.FormulaR1C1 containing variables with values read from files - excel

The code lines
.FormulaR1C1 = "=IF(R1C1="&Chr(34)&text&Chr(34)&",1,0)"
.FormulaR1C1 = "=IF(R[-3]C[2]="&Chr(34)&text&Chr(34)&",1,0)"
are examples of the usual manner to insert R1C1 formulas in target cells when the addresses of the target cells are already known. No problem with that.
BUT...I can't find the way to devise a general R1C1 formula that can be used to do the job when the addresses of the target cells aren't previously known, but they are read from different text files instead, and both, rows and columns, may vary from one occasion to the next, getting inserted by means of loops. The following code lines can give an idea of what I'd like to have in a text file to be read, inserted in a cell and work properly:
"=IF(R[-"&varRow&"]C["&varCol&"]="&Chr(34)&text&Chr(34)&",1,0)"
"=IF(R"&varRow&"C"&varCol&"="&Chr(34)&text&Chr(34)&",1,0)"
In other words, I can't figure out how to use variables for the numbers of rows and columns in the examples given above. I asume such a possibility exists, but I have ran out of ideas on how to implement it. I've implemented some, but I've just gotten the code to be inserted as the value for the cells or the #NOMBRE(#NAME) error.
What is a solution to this problem?

I am not able to "replay" your issue...or I understood it wrong.
If I use this code:
Range("C2").Select
Dim varRow As String
Dim varCol As String
varCol = 2
varRow = 2
Range("A1").FormulaR1C1 = "=IF(R[" & varRow & "]C[" & varCol & "]=" & Chr(34) & Chr(34) & ",1,0)"
The right formula appears in cell A1 and does its job.
To write this in a file, just put the formula string as it is in a string variable and write it to a file.

Scott, SJR, and anyone reading this post.
Apologies in advance for the length of this post, but I think that the matter deserves it.
I have managed to solve the situation regarding the FormulaR1C1 format when it is to be loaded from a text file. However, I'm not totally sure of the why and the how involved in the analysis and the solution. Maybe you can give a thorough explanation about it.
The fact is that the solution (formula format) you have given, quite similar to the one given by Microsoft and similar to the result obtained when recording the macro in entering the procedure by hand, when entered as plain text in a text file and then read from it and placed in a cell just doesn't give the result expected. An example of the original data in a text file:
22_2_|"=IF(R[" & varRow & "]C[" & varCol & "]=" & Chr(34) & varValue & Chr(34) & ",1,0)"
"22" would be the row number (varRow) and "2" the column number (varCol).
I tried every different logical possibility that came to my mind over and over, all of them with similar results: failure. Then I decided to forget logic and try random thoughts.
First thing I did on this new trail was to revise the original idea: use a general formula exclusively with variables in it. I realized that I was making a stupid mistake giving the value for the variable -for instance, the column and row number- and right next to it placing the variable in the formula at the same time. Why to do it that way? Why not to place the numbers for the row and column directly in the formula? After all, the formula should work the same all the way.
An example for this new approach could be:
"=IF(R[number]C[number]=" & Chr(34) & varValue & Chr(34) & ",1,0)"
I did it this way and tested it, with dissapointing results, similar to the ones obtained at first.
Then I thought about the quotes used for the formula format. Could it be possible that the reason for the problem might have to do with them? Well, there was only one way to find out. So I tried it this way, then this other way, an other..and other...and then...EUREKA!...This is what I got, that finally works:
=IF(R22C2="value",1,0)
As you may notice, the final formula ends up having no variables at all. That was a stupid idea on my side, considering that the data is going to be obtained from a text file. So, forget the variables. BUT...and this is a very important "BUT"...
Notice what has happened to the quotes. The only ones remaning are the ones that enclose the value that is to be compared. All the others have dissapeared. And this is the only way in which the formula, when read from the text file and inserted in a cell, ends up as a functional formula in the cell, and not as the value for the cell or as a "#NAME?" error. And now, a very important question: WHY? My answer for it: I have no idea.
I must suppose -and that's the most I can do at this moment- that the fact the formula is being read from a text file and inserted as text in the cell is handled by Excel in a "certain way" that already includes -behind curtains- the necessary quotes in the internal works of the worksheet. So, if you previously include some quotes, the formula ends up having an excess of them and the final product is not the one expected. Might that be it? Who can tell? Well, what matters to me is that, as strange as it may look, it now works as I wanted it. Give it a try yourself, and then tell me.
Well, pals, that's it. And thanks a lot to all for your kind and timely help.

Related

VBA Excel, how do i insert a formula into a cell?

I have created a table with headers via VBA,
Header:
[Name][ID][Check]
on a different cell, i want to calculate the amount of "Checks" summed up.
So i tried to do this
ActiveSheet.Range("G3").Formula = "=SUM(" & shortname & "[[#All];[Check]])"
When i run the code i get error 1004, and when i look it up,
it says it is possible that it is ambigious, but there is only one coumn named Check.
Any ideas?
When you use .Formula, syntax and (names of) functions must follow the US standard.
Otherwise use .FormulaLocal.

Inserted formula with cell reference does not recognize new input

I swear this just worked yesterday...
I have a program that creates formulas within certain cells that depend on subsequent data entries into other cells:
Cells(i, 40).Formula = "= (N" & i & ")/AP" & i
So, APi can be input and/or changed after the fact, and the formula should give you the result for whatever value is there. However, I get a #Div/0! error no matter what value is in that cell. When I evaluate the formula (within Excel) and step through the calculations, it shows this (for one particular cell):
= (N64)/AP64 = (47.35)/AP64 = 47.35/AP64 = 47.35/9 = #DIV/0!
So, the formula recognizes that there is a value in the cell AP64, but then does not use it to properly calculate the result.
As I said at the top, this worked as I expected yesterday afternoon when I was testing it. Now that I need other people to start using it, of course, it doesn't. I changed nothing within the program relative to these lines of code.
I apologize if this is answered elsewhere - I really have no idea how to create a search for this type of problem.
Two things to check:
1) Value of the cells used is formatted to a number (i've had #Value based on that a couple times) and
2) verify that modifying the code using fixed references provides the appropriate output ("A16" for some reason wasn't recognized as a cell reference in one I had show up). E.g., "$N" & i & "/$AP" & i
If those both look alright, you might try something like:
.Range(.Cells(3,40),.Cells(lr,40)).Formula = "=$N3/$AP3" 'ensure no random spaces
This should act like a fill-down in which the # 3 is iterated with the same row as the formula.

Working with variables in an Excel formula

I am aware that
Cells(16, 2) = "=TEXT(42831,""dd-mmm-yy"")" 'DISPLAYS 06-Apr-17 IN CELL B16
The macro I'm working on needs the Date Serial Number, namely 42831, to be replaced with a variable:-
Dim lngDateSerialNo As Long
lngDateSerialNo = 42831
So now I have assigned 42831 to the variable, lngDateSerialNo.
It's not really relevant here but just to say that this variable will be updated during run time to give me a desired sequence of dates spaced one week apart.
I am also aware that
Cells(18, 2) = "=TEXT(" & lngDateSerialNo & ",""dd-mmm-yy"")" 'displays 06-Apr-17 IN cell B18
and to be fair I needed help with the above line of code.
OBJECTIVE
To try an understand what exactly the Ampersand is doing - apart from giving me the result I want!
Being relatively inexperienced in VBA, my understanding of the Ampersand is that it is a Concatenation operator and doesn't appear to have any other function in life.
Question 1
Could someone out there please give me an understanding as to why that line of code works so well?
Question 2
Purely academic, but if indeed the Ampersand is a concatenation operator, can the CONCATENATE formula be used in place of the ampersand?
my understanding of the Ampersand is that it is a Concatenation operator and doesn't appear to have any other function in life
Basically yes, unless you want to also consider the & being used as a type specifier for Long:
Dim a& ' declares a As Long
Could someone out there please give me an understanding as to why that line of code works so well?
Because that is the way to write this kind of code.
The only change you can potentially make is to replace the & with a + which works like & if both arguments are strings, but you shouldn't do that because & expresses the intent in the clearest way.
Purely academic, but if indeed the Ampersand is a concatenation operator, can the CONCATENATE formula be used in place of the ampersand
No, because that particular & is a part of the VBA syntax. You are building a string in VBA, it does not matter at this point that the string contains an Excel formula. VBA does not have a CONCATENATE function so you can't use it in place of the & when building a string in VBA.
However the & is also used for string concatenation in the Excel formula syntax, and if you were to build a formula with a & inside the double quotes, not outside, you could replace it with CONCATENATE, because now it's the Excel syntax where CONCATENATE exists.

Removing a Line Feed substring without using vba

I am using a Vlookup to take the content of a cell in another sheet. The problem is that this cell has 2 lines, written by VBA, seperated by chr(10) or vbLF (equivalent of alt+enter to switch lines in a cell). I only want the first line. This is what I have right now (RechercheV is Vlookup in French):
=RECHERCHEV("btn_" & etape_doc;LangueEtapes!A:D;3;FAUX)
It returns "Transfert1Responsable:IC" (in the target cell, Transfert1 is on the first line, and Responsable:IC is on the next). I want to break at the line change and only retain "Transfert1".
Thanks a lot!
Turns out a line feed is called CHAR(10) in English and CAR(10) in French. So using this: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/excel-tips/how-to-use-excels-vlookup-function
I changed my formula to this:
= GAUCHE(RECHERCHEV("btn_" & etape_doc;LangueEtapes!A:D;3;FAUX); TROUVE(CAR(10); RECHERCHEV("btn_" & etape_doc;LangueEtapes!A:D;3;FAUX))-1)
And it worked perfectly!
Source for Char(10): http://blog.contextures.com/archives/2011/08/08/add-line-break-in-excel-formula/
EDIT: The whole goal of this was to add an IF statement that would change the text based on the language as chosen by the user. The language is chosen from a validation list in another sheet (French of English) and the VlookUp looks at column 3 for French version, and column 4 for English version. After adding the IF statement I ended up with this monster (This is aside the question, I'm posting in case anyone want to go further with their VlookUp functions):
=SI(Paramètres!cell_langue="FR"; GAUCHE(RECHERCHEV("btn_" & etape_doc;LangueEtapes!A:D;3;FAUX); TROUVE(CAR(10); RECHERCHEV("btn_" & etape_doc;LangueEtapes!A:D;3;FAUX))-1); GAUCHE(RECHERCHEV("btn_" & etape_doc;LangueEtapes!A:D;4;FAUX); TROUVE(CAR(10); RECHERCHEV("btn_" & etape_doc;LangueEtapes!A:D;4;FAUX))-1))

Writing numbers to cells as text

I am using VBA to manipulate a dataset and ahve run into a problem; I need to write some values to cells but keep them as strings rather than numbers so later filters will work with other database data.
I was using Cell.Value = x which does the job but is there a way of getting it to write with a string?
I have a feeling this has a simple answer but my google-fu is weak.
Consider
1) Formatting the cell as text (available on a right click as 'Format Cells')
2) Clobbering the cell completely with Cell.Value = "'" & CStr(x)
I prefer (1) since it is separating data from presentation; always good programming practice.

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