reference last column of worksheet - excel

Question

All of the below methods have failed to reference the last column. What is a viable method?
For example 'Columns("1:" & llc.Address & "").Select through 'Columns("E:" & llc & "").Selectare trying to select sayColumns("E:N")`. But the last column is dynamic. In one instance it's column N, and in another application of the macro it's column AP.
Sub RestorePivtTable()
Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("sheet1")
llc = ws.Cells(2, ws.Columns.count).End(xlToLeft).Column
'Columns("1:" & llc.Address & "").Select
'Columns(1, llc).Select
'Range(Columns(1), Columns(llc)).Select
'Columns("E:" & Cells(3, llc).Address & "").Select
'Range("1:" & Cells(3, lc).Address & "").Select
'Range(Cells(1, 1).Address, Cells(3, llc).Address).Select
'Columns("E:" & llc & "").Select
Selection.ClearFormats
End Sub

Answer 1

If you are using your above method you will need to find the correct row to use. ie: you will need to know the row in which the data appears in the right-most column. If you want the last column out of anything, try:
ws.usedrange.columns
This just gives the number of columns in the used range of a sheet, which is defined as A1:[The bottom right cell which contains either values or formatting].
Note that this will not work if, say, you have formatting in E10, but you want to get column D, because D is the last column which has a value [ie: you want to exclude consideration of formatted cells].

Answer 2

I generally use this method, although you have to put checks in in case the sheet is empty (you can't return column 0).
Sub FindLastColumn()
Dim wrkSht As Worksheet
Set wrkSht = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1")
MsgBox wrkSht.Cells.Find(What:="*", After:=wrkSht.Cells(1, 1), SearchDirection:=xlPrevious).Column
End Sub

Answer 3

Basic example of how to find the last column in your sheet - I've included an If block in case the sheet is empty, but then I don't know why you would run this code on an empty sheet anyway...
Sub SO()
Dim lastCol As Integer
Dim lastCell As Excel.Range
'// Assuming the variable 'ws' has already been dimensioned and initialised
On Error Resume Next
Set lastCell = ws.Cells.Find(What:="*", After:=ws.Range("A1"), SearchDirection:=xlPrevious)
On Error GoTo 0
If lastCell Is Nothing Then
lastCol = 1
Else
lastCol = lastCell.Column
End If
MsgBox lastCol
End Sub
UsedRange can be unreliable in this instance, because it can still contain cells that were previously used but are now blank - and I'm guessing you're not interested in these cells. Using the Cells.Find() method means that you don't have to know which row will coincide with the last column (which is needed for Columns.Count.End(xlToLeft) method) so this is a bonus too when working with irregular data sets.

Answer 4

Trying to "read between the lines" of your code, I suspect that this is what you are after:
Public Sub RestorePivtTable()
Sheet1.Cells(2, Sheet1.Columns.Count).End(xlToLeft).EntireColumn.ClearFormats
End Sub
This will work as long as there are data in row 2.

Answer 5

Thanks everyone for your help. The below function and macro solved the issue of converting a column number reference into a letter reference:
Function GetColumnLetter(colNum As Long) As String
Dim vArr
vArr = Split(Cells(1, colNum).Address(True, False), "$")
GetColumnLetter = vArr(0)
End Function
Sub RestorePivtTable2()
Dim lc As Long
Dim ws As Worksheet
Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("PivtTable")
lc = ws.Cells(5, ws.Columns.count).End(xlToLeft).Column
myCol = GetColumnLetter(lc)
Columns("E:" & myCol & "").Select
Selection.ClearFormats
End Sub