This document outlines an Excel training program by Laura Winger focusing on VBA macro basics, including formulas, variables, conditional statements, and loops. It provides syntax examples, explains how to create and run macros, and discusses best practices for variable declaration and commenting. The training emphasizes clarity in programming to enhance understanding and functionality in Excel tasks.

1. Excel training that “sticks” by
Laura Winger

2.  Formulas
 Formatting, Filtering and Finance
 Sorting and Pivot Tables
 Stats and Graphs
 Access Basics
 PowerPoint Tricks
 Macro Basics
 Syntax & Comments
 Variables
 If Statement & Reserved Words
 Controls
 Cells in Excel
 Loops
 Recording
“It is when the tools of
production are
transparent, that we are
inspired to create.”
- Chris Anderson,
The Long Tail
Microsoft Excel Excellence 2

3. Macro Basics - Syntax
• Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
– Syntax similar to Java and C++
– Example:
If(oneValue = anotherValue) Then
……
Else
……
End If
– As with formulas, you do not need to worry about
capitalization. If you write “if”, when you go to another
line of code, it will automatically correct itself it “If”
Microsoft Excel Excellence 3

4. Macro Basics – Comments
• Commenting is a good practice for ALL programmers,
the more information, the better!
• Use comments to describe sections of code and to
make notes for yourself or other programmers
• To write a comment, start with an apostrophe
• The end of the line is the end of the comment, so if you
need multiple lines of comments, each line must start
with an apostrophe
• A comment can be on its own line, or at the end of a
line of code
• Anything after the apostrophe is seen as a comment by
the code
'This macro was created on 4/1/2012
'Created for Acme, Inc.
'For help using this macro, please contact administrator.
Microsoft Excel Excellence 4

5. Macro Basics - Variables
• Variables are objects that store information
– Can be set to be a string (text), integer, long (number with
decimals), date, boolean (true or false) and much more…
What kind of variable would you
use to store…
Variable type Reasoning
a person’s name? String Names are not numbers
or dates, they are text.
a person’s age? Integer While you could say you
are 35½, you generally
give your age in whole
numbers, so integer
makes the most sense.
a person’s birthday? Date (Duh?)
a person’s hourly wage? Long Wages often have cents,
so you would want to use
long instead of integer.
Microsoft Excel Excellence 5

6. Macro Basics - Variables
• To declare a new variable name, start with the word “Dim”
Dim newVar As String
• Once you have a declared variable, you can give it values
newVar = “Some text”
– Note that this can be interpreted as “set variable newVar to be
equal to ‘Some text’”. Setting values always go left to right.
– Values for strings must be in quote marks, otherwise VBA
will think it’s a variable or some code it doesn’t recognize.
– Values for dates need to have pound signs around them
Dim myDate As Date
myDate = #1/14/2011#
– Values for numbers (i.e. integers, long) can be entered
without any punctuation
Dim newVar1 As Integer
Dim newVar2 As Long
newVar1 = 42
newVar2 = 37.9
Microsoft Excel Excellence 6

7. Macro Basics - Variables
• Let’s pretend we’re writing a macro about ages.
Dim myName as String
Dim myAge as Integer
Dim myBirthday as Date
myName = “Laura”
myAge = 27
myBirthday = 07/11/1984
Like in formulas, capitalization
does not matter in VBA
programming!*
*With one exception, which we’ll get into later.
• Then we could write code that checks if today is my
birthday, and if so, we would want to add 1 to my age.
myAge = myAge + 1
• But first, we’ll have to learn a few more tools…
Microsoft Excel Excellence 7

8. Macro Basics – If Statement
• If statements follow If, Then, Else format
– Else is optional
– Must end with an “End If” statement*
*Unless done in one line
If myAge > 20 Then
allowedToDrink = True
End If
allowedToDrink = False
If myAge If myAge > 20 Then > 20 Then allowedToDrink = True
allowedToDrink = True
Else
allowedToDrink = False
End If
How are these different?
 In Ex. 1, allowedToDrink has no value unless myAge is greater
than 20, in which case it becomes True.
 In Ex. 2, the default value is False, unless myAge is greater
than 20, in which case it becomes True.
 In Ex. 3, allowedToDrink gets a value either way.
Microsoft Excel Excellence 8

9. Macro Basics – Reserved Words
• Reserved words are special words that VBA has listed in its dictionary;
these words alone cannot be declared or used as variables.
• Date is not only a type of variable; it can be used in a formula to give
you today’s date (based on the computer system’s date)
myDate = Date + 1 'this gives you tomorrow’s date
myDate = Date - 1 'this gives you yesterday’s date
• Now gives you today’s date and the current time
curTime = Now - Date 'this gives you the current time without the date
• Time also gives you the current time
• True and False are also reserved because they are the values of
booleans
Microsoft Excel Excellence 9

10. Macro Basics – If Statement
– What is wrong with this code?
Dim myName As String
Dim myAge As Integer
Dim myBirthday As Date
myName = "Laura" 'note that quotes are used
myAge = 27
myBirthday = #7/11/1984# 'pound signs indicate a date
If Date = myBirthday Then
myAge = myAge + 1 'on my birthday, I will be a year older
End If
• Hint: What date is my next birthday?
• Answer: It will never be 7/11/1984 again, so we need to
transform myBirthday to be in the present year.
Microsoft Excel Excellence 10

11. Macro Basics - Variables
• Fixed code:
Dim myName As String
Dim myAge As Integer
Dim myBirthday, curBirthday As Date
myAge = 27
myBirthday = #7/11/1984#
curBirthday = DateSerial(Year(Date), _
Month(myBirthday), Day(myBirthday))
If Date = curBirthday Then
myAge = myAge + 1
End If
Note that
multiple
variables of the
same type can
be declared in
one line, just
separate them
with a comma
and a space!
Use an underscore
to continue a line
of code to the next
line for easy
reading.
Microsoft Excel Excellence 11

12. Macro Basics - Variables
• Review declaring variables
– Syntax: Dim newVar as String
• Declare variables as String, Integer, Date, Long, etc.
– Can declare multiple variables of one type
Dim newVar1, newVar2 as String
• Why declare Variables?
– Helps eliminate (or bring attention to) incorrect formats
• For example, this will throw an error
Dim myBirthday as Date
myBirthday = “Laura”
– Use capitalization to check your spelling
• All my variables have at least one capital letter
• When I type the variable, I write it with all lower case letters
• If the variable is spelled correctly, it will capitalize automatically
when I go to another line.
• If variable is not declared, it will default to the last form typed
Microsoft Excel Excellence 12

13. Macro Basics – Creating a Macro
• Are you ready? In
the View ribbon, go
to Macros, and then
View Macros
• Type in a name for
your macro (no
spaces), and hit
Create
Microsoft Excel Excellence 13

14. Macro Basics - Variables
• VBA creates a new macro for you called a “Sub”, and even puts
the “End Sub” code at the bottom. In between, type this code:
dim myName as string
dim myAge as integer
dim myBirthday, curBirthday, curDate as date
myname = “Kevin” 'write your name, but don’t forget the quotes!
myage = 27 'try putting in multiple spaces after the equals sign
curdate = #1/15/12#
mybirthday = #7/11/84# 'or use your own birthday here
curbirthday = dateserial(year(date), month(mybirthday), day(mybirthday))
if curdate = curbirthday then
myage = myage + 1
end if
Did VBA correct your capitalization?
What did it do to your dates?
Microsoft Excel Excellence 14

15. Congratulations!
You just wrote your
first VBA macro!
Now take
a break
and
celebrate!

16. Macro Basics – Controls
• You can run the whole macro by hitting F5 on
your keyboard or clicking the Run button
• You can step into your macro by hitting F8
• Put a Break into your macro by clicking in the
gray area just left of the code.
Microsoft Excel Excellence 16

17. Macro Basics – Controls
• Try putting a break in your code on the
beginning of the If statement.
• Hit F5 or click the Run button
• Take your cursor and hover over one of the
variables. Does it have a value?
Microsoft Excel Excellence 17

18. Macro Basics – Controls
• Hit the Reset button
• Change curDate to the date of your
birthday, then run it again.
• Hit F8 to step into the If statement
• Hover over myAge – if the text is still
highlighted in yellow, it hasn’t run that line
of code yet
• Hit F8 again
• Now myAge should have increased!
Microsoft Excel Excellence 18

19. Macro Basics – Controls
• Click and drag the yellow arrow back up to
the line above the If statement.
• Hit F8 twice; myAge should have increased
again.
Microsoft Excel Excellence 19

20. Macro Basics – Cells in Excel
• There are many ways to call cells, but for our purpose,
we’re going to use just one
• Syntax: Cells([row], [column])
• The row and column can be hard-coded or use variables
• The Value of a cell is either the text, or if there’s a
formula, what the formula evaluates to
– Call the Value with this syntax:
Cells([row], [column]).Value
• You can set the Value of a cell like this:
Cells([row], [column]).Value = 1
• You can get the Value of a cell and store it in a variable:
newVar1 = Cells([row], [column]).Value
Microsoft Excel Excellence 20

21. Macro Basics – Cells in Excel
• Identify and change values and formats of cells
Cells([row], [column]).Activate
ActiveCell.Value = “Hello”
Range("A1:B2").Select
– Selection.Interior.ColorIndex = 9
– Cells([row], [column]).Interior.ColorIndex = 9
Microsoft Excel Excellence 21

22. Macro Basics – User Input
• Message Boxes can be used to alert the user of a critical issue,
or to get boolean feedback from the user
• Syntax: MsgBox([Prompt], [Buttons], [Title]...)
• Only the Prompt is required, the rest are optional
• The Prompt is the text you want displayed in the message box.
• For a message:
MsgBox("You have started a macro. Press OK to continue.")
• To get feedback:
myVariable = MsgBox("Are you well today?", vbYesNo)
• Input Boxes are used to get data from the user
• Syntax: InputBox([Prompt], [Title]...)
• Again, only the Prompt is required
• To get a value from the user:
myAge = InputBox(“How old are you?”)
Microsoft Excel Excellence 22

23. Macro Basics - Loops
• Loops
– For Loops increment an integer until it reaches a max
value
For i = 1 To 10 Step 2
’(code inside for loop)
Next i
• The Step sets the interval i will increase by; this is optional,
and if not set, will default to 1
– While Loops continue to loop until a certain condition
is met
While i <= 10
’ (code inside while loop)
i = i + 2
Wend
These two sample codes essentially are
equivalent, but we’ll show you examples
that differentiate the two types of Loops.
Microsoft Excel Excellence 23

24. Want more?
Contact Laura Winger about Excel
training that actually sticks!