Refer to object properties dynamically - excel

Question

I have an exemplar of the class ClsFruit With following member variables:
I also have an excel sheet with data, like this:
I don't feel like Populating the object using direct references like
Fruit.Name = FruitSheet.Cells(1,2).Value
Fruit.Color = FruitSheet.Cells(2,2).Value
Fruit.Price = FruitSheet.Cells(3,2).Value
is the way to go because it's tons of repetitive code and positions of items on the worksheet might change in the future. So I wanted to loop through the first column in excel Name-Color-Priceand populate the object dynamically something like this:
Dim rg As Excel.Range
Set rg = FruitSheet.Range("A1", "A3")
Dim Cell As Variant
For Each Cell In rg
Fruit(Cell.Value) = Cell.Offset(0, 1).Value
Next Cell
But this Fruit(Cell.Value) construct doesn't work, I get "Object doesn't support this property or method" error. Is there a way around it?

Answer 1

You probably need to do something like that
For Each Cell In rg
Select Case Cell.Value
Case "Name"
fruit.Name = Cell.Offset(0, 1).Value
Case "Color"
fruit.Color = Cell.Offset(0, 1).Value
Case "Price"
fruit.Price = Cell.Offset(0, 1).Value
End Select
Next Cell
Another way would be to have corresponding propertiers in your class. Then you could use CallByName
For Each Cell In rg
CallByName fruit, cell.value, VbLet, Cell.Offset(0, 1).Value
Next Cell
Update: The class has to be changed like that
Option Explicit
Public mName As String
Public mColor As String
Public mPrice As Long
Property Let name(nValue As String)
mName = nValue
End Property
Property Get name() As String
name = mName
End Property
' continue with similar properties for the other member variables
Update 2:As pointed out in the comments it is not neccessary to have Let/Get etc. One can stick to public member variables and CallByName will just work fine. It is just IMHO the cleaner approach on the long run, see here

Answer 2

Using a worksheet proxy will do what you want, I think. This will return a collection of your objects:
WorksheetProxy class
Option Explicit
Private Property Get Table() As ListObject
Set Table = Sheet1.ListObjects(1)
End Property
Private Property Get NameColumnIndex() As Long
NameColumnIndex= Table.ListColumns("Name").Index
End Property
Private Property Get ColorColumnIndex() As Long
ColorColumnIndex= Table.ListColumns("Color").Index
End Property
Private Property Get PriceColumnIndex() As Long
PriceColumnIndex= Table.ListColumns("Price").Index
End Property
Private Property Get Data() As Collection
Dim result As Collection
Set result = New Collection
Dim currentRow As ListRow
For Each currentRow In Table.ListRows
Dim currentItem As ClsFruit
Set currentItem = New ClsFruit
currentItem.Name= currentRow.Range(ColumnIndex:=NameColumnIndex).value
currentItem.Color= currentRow.Range(ColumnIndex:=ColorColumnIndex).value
currentItem.Price= currentRow.Range(ColumnIndex:=PriceColumnIndex).value
result.Add currentItem
Next
Set Data = result
End Property
Mathieu Guindon has a discussion of this approach here: https://rubberduckvba.wordpress.com/2017/12/08/there-is-no-worksheet/
In the comments section is a link to his example workbook.