Excel VBA Programming for

Solving Chemical Engineering

Problems
 Teaching Plan
• Excel VBA Programming for Solving Chemical Engineering Problems will
conducted in three lectures.
• It will cover basic programming skills that concentrate on solving chemical
engineering problems.
• Demonstrate the programming of the feeding pattern of a Fed-Batch
culture using Excel VBA and its comparison with alternative methods
(Polymath and Excel)
• You are generally expected to be able to write simple Excel VBA
programs to solve problems you have encountered in chemical engineering
courses.
• You are specifically expected able to write Excel VBA programs to solve
some problems that are encountered in CENG 364.
• One small quiz will be given at the end of these lectures and will be
completed in class.
• A project will be given and this will contribute to the final assessment.
 Introduction
• A computer can help us to solve problems, especially
which require a large number of iterative calculations.
• Excel is a commonly used and easily available office
software.
• You can compose your own Macro commands that
instruct Excel to do repeating jobs.
• An Excel Macro command is written in Visual Basic
for Application (VBA).
• We can make use of the Excel VBA to solve
numerical problems in Chemical Engineering.
 Objectives

1. Introduce how to make use Excel VBA to

solve chemical engineering problems.
2. Introduce fundamental VBA syntax.
3. Introduce how to analyze and covert a
chemical engineering problem into an Excel
VBA program.
 Content
1. Introduction
2. Excel Macro
3. Excel VBA Programming
1. Basic Syntax
2. Data Type, Variable and Operator
3. Control Statements
4. Array
5. Simple Data Input & Output
6. Debugging
4. Chemical Engineering Problem Solving
 What Will be Not Covered

• Details of Excel VBA functions.

• It is because:
1. Limitation of time;
2. Not possible to teach all functions and during the
class;
3. Technology changes from time to time, you are
expected able to self-learn.
 Solving a Mathematical Problem (1)

• Solving a function
y = 2-x
when y = x, for 0 ≤ x ≤ 2.
• We can use the built-in Goal Seek feature of
Excel.
• We can also write our own VBA program to
solve this problem by iteration.
 Solving a Mathematical Problem (2)

• Demonstration:
– Goal Seek
– A VBA program

• Goal Seek is so convenient, why do we need to

write our own program which is a time
consuming task?
 Solving a Mathematical Problem (3)

• Goal Seek can only find the solution of an

equation. How about matrices, differential
equations?
• We can write our own program to solve above
problems that commonly encountered in the
chemical engineering discipline.
• Example of Goal Seek vs. Programmed Macro
(
GoalSeek_vs_Programming.xls).
 Excel Macro

Programmed Macro vs. Recorded

Macro
Macro Recording (1)
Macro Recoding (2)
Macro Recording (3)
Macro Recording (4)
 Macro Recording (5)
• Example of recorded Macro:
Sub Macro1()
'
' Macro1 Macro
' This is description
'
Range("A2").Select
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "=R[-1]C*100"
Range("A3").Select
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "=R[-1]C-20"
Range("A2").Select
Selection.Font.Bold = True
Range("A3").Select
Selection.Font.ColorIndex = 3
End Sub
• A recorded Macro can undertake the same actions that can be
done though the Excel’s graphical interface (for example,
modifying font, color, position, etc). How about iterative
calculations such as matrix or differential equations?
 Macro (VBA) Programming
• Example of programmed Macro (
Simple_Iteration.xls).
• Recorded Macro can help us to do some
repetitive jobs.
• But recorded Macro cannot help us to solve
numerical problems that require iterative
calculations.
• Therefore, we need to write VBA codes to
solve our problem.
 Help Topics

• As you are expected able to self-learn, Help is

a good source for information.
• Sometimes you may find an example on how
to make us a function / object.
• VBA Help content is different from Excel
Help content.
• VBA functions are different from Excel
functions.
Excel VBA Programming

Basic Syntax of VBA

 Procedure (1)
• When you write your own piece of program code, you need
to put it in the worksheet somewhere.
• Your program will most probably read input from users, and
print many lines of results in a worksheet.
• You can put your program code in a procedure with the
VBAProject which is assessable through the VBA editor.
• A procedure can be executed
by:
1. Running it though the Excel’s
Macro dialog box, or
2. Assigning a short-cut key
though the Macro dialog
box, or
3. Creating a button and linking it
to a specific procedure.
 Procedure (2)
• A Sub procedure is a series of Visual Basic
statements enclosed by the Sub and End Sub
statements that performs actions but doesn't
return a value.
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
MsgBox "Hello World!"
End Sub
• Above procedure name is automatically given
by the Excel VBA editor. This is an Event-
driven procedure.
 Event-Driven Programming (1)
• An event could be any action such as:
– Open a workbook,
– Click a button,
– The value of any cell in a worksheet is changed,
etc.
• Procedure name
CommandButton1_Click() stands for:
When button CommandButton1 is clicked,
execute following lines of code.
• The button named CommandButton1 is
automatically assigned by Excel when you
create a button. Of course, this name may be
chnaged. And the procedure name should be
YourButtonName_Click().
Event-Driven Programming (2)
Event-Driven Programming (3)
 Comment
• After you have written thousands of lines of code, you may
forget what you have written before.
• It is better to insert comments in your program to remind you
what the program does.
• A comment is a line of text in the VBA macro that does not
actually contain instructions and Excel will ignore it while
running the macro.
• A comment starts with an apostrophe ( ' ) character and ends
with line break.
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
' This is a line of comment.
MsgBox "Hello World!"
End Sub
 Statement (1)
• A Statement is a line of VBA code to instruct
VBA to perform certain tasks.
• Examples:
• Perform calculation:
VarA = VarB + 10
• Assign a value to a variable:
VarB = 2
• Declare a variable:
Dim VarA, VarB As Integer
 Statement (2)
• A line of statement always ended with line break, i.e.
One line, one statement.
• If you have a very long statement that is difficult to
read, you can break it into several lines using an
under scroll ( _ ):
Result = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + _
7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + _
12 + 13 + 14 + 15 + 16 + _
17 + 18 + 19 + 20
 Statement (3)

• Not all statements can be broken into several

lines using an under scroll:
MsgBox ("Now I want to show _
you a very very very very _
very very very long message")
• Above is an example of an invalid statement.
• Because it violates VBA syntax since it should
be put in a single line.
 Function (1)
• A function is similar to a process that can convert a
input value into another value through a well defined
steps of commands.
• A Function procedure is a series of Visual Basic
statements enclosed by the Function and End
Function statements.
• A Function procedure is similar to a Sub procedure,
but a function can also return a value.
• For example, convert Celsius temperature into Kelvin
temperature:
Function CelsiusToKelvin(CelsiusDegree)
Dim AbsoluteZero
AbsoluteZero = 273.15
CelsiusToKelvin = CelsiusDegree + _
AbsoluteZero
End Function
 Function (2)
• When do we need functions?
• Extract a repeated procedure out from the main program can
make your program with well structured. It will be easy for
programming, debugging and maintenance.
• For example (pseudo-code):
Get Celsius Temperatures 1, 2 from users
Kelvin Temp 1 = CelsiusToKelvin(Celsius Temp 1)
Kelvin Temp 2 = CelsiusToKelvin(Celsius Temp 2)
Kelvin Temp 3 = Kelvin Temp 2 * exp((Kelvin Temp 1 –
Kelvin Temp 2) / Kelvin Temp 2)
Celsius Temp 3 = KelvinToCelsius(Kelvin Temp 3)
Display the result Celsius Temp 3 to user
Data Type, Variable and
Operator
 Data Types and Variables (1)
• Data are classified as different data types.
• Some common used data types for numerical problems:
– Integer
– Double
– Boolean
• Integer variables are stored as 2-byte numbers ranging in
value from -32,768 to 32,767.
• Double (double-precision floating-point) variables are stored
as 8-byte floating-point numbers ranging in value from
-1.79769313486231 x 10308 to
-4.94065645841247 x 10-324 for negative values and
from 4.94065645841247 x 10-324 to
1.79769313486232 x 10308 for positive values.
• Boolean variables are stored as 2-byte numbers, but they can
only be True or False.
 Data Types and Variables (2)
• You can declare a variable by using declaration
statement:
Dim VarA As Integer
Dim VarB, VarC As Double
• Note that for variables with different data types, you
must declare them in separate statements.
• After a variable is declared, you can assign a value to
it:
VarA = 10
• Or you can perform a calculation:
VarC = (VarB + 3) / VarA
 Data Types and Variables (2)
• Unless otherwise specified, undeclared variables are
assigned the Variant data type. This data type makes
it easy to write programs, but it is not always the most
efficient data type to use.
• A Variant is a special data type that can contain any
kind of data and stored as 16-byte numbers.
• You should consider using other data types if:
– Your program is very large and uses many variables.
– Your program must run as quickly as possible.
 Data Types and Variables (3)
• Many VBA programs for solving numerical
problems may loop for more than a thousand times
and may take a long time to complete.
• It is better to declare a data type for all variables.
• It is suggested that you put this statement at the
beginning of all program code:
Option Explicit

• It forces you to declare data type for all variables.

 Variable Scope (1)
• For a program containing two procedures:
Sub HelloWorld()
Dim MyMessage
MyMessage = "Hello World!"
MsgBox MyMessage
End Sub

Sub HelloYou()
Dim MyMessage
MyMessage = "Hello You!"
MsgBox MyMessage
End Sub
• Both have a variable called MyMessage.
• However, these two variables are independent variables.
• Example program (Variable_Scope_1.xls).
 Variable Scope (2)
• Now consider this program:
Dim MyMessage

Sub HelloWorld()
MyMessage = "Hello World!"
MsgBox MyMessage
End Sub

Sub HelloYou()
MyMessage = "Hello You!"
MsgBox MyMessage
End Sub

Sub Hello()
MsgBox MyMessage
End Sub
• Now the variable MyMessage is “shared” among these three
procedures.
• Example program (Variable_Scope_2.xls).
 Variable Scope (3)
• Case I:
– A variable declared inside a procedure is available
only inside that procedure.
– This variable is called procedure-level variable.
• Case II:
– A variable declared outside a procedure but in the
same module. This variable is available to all
procedures in the same module but not to other
module.
– This variable is called module-level variable.
 Variable Scope (4)
• You should pay attention to Dim Var1 As Integer
variable scope when
designing your program.
Sub MainProgram()
• If you design your variable
Var1 = 10
scope properly, you can
avoid modifying the value MyFunction()
of a variable accidentally. End Sub
• For the example program at
right, what will be the value Function MyFunction()
of module-level variable Var1 = 100
Var1 after execute
procedure End Function
MainProgram()?
 Operators (1)
Commonly used operators
• Arithmetic operators: • Comparison operators:
– Addition: + – Equal To: =
– Subtraction: - – Not Equal To: <>
– Multiplication: * – Less Than: <
– Division: / – Greater Than: >
– Integer Division: \ – Less Than Or Equal To: <=
– Modulo Division: MOD – Greater Than Or Equal To: >=
– Exponentiation: ^ • Logical operators:
– Negative Number: - – Conjunction: And
• String operator: – Disjunction: Or
– Concatenation (i.e., joining – Negation: Not
two strings together to form
a longer string): &
 Operators (2)
• Syntax of some operators:
– 87 \ 10 ( = 8, result is an integer )
– 87 MOD 10 ( = 87 - (87 \ 10) = 7, result is an
integer )
– 10^2 ( = 102 = 100 )
– "Hello " & "World" ( = "Hello
World" )
• You should pay attention on the result data
types of operators, and functions.
Operator Precedence (1)
^
- (negative number)
*, /
\
MOD
+, -
&
<, <=, >, >=, =, <> (comparison)
Not
And
Or
 Operator Precedence (2)

•1 ^ 2 + 3=4 (i.e. 12 + 3 = 4)
• 1 ^ (2 + 3) = 1 (i.e. 1(2+3) = 1)
• You need to add parentheses as necessary