Do you know all your VBA code off by heart for interviews?

[poiu]

Hello,

I work in accounts departments (as an accountant) automating reporting using vba - I do most of this referring to a 20 page "cheat sheet" I've built up over the years and it's very effective and quick.

The thing is that I don't know my VBA off by heart. The main reason for this is that the code isn't very intuitive (unlike PHP for example) and so it would take a big effort to put it all to memory.

I had an interview recently for finance programming work, but the role was situated in the IT department and the interviewer was an IT manager. He gave me a VBA test and I must have scored pretty much zero, pretty embarrassing.

So do you learn all of VBA off by heart? Or do you have tricks for finding what you need quickly within the VBA window of excel?

Thanks,

Poiu

 

[ZAX]

Hi Poiu,
For a start I'm a kid actually and I don't know if this makes any difference..
I actually learned VBA and Excel in about a month, the Visual Basic is easy cuz it's more like normal talk with a few changes, for example you say:
I want the code to copy the range A1 if it has a value of 8:

If Range("A1").Value = 8 Then
    Range("A1").Copy
End If

The answer to your question is yes, we learned it off by heart, it's pretty easy, here's how I learned it:
I first, read some books to learn the very basics like what's the difference between a macro and a function and how to run a macro...
Then after I understood the basics I downloaded games made using Excel and VBA and learned a lot, it's really helpful, in your case you can browse the forum and see the codes we send.
When I started my father was teaching me and in two weeks, I was the one teaching him!
ZAX

 

[RoryA]

I can do a fair amount off the top of my head but I still use the Object Browser as a quick reference.

 

[RoryA]

I actually learned VBA and Excel in about a month

That's a pretty bold claim - I don't know anyone who would claim to know all of Excel and VBA. I've been doing this a long time and I certainly don't know all there is to know about either one.

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

12 years on I'm still learning. I firmly believe that it takes many months, years even, to become a competent VBA developer, unless you are coming from a development background.

Where people offer VBA development services without suitable experience I note two different kinds of hacks:

1. People from a development background that haven't properly studied the Excel Object Model. They are often capable programmers, but not Excel developers...
2. People who were pretty darn good as Excel users but never took the time to study programming/programming fundamentals...

The topic is huge - significant time and effort investment is required to learn how to develop decent MS Office/Excel solutions...

Do I know it all off by heart? No! I frequently visit the object browser, help files (MSDN) and prior projects...

 

[PaddyD]

"He gave me a <acronym title="visual basic for applications" style="border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); cursor: help; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);">VBA</acronym> test and I must have scored pretty much zero…"

Are you sure? Maybe you scored very well but the IT manager just didn't like you?

 

[SydneyGeek]

Like Jon and Rory, I took a long time to learn. It's a language, and languages take time.
Many of the things that I do regularly are in my head; everyone does it differently but I tend to lay out a big piece of VBA by creating comments to describe the sections, then writing the skeleton structures for all the loops, conditions, etc. After that it's filling in the details.

To get syntax for anything that I am unfamiliar with I often use the recorder, then modify the output. For more detail on methods and properties I use the object Browser. And Google ...

Denis

 

[mole999]

He gave me a VBA test and I must have scored pretty much zero, pretty embarrassing.

write to them and ask for feedback on your strengths and weaknesses from their point of view

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

...but I tend to lay out a big piece of VBA by creating comments to describe the sections, then writing the skeleton structures for all the loops, conditions, etc. After that it's filling in the details.

I pretty much do that too.

I will add that I think that the locals window is quite cool for learning properties too. Having had it open all this while has revealed many properties that I did not know exist...

 

[Jonmo1]

As far as interviews go, I don't think you're judged too much by what you know off the top of your head.
The real question an employer wants to know is, do you know "how and where to find the information"?
They usually want you to do things "By the book" anyway, so as long as you know where the book is and how to read it.
If you can rattle off a few tools and resources that you frequently use, then youre good.
Things like the Help Files, Object Browser, Macro Recorder....um...MrExcel.Com etc...

I'm sure you (like most of us) have at least a few common code bits that you can rattle off the top of your head.
Just have a couple in your head, then you might even mention that you have a cheat sheet (though I wouldn't call it that).
Call it your Personal.xls workbook, that has all of the common and advanced bits of code/formula you frequently use.
This will show you have the initiative and organizational skills most employers want.