vba Userform macro edits wrong sheet - excel

Question

I have a userform that is supposed to insert a row on Sheet3 and populate some cells in that row with some values. it works great as long as I have sheet3 displayed. (The form is shown modeless to give me access to the sheets).
Anyway, I happened to have another sheet active and ran it again and was surprised to see it inserted the row not in sheet3, but in the one I had displayed... (Thank God I saved first!)
In the code, I specified a range object as follows to find the insertion point: (I'll truncate the code a bit to keep it simple)
Dim RecordRange As Range
Set RecordRange = Sheet3.Cells(RowVariable,ColumnVariable)
RecordRange.Offset(1,0).EntireRow.Insert
blah blah blah.
A workaround is to activate the sheet first:
Sheet3.Activate
That at least inserts into the correct sheet, but I'd rather not have sheet3 be displayed when I add the record, so I even surrounded that line with:
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Sheet3.Activate
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
unfortunately, ScreenUpdating doesn't work from within a Userform Code module, so that bites...
I still don't understand why it chooses to insert the row into whatever sheet is active, when I've already specified sheet3 in the code. I have another Macro very similar that doesn't have this problem.
any ideas?

Answer 1

...so you figure your workaround needs a workaround? Hmm... I think that qualifies as a double-negative since a workaround is supposed to, by definition, fix problems rather than cause them...
A workaround is a bypass of a recognized problem in a system. A
workaround is typically a temporary fix that implies that a genuine
solution to the problem is needed. But workarounds are frequently as
creative as true solutions, involving outside the box thinking in
their creation.
Typically they are considered brittle in that they will not respond
well to further pressure from a system beyond the original design. In
implementing a workaround it is important to flag the change so as to
later implement a proper solution.
Placing pressure on a workaround may result in later system failures.
For example, in computer programming workarounds are often used to
address a problem or anti-pattern in a library, such as an incorrect
return value. When the library is changed, the workaround may break
the overall program functionality, effectively becoming an
anti-pattern, since it may expect the older, wrong behaviour from the
library. (Wikipedia)
Just sayin'... :-)
So instead of fixing the workaround, your original issue is (thankfully) straightforward.
You're using Sheet3 as an object, and I suspect you haven't assigned anything (like Worksheets("Sheet3") to an object called Sheet3.
Try this instead:
Dim RecordRange As Range
Set RecordRange = Worksheets("Sheet3").Cells(RowVariable,ColumnVariable)
RecordRange.Offset(1,0).EntireRow.Insert
If you indeed intended to use Sheet3 as an object then make sure it's declared as set, so for example you could instead use:
Dim RecordRange As Range
Dim Sheet3 As Worksheet
Set Sheet3 = Worksheets("Sheet3")
Set RecordRange = Sheet3.Cells(RowVariable,ColumnVariable)
RecordRange.Offset(1, 0).EntireRow.Insert
Also, just to point out: If either of these solves your issue then the problem would've "made itself known", by including one line at the top of every module (at least during development & troubleshooting):
Option Explicit
This link has a short explanation, but basically it forces you to properly declare all variables (thus helping to prevent future workarounds!)