VBA session 3 Paul Rubinov  My job: diverse audience so Bore you for 15 minutes. Confuse you for the other 15 min.  Feel free to contact me  Disclaimer IANAP (I am not a programmer) We are not covering language syntax – but your book does

VBA session 3: Introduction  When we programmed in Pascal or C or Fortran, we wrote what we needed. In VBA (and VB), you try to find the “thing” (object/control) that does what you want.  Key to learning VBA is knowing that something CAN be done. Record lots of macros. Give yourself a project.

VBA session 3: Intro cont.  Must have skills: record macros and play with them! use the help system (F1)! use step/step into: F8/SHIFT-F8 break points and watches: F9, SHIFT+F9 print stuff: “debug.print” and CTRL+G (remember you can also change variables in the “immediate” window) copy others people code! If you master these skills, you are 90% done

VBA session 3: Intro cont.  Type some numbers  Type some formulas  Play with formatting  Add a plot  Etc. …but do it on your own time. For now, open Example1.xls

VBA session 3: Example1  VBA has a very rich syntax - too rich. It has a lot of history… 1.Open example1.xls 2.Press Alt-F11 3.Double click on “Module1” 4.Put cursor anywhere after “sub” 5.Press Ctrl-G 6.Press F8- and keep pressing!

VBA session 3: Example1 cont.  Now double click on “module2”  By now you are used to x.y.z but notice this line: Selection.AutoFill Destination:=Range("C1:C3"),Type:=xlFillDefault This is using “named parameters”  Put your cursor anywhere inside the word “AutoFill” and press F1*. so no big deal- this is just a function call *If you get an error message when you try this, you do not have help installed for VBA. It is not installed by default!

VBA session 3: Stepper  The “stepper” (/”looper”) open “skeleton_stepper.xls” This is a “simulated” stepper to demo the idea (inspired by Bob A’s “listproc”. Only “modMain” is relevant but feel free to click around Idea : save parameters in excel rows: one row=1 step run many events with each parameter “step” display summary results on screen/store detail in file, if needed

VBA session 3: Stepper cont.  Comments: not meant for use by other people, but…  Basic instruction: press the RUN button Main sheet is called… “MAIN” Column A:“Step #”: cell A7 should be 1, cell A8=2, etc. if the last number in this column is 1, it will loop if any number is 0, it will stop Column B: “Evnt/step”: number of “events” per step- should be > 0

VBA session 3: Stepper cont.  Basic instruction (cont.): Column C: “Some parameter”: an example… adjusts the average- should be 5 to 15 Column F: progress report: number for successes/number of tries Column H and the following 63 columns: random data, standard distribution with StdDev = 10 and mean = 10*”Some parameter” Sheet “Profile”: simple histograms, always accumulating

VBA session 3: Random examples  This is all from the “Stepper” to find, press CTRL-F in VBA, make sure ”Current Project” radio button is pressed and search for the highlighted word Ex1: calling windows DLLs Public Declare Function timeGetTime Lib "winmm.dll" () As Long Declare Sub Sleep Lib "Kernel32.DLL" (ByVal dwMillisecconds As Long)

VBA session 3: examples cont. Ex2: If you have a driver for Visual Basic, chances are, it will work in VBA ScopeLibrary module (search for Hewlett-Packard ) VBIB/NIGLOBAL modules (search for GPIB ) Ex3: Example of Bob A’s utility routines Search for: XUTIL.DLL Ex4: Example of Bob A’s routines for performance Search for: MCMUTIL.DLL

VBA session 3: examples cont. Ex5: You can see an example of the use of STATIC variables in module Search for: Static NumEvts This module is used in the skeleton version of the stepper, so you should be able to debug it, see how it works.

VBA session 3: examples cont. Ex6: You can create your own objects by defining a new “Class” Search for: “Class_Initialize” This is also an example of using an external “object” (in this case the “Scripting” class) And also an example of file access using the FileSystem object contained in the scripting library

VBA session 3: Conclusion  VBA is the essence of RAD: Rapid Application Development or in English Easy tool for Quick and Dirty software jobs  If you have a PC on your desk or lab bench you can do more/faster with VBA

VBA session 3: Resources  Microsoft is the mothership: you may wish to Start Here  also try here or herehere  is a good place to start searching for all kinds of interfaces  Here are some fun FAQsFAQs  A good place to learn about VB is herehere  Did you know there is a free version of VB? It’s true: look herehere