Getting the actual usedrange - excel

Question

I have a Excel worksheet that has a button.
When I call the usedRange() function, the range it returns includes the button part.
Is there anyway I can just get actual used range that contains data?

Answer 1

What sort of button, neither a Forms Control nor an ActiveX control should affect the used range.
It is a known problem that excel does not keep track of the used range very well. Any reference to the used range via VBA will reset the value to the current used range. So try running this sub procedure:
Sub ResetUsedRng()
Application.ActiveSheet.UsedRange
End Sub
Failing that you may well have some formatting hanging round. Try clearing/deleting all the cells after your last row.
Regarding the above also see:
Excel Developer Tip
Another method to find the last used cell:
Dim rLastCell As Range
Set rLastCell = ActiveSheet.Cells.Find(What:="*", After:=.Cells(1, 1), LookIn:=xlFormulas, LookAt:= _
xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, MatchCase:=False)
Change the search direction to find the first used cell.

Answer 2

Readify made a very complete answer. Yet, I wanted to add the End statement, you can use:
Find the last used cell, before a blank in a Column:
Sub LastCellBeforeBlankInColumn()
Range("A1").End(xldown).Select
End Sub
Find the very last used cell in a Column:
Sub LastCellInColumn()
Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlup).Select
End Sub
Find the last cell, before a blank in a Row:
Sub LastCellBeforeBlankInRow()
Range("A1").End(xlToRight).Select
End Sub
Find the very last used cell in a Row:
Sub LastCellInRow()
Range("IV1").End(xlToLeft).Select
End Sub
See here for more information (and the explanation why xlCellTypeLastCell is not very reliable).

Answer 3

Here's a pair of functions to return the last row and col of a worksheet, based on Reafidy's solution above.
Function LastRow(ws As Object) As Long
Dim rLastCell As Object
On Error GoTo ErrHan
Set rLastCell = ws.Cells.Find("*", ws.Cells(1, 1), , , xlByRows, _
xlPrevious)
LastRow = rLastCell.Row
ErrExit:
Exit Function
ErrHan:
MsgBox "Error " & Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description, _
vbExclamation, "LastRow()"
Resume ErrExit
End Function
Function LastCol(ws As Object) As Long
Dim rLastCell As Object
On Error GoTo ErrHan
Set rLastCell = ws.Cells.Find("*", ws.Cells(1, 1), , , xlByColumns, _
xlPrevious)
LastCol = rLastCell.Column
ErrExit:
Exit Function
ErrHan:
MsgBox "Error " & Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description, _
vbExclamation, "LastRow()"
Resume ErrExit
End Function

Answer 4

Public Sub FindTrueUsedRange(RowLast As Long, ColLast As Long)
Application.EnableEvents = False
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
RowLast = 0
ColLast = 0
ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Select
Cells(1, 1).Activate
Selection.End(xlDown).Select
Selection.End(xlDown).Select
On Error GoTo -1: On Error GoTo Quit
Cells.Find(What:="*", LookIn:=xlFormulas, LookAt:=xlWhole, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, SearchDirection:=xlPrevious).Activate
On Error GoTo -1: On Error GoTo 0
RowLast = Selection.Row
Cells(1, 1).Activate
Selection.End(xlToRight).Select
Selection.End(xlToRight).Select
Cells.Find(What:="*", LookIn:=xlFormulas, LookAt:=xlWhole, SearchOrder:=xlByColumns, SearchDirection:=xlPrevious).Activate
ColLast = Selection.Column
Quit:
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Application.EnableEvents = True
On Error GoTo -1: On Error GoTo 0
End Sub

Answer 5

This function returns the actual used range to the lower right limit. It returns "Nothing" if the sheet is empty.
'2020-01-26
Function fUsedRange() As Range
Dim lngLastRow As Long
Dim lngLastCol As Long
Dim rngLastCell As Range
On Error Resume Next
Set rngLastCell = ActiveSheet.Cells.Find("*", searchorder:=xlByRows, searchdirection:=xlPrevious)
If rngLastCell Is Nothing Then 'look for data backwards in rows
Set fUsedRange = Nothing
Exit Function
Else
lngLastRow = rngLastCell.Row
End If
Set rngLastCell = ActiveSheet.Cells.Find("*", searchorder:=xlByColumns, searchdirection:=xlPrevious)
If rngLastCell Is Nothing Then 'look for data backwards in columns
Set fUsedRange = Nothing
Exit Function
Else
lngLastCol = rngLastCell.Column
End If
Set fUsedRange = ActiveSheet.Range(Cells(1, 1), Cells(lngLastRow, lngLastCol)) 'set up range
End Function

Answer 6

I use the following vba code to determine the entire used rows range for the worksheet to then shorten the selected range of a column:
Set rUsedRowRange = Selection.Worksheet.UsedRange.Columns( _
Selection.Column - Selection.Worksheet.UsedRange.Column + 1)
Also works the other way around:
Set rUsedColumnRange = Selection.Worksheet.UsedRange.Rows( _
Selection.Row - Selection.Worksheet.UsedRange.Row + 1)

Answer 7

This function gives all 4 limits of the used range:
Function FindUsedRangeLimits()
Set Sheet = ActiveSheet
Sheet.UsedRange.Select
' Display the range's rows and columns.
row_min = Sheet.UsedRange.Row
row_max = row_min + Sheet.UsedRange.Rows.Count - 1
col_min = Sheet.UsedRange.Column
col_max = col_min + Sheet.UsedRange.Columns.Count - 1
MsgBox "Rows " & row_min & " - " & row_max & vbCrLf & _
"Columns: " & col_min & " - " & col_max
LastCellBeforeBlankInColumn = True
End Function

Answer 8

Timings on Excel 2013 fairly slow machine with a big bad used range million rows:
26ms Cells.Find xlPrevious method (as above)
0.4ms Sheet.UsedRange (just call it)
0.14ms Counta binary search + 0.4ms Used Range to start search (12 CountA calls)
So the Find xlPrevious is quite slow if that is of concern.
The CountA binary search approach is to first do a Used Range. Then chop the range in half and see if there are any non-empty cells in the bottom half, and then halve again as needed. It is tricky to get right.

Answer 9

Here's another one. It looks for the first and last non empty cell and builds are range from those. This also handles cases where your data is not rectangular and does not start in A1. Furthermore it handles merged cells as well, which .Find skips when executed from a macro, used on .Cells on a worksheet.
Function getUsedRange(ByRef sheet As Worksheet) As Range
' finds used range by looking for non empty cells
' works around bug in .Find that skips merged cells
' by starting at with the UsedRange (that may be too big)
' credit to https://contexturesblog.com/archives/2012/03/01/select-actual-used-range-in-excel-sheet/
' for the .Find commands
Dim excelsUsedRange As Range
Dim lastRow As Long
Dim lastCol As Long
Dim lastCell As Range
Dim firstRow As Long
Dim firstCol As Long
Dim firstCell As Range
Set excelsUsedRange = ActiveSheet.UsedRange
lastRow = excelsUsedRange.Find(What:="*", _
LookIn:=xlValues, SearchOrder:=xlRows, _
SearchDirection:=xlPrevious).Row
lastCol = excelsUsedRange.Find(What:="*", _
LookIn:=xlValues, SearchOrder:=xlByColumns, _
SearchDirection:=xlPrevious).Column
Set lastCell = sheet.Cells(lastRow, lastCol)
firstRow = excelsUsedRange.Find(What:="*", After:=lastCell, _
LookIn:=xlValues, SearchOrder:=xlRows, _
SearchDirection:=xlNext).Row
firstCol = excelsUsedRange.Find(What:="*", After:=lastCell, _
LookIn:=xlValues, SearchOrder:=xlByColumns, _
SearchDirection:=xlNext).Row
Set firstCell = sheet.Cells(firstRow, firstCol)
Set getUsedRange = sheet.Range(firstCell, lastCell)
End Function

Answer 10

This is a different approach to the other answers, which will give you all the regions with data - a Region is something enclosed by an empty row and column and or the the edge of the worksheet. Basically it gives all the rectangles of data:
Public Function ContentRange(ByVal ws As Worksheet) As Range
'First, identify any cells with data, whose neighbourhood we will inspect
' to identify contiguous regions of content
'For efficiency, restrict our search to only the UsedRange
' NB. This may be pointless if .SpecialCells does this internally already, it probably does...
With ws.UsedRange 'includes data and cells that have been formatted
Dim cellsWithContent As Range
On Error Resume Next '.specialCells will error if nothing found, we can ignore it though
Set cellsWithContent = .SpecialCells(xlCellTypeConstants)
Set cellsWithContent = Union(cellsWithContent, .SpecialCells(xlCellTypeFormulas))
On Error GoTo 0
End With
'Early exit; return Nothing if there is no Data
If cellsWithContent Is Nothing Then Exit Function
'Next, loop over all the content cells and group their currentRegions
' This allows us to include some blank cells which are interspersed amongst the data
' It is faster to loop over areas rather than cell by cell since we merge all the CurrentRegions either way
Dim item As Range
Dim usedRegions As Range
For Each item In cellsWithContent.Areas
'Debug.Print "adding: "; item.Address, item.CurrentRegion.Address
If usedRegions Is Nothing Then
Set usedRegions = item.CurrentRegion 'expands "item" to include any surrounding non-blank data
Else
Set usedRegions = Union(usedRegions, item.CurrentRegion)
End If
Next item
'Debug.Print cellsWithContent.Address; "->"; usedRegions.Address
Set ContentRange = usedRegions
End Function
Used like:
Debug.Print ContentRange(Sheet1).Address '$A$1:$F$22
Debug.Print ContentRange(Sheet2).Address '$A$1:$F$22,$N$5:$M$7
The result is a Range object containing 1 or more Areas, each of it which will represent a data/formula containing region on the sheet.
It is the same technique as clicking in all the cells in your sheet and pressing Ctrl+T, merging all those areas. I'm using it to find potential tables of data