Excel macros - Too many line continuations - excel

Question

I have a "large" SQL query (like 200 lines)...
dim query as string
query = "..................................." & _
"..................................." & _
.... Like a lot lines later...
"..................................."
function query,"sheet 1"
When I do this, Excel says "Too many line continuations."
What is the best way to avoid this?

Answer 1

There's only one way -- to use less continuations.
This can be done by putting more text on a line or by using concatenation expressed differently:
query = ".........."
query = query & ".........."
query = query & ".........."
But the best is to load the text from an external source, as a whole.

Answer 2

Split the query into several sections:
query = _
"............" & _
"............" & _
"............"
query = query & _
"............" & _
"............" & _
"............"
query = query & _
"............" & _
"............" & _
"............"

Answer 3

So far I found this...
Call AddToArray(query, "...")
Call AddToArray(query, "...")
... a lot lines later...
Call AddToArray(query, "...")
*edit: Forgot to add:
Sub AddToArray(myArray As Variant, arrayElement As Variant)
If Not IsArrayInitialized(myArray) Then
ReDim myArray(0)
myArray(0) = arrayElement
Else
ReDim Preserve myArray(UBound(myArray) + 1)
myArray(UBound(myArray)) = arrayElement
End If
End Sub
Source: link text
X( thankyou
(Still waiting for better ways to do this...) thankyou :P

Answer 4

why not use VBA to help with the VBA concatenation?
Check this code of mine (it is very primitive and feel free to adjust it), it basically takes whatever data you have on worksheet called "Fast_string" in columns "A:E" and in column F it prepares you the code for the concatenation using preliminary variable "prelim_string". You just use this and then copy-paste the solution from column F into your code... you're welcome ;)
Sub FAST_STRING()
Dim cel As Range, lastcel As Range, prel_r As String, i As Integer, cr As Integer
With ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Fast_string")
Set lastcel = .Cells(10000, 1).End(xlUp)
For Each cel In .Range(.Cells(1, 1), lastcel)
cr = cel.row
prel_r = ""
For i = 1 To 5
If .Cells(cr, i) = "" Then
prel_r = prel_r & " "
Else
prel_r = prel_r & " " & Replace(.Cells(cr, i).Value, """", """""")
End If
Next i
If cr = 1 Then
prel_r = "Prelim_string =" & """" & prel_r & """" & " & chr(10) & _"
ElseIf cr / 20 = Round(cr / 20) Then
prel_r = "Prelim_string = Prelim_string & " & """" & prel_r & """" & " & chr(10) & _"
Else
prel_r = """" & prel_r & """" & " & chr(10) & _"
End If
If cr = lastcel.row Or (cr + 1) / 20 = Round((cr + 1) / 20) Then prel_r = Left(prel_r, Len(prel_r) - 14)
cel(1, 6) = prel_r
Next cel
End With
End Sub