Cells(1,1) vs Range("A1")

[Jon von der Heyden]

Hope this isn't too stupid a question

Looking at the typical code of the guru's I get the impression that clever folk favour cells(1,1) method over Range("A1") method.

Just wondering what the advantages of the one method is over the other? I mean I can understand that for looping purposes (For i = 1 to 100) etc. it may be easier to construct.

Any other distinct advantages?

Best regards
Jon

 

[erik.van.geit]

Hi,

first reason could be "micro-speed-optimization"

Sub test()
Dim starttime As Double
Dim s As String
Dim i As Long

starttime = Timer

    For i = 1 To 10 ^ 5
    s = Range("A1").Value
    's = Cells(1, 1).Value
    Next i
    
MsgBox Timer - starttime

End Sub

when you disable the first "s = ..." line and enable the second, you will notice that the second is quite faster

kind regards,
Erik

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

Aah I see, thanks Erik. I suppose it's always good to know that you're working to optimum efficiency however slight it may be

I suppose the same principle applies with regards to Range("A65536").End(xlUp) vs. Cells(Rows.Count,1).End(xlUp) too then... Because when would Rows.Count not equal 65536?

 

[erik.van.geit]

wait a moment...
my reply wasn't possibly the only answer!
perhaps a guru will tell more about it

as far as I understand this would be the logic:
Excel and VBA, computers in general like "numbers" not "strings"
I can imagine VBA performing some (luckily a quickworking) lookuptask to check out what "A" means in that context Range("A1")
I can imagine that the lookuptable is nothing more than the "default-names-table" (why else would "A1" be in the namebox?)
which explains the difference in speed

another obvious answer
Range("A1:D5") is easier to write than
Cells(1, 1).Resize(5, 4)

stil expecting other viewpoints ...

 

[hatman]

Personally, I use both syntaxes, based on my application. I find the Range() method to provide better code readability, but it has some shortcomings...

If I am interacting with a single fixed cell:

 a = Range("BA285").value

If I am parsing a column of information:

For Cnt = 1 to 100
    range("BA" & cnt).value = Cnt
Next Cnt

If I am parsing rows and columns:

For Cnt_Row = 1 to 100
    For Cnt_Col = 1 to 100
        cells(Cnt_Row,Cnt_Col).value = "Row " & Cnt_Row & ", Column " & Cnt_Col
    Next Cnt_Col
Next Cnt_Row

How else would you parse columns using Range()? Up to Column Z, you can use the Chr() function:

For Cnt_Row = 1 to 100
    For Cnt_Col = 65 to 90
        cells(Cnt_Row,chr(Cnt_Col)).value = chr(Cnt_Col) & Cnt_Row
    Next Cnt_Col
Next Cnt_Row

But this breaks down beyond column Z, and you would need something like this to get there:

For Cnt_Row = 1 to 100
    For Cnt_Col = 1 to 256
        cells(Cnt_Row,alpha(Cnt_Col)).value = alpha(Cnt_Col) & Cnt_Row
    Next Cnt_Col
Next Cnt_Row

Function Alpha(num As Integer) As String

    b = Int(num / 26)
    
    a = num Mod 26
    
    If b = 0 Or (a = 0 And b = 1) Then
    
        Alpha = Chr(num + 64)
        
    Else
    
        If a = 0 Then
        
            Alpha = Chr(b + 63) & "Z"
        
        Else
            
            Alpha = Chr(b + 64) & Chr(a + 64)
            
        End If
        
    End If
    
End Function

 

[ExcelChampion]

I suppose the same principle applies with regards to Range("A65536").End(xlUp) vs. Cells(Rows.Count,1).End(xlUp) too then... Because when would Rows.Count not equal 65536?

If using an early version of Excel which only has about ~16000 rows, or the newest version of Excel which has ~1,000,000 rows...

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

Hatman - very helpful response, thanks Certainly provides some good reasoning for using a combination of both.

ExcelChampion & Erik - couple of good points there too! Thanks

Cheers
Jon

 

[macleanb]

Also, for completeness dont forget the "old" [A1] notation - which is slower still!

However that said, in my experience I would never use either range() or "[]" inside a loop, so its not an issue. I did briefly use the range("A" & counter ) approach, but I stopped (not for performance reasons)

I still do use the [a1] notation though as I find it very readable and kinda reminds me this is a constant address (and old habbits die hard)

Seems like cells is ~10% faster than range(), and

#VALUE!

 

[Oorang]

For my money I have come to prefer loading a range into a variant array via:

Sub Test()
Dim vArr As Variant
Dim lIndx As Long
vArr = Excel.ActiveSheet.UsedRange
    For lIndx = 1 To 3
        vArr(lIndx, lIndx) = "Something New"
    Next lIndx
Excel.ActiveSheet.UsedRange = vArr
End Sub

Why? Because if something goes wrong during execution and the program aborts... The workbook is still in it's original state

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

Mmmm, I'm gonna have to look into Variant later today, can't say I know what it's all about and I'm not entirely sure what the intended use of that code is. Are you changing the UsedRange?

I'll have a read on the topic later this p.m.