Excel application not closing from Outlook VBA function - excel

Question

I'm writing a sort of homegrown ticketing system for myself in Outlook VBA, and I'm using Excel to store all the persistant data. I have a function written in Outlook to get some data from the .csv and return it. This is all working fine, but after I close the workbook, quit the application, and set the app to nothing I still have an Excel process running! Here is my code:
Private Function GetNewTicketNumber() As Integer
Dim xlApp As Excel.Application
Set xlApp = New Excel.Application
With xlApp
.Visible = False
.EnableEvents = False
.DisplayAlerts = False
End With
Dim FileStr As String
Dim NumberBook As Workbook
Dim TheRange As Range
FileStr = "C:\OMGITSAPATH.csv"
Set NumberBook = Workbooks.Open(FileStr)
Set TheRange = NumberBook.Worksheets(1).Range("A1")
GetNewTicketNumber = TheRange.Value
TheRange.Value = TheRange.Value + 1
NumberBook.Save
NumberBook.Close
xlApp.Quit
With xlApp
.Visible = True
.EnableEvents = True
.DisplayAlerts = True
End With
Set xlApp = Nothing
End Function
Is there something that I'm doing wrong here? My problem is similar to the one here, but I have disabled DisplayAlerts... What can I do to fix this problem?

Answer 1

Try fully qualifying your references to Excel, from xl_doesnt_quit
The problem presented here is exactly what you have. This line
Range("a1").Value = Range("a1").Value + 1
leave the xl instance open
The most common cause of the problem is a 'global' reference to the automated application. Unfortunately, under some circumstances it is possible to directly refer to an entity (property/method/object) of the automated object. This reference effectively is global to the calling application. Hence, the reference remains in place as long as the calling program is active. Consequently, the operating system will not end the automated application while the caller is active.
Re-cut code below (which also uses late binding - which rules out the unqualified possibility).
Pls change you path to suit.
code
Private Function GetNewTicketNumber() As Long
Dim xlApp As Object
Dim objWB As Object
Dim objWs As Object
Dim FileStr As String
FileStr = "C:\temp\test.xlsx"
Set xlApp = CreateObject("excel.application")
With xlApp
.EnableEvents = False
.DisplayAlerts = False
End With
Set objWB = xlApp.Workbooks.Open(FileStr)
Set objWs = objWB.Sheets(1)
GetNewTicketNumber = objWs.Range("A1")
objWs.Range("A1") = objWs.Range("A1") + 1
objWB.Save
objWB.Close
Set objWB = Nothing
xlApp.Quit
Set xlApp = Nothing
End Function