Writing functions for Excel using VBA
Part three of a three-part series of blogs

On-line training in writing functions using VBA, for use either within other VBA programs or within Excel itself.

  1. Writing and Using Functions in Excel Visual Basic
  2. Examples of a Function to Make Coding Easier
  3. Writing Functions for Use within Excel VBA (this blog)

This blog is part of our Excel VBA tutorial.  Wise Owl's main business is running classroom-based training courses; have a look at our Excel courses or VBA courses, for example.

Posted by Andy Brown on 24 February 2012

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Writing Functions for Use within Excel VBA

Suppose you want to work out how tall you are in metres, given your height in feet and inches (these are weird, archaic units of measurement still commonly used in the UK - you don't need to understand what they are to use this example).

The VBA for our Function

Our Excel spreadsheet should look like this:

The function in use on a worksheet

Type in the formula:

 

The Metres function should take in two arguments:

  1. The person's height in whole feet; and
  2. The residual number of inches

and return the number of metres. Here's some code which would do this:

Function Metres(Feet As Single, Inches As Single) As Single

Const MetresPerInch As Single = 0.0254

Const InchesPerFoot As Integer = 12

'first work out how may inches tall the person is

Dim TotalInches As Single

TotalInches = Feet * InchesPerFoot + Inches

'now return number of metres

Metres = MetresPerInch * TotalInches

End Function

Using the Function within Excel

You can type in this function within Excel, but it's more fun to use the function wizard:

Invoking the function wizard

Click on the cell where the answer should go, then click on the function wizard tool.

 

You can now choose your function:

  1. Choose to display user-defined functions (ie ones you've written).
  2. Choose the Metres function.

Here's the Insert Function dialog box with the steps shown numbered:

Insert Function dialog box

The Insert Function dialog box

You now - at last - have help on the arguments, and can complete the dialog box in the usual way:

Function wizard arguments

Complete the dialog box by specifying which cells will provide the feet and inches.

Advanced hint: user-defined functions are "volatile".  What this means is if you calculate a spreadsheet containing user-defined functions their value will always be recalculated, even if it can't possibly have changed.  This means that if you use VBA functions extensively your spreadsheet calculation speed may drop.

Personally I think Excel has got all of the functions I need, and I only ever use VBA functions within code to make programming easier.

 

  1. Writing and Using Functions in Excel Visual Basic
  2. Examples of a Function to Make Coding Easier
  3. Writing Functions for Use within Excel VBA (this blog)
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