is the MID function.

The structure or syntax of the function is MID(string, number1,

number2).

What do these parameters mean?

The string is the string or word, which the function is acting on,
number1 is the number of the letter in the string that you start with and
number2 is the number of the letters in the string that you want,
starting with the letter at number1.

Let's take the word, 'ELEPHANT' and calculate MID('ELEPHANT', 2,

5). The letter at position 2 is L and the fifth letter after starting with L
is A, hence MID('ELEPHANT', 2, 5) = LEPHA.

Now let's use the MID function on a column of strings.

 Chapter 10: OR
A widely used Excel function similar to the AND function is the OR
function. It is either TRUE or FALSE depending on whether one or
both of two conditions are true or not.

Here is an example, which illustrates this.

Example. Find the rows in which either the A and B cells are less than
50 in the table below.

Into cell C2 type the function declaration,' =OR(A2<50,B2<50)' then

then press enter.

Finally, complete the task by using the handle.

In this case, we get TRUE for rows 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 11, as either one or
both the A and B cells contain numbers, which are less than 50.
Structure or Syntax of OR
If we look at the structure or syntax of the OR function through a
declaration, ' =OR(A2<50, B2<50)', we see the parameters of the OR
function are OR( logical test, logical test). The parameters are two
logical tests, the combination of whose results give different results.
 Chapter 11: NOT
The NOT function is an interesting one. It only has a meaningful result
if a cell has a data type called Booleans, which are either TRUE or
FALSE. The number 1 is regarded as TRUE and 0 as FALSE.

The function NOT gives a value of FALSE if the cell contains TRUE
and TRUE if the cell contains FALSE.

Here is an example. In the last chapter, we got the table.

Use the NOT function on column C.

Into cell D2 type the function declaration =NOT(C2)

then press enter.

Now finish the task by using the handle.

You may well ask what effect the NOT function has on cells, which
contain data apart from Boolean. The table below gives the results on
some such cells.

It would seem any number except 0 is considered TRUE. Text like

'cat' is not recognized.

Only use the NOT function on Boolean data!

 Chapter 12: XOR
A widely used Excel function similar to the OR function is the XOR
function. Like the OR function, it is either TRUE or FALSE
depending on whether one or both of two conditions are true or not. It
is fussier than OR, as it is TRUE only if one of the conditions is
TRUE. If both conditions are TRUE then the XOR function gives
False.

Here is an Example. We want TRUE if only one of Family or First

name has a length less than 7.

Into cell J2 type the function declaration,' =XOR(LEN(H2)<7,

LEN(I2)<7) ' press enter then use the handle to get
The reason that 'Benton Jimmy' gives FALSE is that the lengths of
both 'Benton' and 'Jimmy' are less than 7 and with XOR this will give
FALSE, whereas if we had used OR we would have got TRUE.
Structure or Syntax of XOR
We could look at the structure or syntax of the XOR function through
a declaration, ' =XOR(A2<50, B2<50)' in the same way that we did
for the AND and OR functions. If we do so, we see the parameters of
the XOR function are XOR( logical test, logical test). The parameters
are two logical tests; the combination of whose results give different
results.
NB
The XOR function is a new one that was not in versions of Excel prior
to 2013.
 Chapter 13: SUMIF and SUMIFs
These functions are very similar to the SUM function except that they
include the ability to put criteria in the function declaration. The best
way to show this is with some examples.

Here is the first example. In the table of data below, we want to add all
grades less than 50, using the functions of Excel.

Quite clearly the sum required is 28 + 23 + 33 + 14 = 98. Let's get this

using Excel.

Into any cell, except those with the data, type the function declaration,
' =SUMIF(D2: D15,"<50", D2: D15) ' then press enter and you get 98.

Interestingly, as the range with the criterion < 50 is the same as the
range we're summing over, we don't need the second D2: D13.

We would get exactly the same result if the function declaration was, '
=SUMIF(D2:D15,"<50") '. Try it and see for yourself.

If the range with the criterion is different from the range we're
summing over this is not true.

Example. Find the sum of all grades of Female students.

Into any cell, except those with the data, type the function declaration,
' =SUMIF(C2:C14,"F",D2:D15) ' then press enter. This time the result
is 334.

The only trouble with SUMIF is that it only allows one criterion. If
you want multiple criteria [plural of criterion] then you have to use
SUMIFS. Once again an example will show what this entails.

Example. Find the sum of the grades of males whose school is 'A'.

Into any cell, except those with the data, type the function declaration,
' =SUMIFS(E2:E15,C2:C15,"M", D2:D15,"A") ' then press enter. This
time the result is 259.

The declaration is,' =SUMIFS(sum range, criterion 1, criterion 2,

criterion 3,….)'. Sum range is always like E2: E15 and is the set you
want to add over, criteria are always like D2: D15, "A", where you
have a range where the criterion applies then a comma then the actual
criterion.
These two functions have a structure or syntax so that the parameters
are range and logical tests.
 Chapter 14: COUNT and COUNTA
This chapter deals with two very simple functions: COUNT and
COUNTA. All the COUNT function does is count the cells in a range,
which contain numbers. The COUNTA function, however, counts all
non-empty cells.

Example. Count all the cells with numbers only in the cells below.

Into any cell, except those with the data, type the function declaration,
' =COUNT(M2: M9, N2: N9) ' then press enter. The result is 6, as
there six cells, which contain numbers.

Now let's use COUNTA. Into any cell, except those with the data, type
the function declaration, ' =COUNTA(M2: M9, N2: N9) ' then press
enter. The result is 15, as there fifteen cells, which contain numbers.
Note that the empty cell is not counted, either by COUNT or
COUNTA.
These two functions have a very simple structure or syntax. Their only
parameter is a range.
 Chapter 15: AVERAGEIF and AVERAGEIFs
The AVERAGEIF and AVERAGEIFS functions are very similar to the
SUMIF and SUMIFS functions.

Example. Suppose you wanted to find the average grade of the female
students in the table below.

Into any cell, except those with the data, type the function declaration,
' =AVERAGEIF(C2: C15, "F", E2: E15) ' then press enter. This time
the result is 55.666….

Generally, the declaration is, ' =AVERAGEIF(criterion range,

criterion, average_range) '. The meaning of average_range is the
range you're going to take the average of. AVERAGEIF is for
situations where there is only one criterion.

If you have multiple criteria then you must use AVERAGEIFS.

Example. Suppose you wanted to find the average grade of the male
students who went to school B from the table below.

Into any cell, except those with the data, type the function declaration,
' =AVERAGEIFS(E2:E15,C2:C15,"M", D2:D15,"B") ' then press
enter. This time the result is 60.25
Generally, the declaration is, ' =AVERAGEIFs(average_range,
criterion1 range, criterion1, criterion2 range, criterion2,) '. The
meaning of average_range is the range you're going to take the
average of. AVERAGEIFS is for situations where there is more than
one criterion.
 Chapter 16: LARGE and SMALL
The LARGE and SMALL functions are very easy to understand and
use. The declaration ' = LARGE(F1: G100, 3)' finds the third largest
number in the range F1: G100.

Example. Find the fifth largest number of the set in the cells below.

Into any cell, except those with the data, type the function declaration,
' =LARGE(J2: K8, 5) ' then press enter. The result is 78.

Example. Find the second smallest number of the set in the cells
below.
Into any cell, except those with the data, type the function declaration,
' =SMALL(J2: J15, 2) ' then press enter. The result is 23.
 Chapter 17: COUNTIF and COUNTIFS

The COUNTIF and COUNTIFS functions are very similar to the

SUMIF and SUMIFS functions.

Example. Suppose you wanted to find female students were in the

table below.

Into any cell, except those with the data, type the function declaration,
' =COUNTIF(C2: C15, "F") ' then press enter. The result is 6

Generally, the declaration is, ' =COUNTIF(criterion range, criterion) '.

COUNTIF is for situations where there is only one criterion.
If you have multiple criteria then you must use COUNTIFS.

Example. Suppose you wanted to find the number of male students

who went to school B from the table below.

Into any cell, except those with the data, type the function declaration,
' =COUNTIFS(C2:C15,"M", D2:D15,"B") ' then press enter. This time
the result is 4.

Generally, the declaration is, ' =COUNTIFS( criterion1 range,

criterion1, criterion2 range, criterion2,….) '. COUNTIFS is for
situations where there is more than one criterion.
 Chapter 18: VLOOKUP

The next two chapters deal with the VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP
functions. These are very useful but are often misunderstood.

We will need a number of examples to try and make this clear. Here is
the first example.

We have a table of grades from a school.

and we want to put the math grade beside each Family Name in the list
below.
This could be done by the extremely tedious procedure of copying
from the table of grades to this table. If we did this Martelil would
have 50 beside him and so on. Fortunately, the creators of Excel
foresaw this problem and devised the LOOKUP functions.

Here is how this problem is solved using the VLOOKUP function.

Into I2 type, ' = VLOOKUP(H2,$A$2:$E$21, 5, FALSE) ' then press
enter. The result is the value 50.
 We finish the procedure with the handles.

Obviously, VLOOKUP works, but what does each part of

VLOOKUP(H2,$A$2:$E$21, 5, FALSE) mean?

H2 is the cell whose corresponding math grade is going to be looked

up.
$A$2:$E$21 is the range of values from which we will look up the
math grade. Note the use of absolute references. This is usually
ESSENTIAL!
5 refers to the column in the range where we get math grades. Column
1 is taken as the LOOKUP column. Its data must be in ASCENDING
order.
FALSE means we want an exact match between the names in our list
and in the column Family. If we had used TRUE then the function
would have been satisfied with an approximate match.

Finally, and these are extremely important:

1. The column we are looking for matches in must be the first
column in the range.
2. The first column must be put in ascending order.

If you don't know how to order data then make sure to read the last
chapter.

Now another example, which will hopefully help cement these ideas.

A company has 5 employees who are paid different hourly rates, as

shown below in a Sheet1 of a spreadsheet using the range A1: B6.

In order to pay these people, it is necessary to fill in the Hourly Rate in

the table below in Sheet2 of the same spreadsheet.
We will use the VLOOKUP function to do this.

Into C2 type, ' = VLOOKUP(A2,Sheet1!$A$2:$B$6, 2, FALSE) ' then

press enter. Sheet1! tells VLOOKUP to go to Sheet1 to find the range
$A$2:$B$6. The result is the value $35 then use the handle to
complete the table.

Before we began it was necessary to make sure that a check was made
that the data in the lookup column was in ascending order. As it was,
there was no problem.
We can easily calculate the week's pay of the employees by typing, '=
B2*C2', into D2 then pressing enter followed by the handle.

Before finishing this function, let us examine the last parameter, which
takes the value FALSE for an exact match and TRUE for an
approximate match.

Leave the function as it is but change Diane to Diana. The table below
shows what happens.

However, now change FALSE to TRUE in the function declaration, ' =

VLOOKUP(A2, Sheet1!$A$2:$B$6, 2, TRUE) ' and then press enter
followed by the handle.

VLOOKUP has assigned Cathy's hourly rate, probably because the

names Cathy and Diana have the same number of characters or letters.
Cathy and Diana are regarded as approximately equal.

Finally, we have a look at the syntax of the VLOOKUP function. As

usual, a declaration is very useful: ' = VLOOKUP(H2,$A$2:$E$21, 5,
FALSE) '.

The parameters in order are, a cell [where the value to be looked up

is], the range where the function looks, the number of the column
where the value is found and a Boolean value of TRUE or FALSE.
 Chapter 19: HLOOKUP
VLOOKUP used data arranged vertically; HLOOKUP uses data
arranged horizontally.

How can data be arranged horizontally? Here is an example:

Here is how you could access this simple table using HLOOKUP. The
problem is to find the number of Honda cars in stock, using the
HLOOKUP function, and write it in the cell B6 to the right of the
word Honda in cell A6.

In cell B6, type the function declaration,'

=HLOOKUP("Honda",A1:E3, 2, FALSE)' then press enter.

We get the same result if we have ' =HLOOKUP(A6, A1: E3, 2,

FALSE)'. The reason is that the word 'Honda' is contained in A6.

However, see what happens if have ' =HLOOKUP(A2, A1: E3, 2,

FALSE)'.
The reason is that the word 'Honda' is not contained in A2.

Now, see what happens if have ' =HLOOKUP("FORD", A1: E3, 2,

FALSE)'.

The reason is that the word 'Ford' is contained in the top row of the
table with 20 below it in row 2.

As with VLOOKUP, we need to examine the function declaration and

explain what is happening. Here is the original function declaration, '
=HLOOKUP("Honda", A1:E3, 2, FALSE)'.

HLOOKUP searches for the word Honda in the top row of the range
A1: E3. Once this is found, the 2 tells HLOOKUP to take the contents
of row 2, which is beneath Honda and put it in B6. The FALSE tells
HLOOKUP that there must be an exact match. An approximate match,
such as HINDA or HONDO would not be acceptable, whereas it might
for TRUE.

Finally, you may recall that VLOOKUP required the left column to be
in ascending order. For HLOOKUP, this is not necessary for a last
parameter value of FALSE. However, it is necessary that the top row
of the range be in ascending order if the last parameter is TRUE.

We have often finished chapters on functions with a paragraph about

structure or syntax. We will not dwell on structure or syntax. The
syntax is very similar to that for VLOOKUP. If you are interested then
see what was written in that chapter about this topic.
 Chapter 20: A few notes about Pasting,
Ordering and Filtering

Usually, basic information such as this is covered early. However, the

notes about ordering are only vital when you use LOOKUP functions.
Pasting

Here is the result of multiplying two columns of numbers using the

declaration, '= A2*B2' then the handle.

Often having computed a column like this it might be useful to

eliminate one or both of the source columns but if you delete them this
is what happens.

To avoid this use Paste Values

after copying the original.

Now after deleting one the table of products is unaffected, as can be

seen by looking at the diagram above.
Ordering
As mentioned and emphasized in the chapter on VLOOKUP, it is
absolutely important that the first column is in ascending order. This is
all well and good but how is this done?

Suppose the range we are going to look up from is the table below.

and suppose the lookup is based on ID. You can see that the table has
been ordered by Family.

To order this range by ID is very easy.

Here are the steps, after you have selected the range A2: E11.
(1) Click on the DATA tab on your Excel Menu.

(2) Open the Sort & Filter window.

(3) Pick Custom Sort [I always use this except for trivial sorts]
(4) Click on Family

(5) Select ID and press OK.

The VLOOKUP function can now be used.
Further Ordering
Consider the following data set of student results from a high school.

We want the results of the female students only with a total over the
three subjects and the results put in descending order, with the highest
total at the top, down to the lowest.

First, let's get the totals.

Into H2, type the formula declaration, ' = E2 + F2 + G2' then press
equal. Once this is done use the handle to get the data set below.
Now select A1: H22 and go to Data.
Go to Sort & Filter and do a custom sort based on Gender. Here is
what you should have.
Now select the range A1: H14, which is the range with females and
copy this range [ ctrl-c in a PC or command-c in a Mac]. Paste in some
place, using a special paste with Values. The result is shown below.

Now we need to sort them via total in descending order. Once again
select the range and go to Sort and Filter.
Select Custom Sort and make sure you pick Total and Largest to
Smallest.
We now have the desired table.

Some of you may have wondered about Filter. What is this? Read on
to find out.
Filter
I will not spend too much time on this. Basically, it is a way of
examining a set of data using constraints but leaving the data set
intact.

Here is an example. The data set below is the same one we extracted
the females from before using order. This time we are going to have a
look at the male results in ascending order of Total [smallest to
largest], save the filtered data set elsewhere then restore the data set.

Go to the Sort & Filter tab, as you did before, after clicking on the
Data tab of the Excel menu.
This time click Filter, but NOT the down arrow, after selecting the
whole data set.

You will notice little arrows. Click on the arrow in the Gender column.
Immediately you do, the following window appears.
Fill it in as shown.
Leading to

Finally, close the Gender window and you only have the Male results.
These results are in descending order. However, as it is necessary to
put them in ascending order, you use the little arrow beside Total. A
little window appears in which ascending is an option.

Clicking on this will put the results in ascending order.

If you want to save this as a data set then just select the set and paste it
somewhere. I have pasted it just below the filter. Notice that the data is
copied as Values.

Finally, restoring the original set of data is easy. Just click on the Filter
icon. When you do this the Filter arrows are removed and you have
the original data set restored.
Filtering by Color
While exploring Filter, you may have noticed the option Filter by Cell
Color.

Hitherto, this has been irrelevant, as we have only used Black and
White. However, Excel offers all sorts of color schemes. Two simple
ones for Fill Color and Font Color are shown.

To show the use of Filter by Cell Color, we have colored the data set
we have been using.
Now click on Filter after selecting the data set. This results in the
following.
Now use any little arrow, choose color and finally yellow or red.

If we pick red then we get the filter below.

We restore the original by clicking on the Filter icon.

 Conclusion
Excel has a computer language called VBA [Visual Basic for
Applications] associated with it. Really good exponents of Excel use
VBA all the time

If you wish to master it you must know the basics of formulas and
functions inside and out.

This book has thoroughly covered many of those basics.

Before you proceed further with formulas and functions you must
master the material in the book to the extent that you can do the
problems in every chapter.

Once you have mastered the material in this book you are ready for all
the other things that can be done with EXCEL and the VBA
programming language!

Good Luck.

Welcome to the last page reader, I'm happy to see you here I hope you
had a great time reading my book and if you want to support my work,
leaving an honest review will be highly appreciated. Thank you so
much!
 Respectfully,
William B. Skates