Excel VBA Tutorial – The Best Way to Learn Programming in Excel

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Write Your First Macro (VBA Program) in Excel

What is VBA?

VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) is a programming language that empowers you to automate almost every in Excel. With VBA, you can refer to the Excel Objects and use the properties, methods, and events associated with them. For example, you can create a pivot table, inserting a chart, and show a message box to the user using a macro.

The crazy thing is:

For all the tasks which you perform manually in minutes, VBA can do it in seconds, with a single click, with the same accuracy. Even you can write VBA codes that can run automatically when you open a document, a workbook, or even on a specific time.

Let me show you a real-life example:

Every morning when I go to the office, the first thing I need to do is to create a pivot table for the month to date sales and present it to my boss. This includes the same steps, every day. But when I realized that I can use VBA to create a pivot table and insert it in a single click, it saved me 5 minutes every day.

Note: VBA is one of the Advanced Excel Skills.

How VBA Works

VBA is an Object-Oriented Language and as an object-oriented language, in VBA, we structure our codes in a way where we are using objects and then defining their properties.

In simple words, first, we define the object and then the activity which we want to perform. There are objects, collections, methods, and properties which you can use in VBA to write your code.

Don’t miss this: Let’s say you want to tell someone to open a box. The words you will use would be “Open the Box”. It’s plain English, Right? But when it comes to VBA and writing a macro this will be:

Box.Open

As you can see, the above code is started with the box which is our object here and then we have used the method “Open” for it. Let’s go a bit specific, let say if you want to open the box which is RED in color. And for this the code will be:

Boxes(“Red”).Open

In the above code, boxes are the collection and open is the method. If you have multiple boxes we are defining a specific box here. Here’s another way:

Box(“Red”).Unlock = True

In the above code, again boxes are the collection and Unlock is the property that is set to TRUE.

What is VBA used for in Excel?

In Excel, you can use VBA for different things. Here are few:

Enter Data: You can enter data in a cell, range of cells. You can also copy and paste data from one section to another.
Task Automation: You can automate tasks that want you to spend a lot of time. The best example I can give is using a macro to create a pivot table.
Create a Custom Excel Function: With VBA, you can also create a Custom User Defined Function and use it in the worksheet.
Create Add-Ins: In Excel, you can convert your VBA codes into add-ins and share them with others as well.
Integrate with other Microsoft Applications: You can also integrate Excel with other Microsoft applications. Like, you can enter data into a text file.

Write Your First Macro (VBA Program) in Excel

I have a strong belief that in the initial time when someone is starting programming in Excel, HE/SHE should write more and more codes from scratch. The more codes you write from scratch, the more you understand how VBA works.

But you need to start with writing simple codes instead of jumping into a complex one. That’s WHY I don’t want you to think about anything complex right now.

You can even write a macro code to create a pivot table, but right now, I don’t want you to think that far. Let’s think about an activity that you want to perform in your worksheet, and you can write a code for it.

Go to the Developer Tab and open the Visual Basic Editor from the “Visual Basic” button.
After that, insert a new module from the “Project Window” (Right-click ➢ Insert ➢ Module).
After that, come to the code window and create a macro with the name “Enter Done” (we are creating a SUB procedure), just like I have below.
From here, you need to write a code which we have just discussed above. Hold for second and think like this: You need to specify the cell where you want to insert the value and then the value which you wish to enter.
Enter the cell reference, and for this, you need to use RANGE object and specify the cell address in it, like below:
After that, enter a dot, and the moment you add a dot, you’ll have a list of properties that you can define and activities that you can do with the range.
From here, you need to select the “Value” property and set the text which you want to insert in the cell “A1” and when to do it, your code with look something like below.
Finally, above the line of code, enter the text (‘this code enters the value “Done” in the cell A5). It’s a VBA Comment that you can insert to define the line of code that you have written.

The Best Way to VBA – Excel Programming

Here I have listed some of the most amazing tutorials (not in any particular sequence) that can help you learn VBA in NO TIME.