Please recommend a VBA book . . .

[Evagrius Ponticus]

Hey Gang, I was wondering if any of you would recommend a book for someone who is new to VBA but would like to learn and eventually become very competent . . . all the books I've looked at so far seem to assume that the reader already has VBA knowledge . . . .

 

[Evagrius Ponticus]

Thanks for you input fellas. VoGII I will consider the items on the link you posted. Alexander Barnes, I am actually on page 32 of VBA and Macros for Microsoft excel . . so far it seems a deeper more thorough explanation of excel than the dummies book.

 

[brian.wethington]

The 3 best resources for learning VBA

1. This Forum (or others like it). - this accounts for probably 2/3 of my VBA
2. The Macro Recorder - Tools - Macro - Record New Macro. This is about 1/3

3. Your imagination.

I would only add the VBA Helpfiles to this list. Others argue that the helpfiles are not helpful but I think it is all in how it is used. It helps me with al lot of basic building blocks that I can simply add other basic blocks too to really allow my imagination to shine. I can't even remember the last time I used the Macro Recorder anymore, but it really was helpful when I was first learning.

 

[lenze]

As an after thought.

I agree that this and other forums are the best way to learn, along with the Macro recorder. I am fairly good with VBA, and I have never opened a book on the subject. All I know came from this and other forums. It's simply a matter of wanting to learn. See my signature.

lenze

 

[Jonmo1]

I was told the recorder is not the best way to learn

No body ever claimed it was the best way.

And many will say (I agree) the macro recorder is not a good way to write code. But for LEARNING code, it's a GREAT...no...FANTASTIC tool..

Anytime I find myself asking "How Do I...?"

The macro recorder is one of my first options.

Almost Anything you can do by hand in the excel GUI, the macro recorder can show you how to write it in code. It shows you the correct syntax for functions.

The reason we say it's not a good tool to WRITE code with, is mainly because it does alot of SELECTING sheets and ranges. While there is nothign WRONG with that, however it is a very ineficient and ugly way to write code. And your resulting code will be very slow. Selecting sheets and ranges makes code very slow.

But again, for the purpose of LEARNING how to write code, there's nothing wrong with the macro recorder. You'll be hard pressed to find an easier/faster way to learn how to do a specific task in code. Once you know how to do a specific task by hand in the Excel GUI, in about a minute or so you can learn how it's done in code.

edited for a final thought on the subject....

Probably a good piece of advice for using the macro recorder....
Don't use it to write out a whole long process you need to use for preparing a spreadsheet....Use it sparingly to learn how to write 1 specific task. For example..."How can I rename a sheet in Code?"..Or.."How Can I Turn The Sheet's Protection On And Off?"

so just quickly start the recorder, rename a sheet and/or Turn protection on/off. Wala, you see the code to rename a sheet and/or turn Protection on/off.

 

[Boller]

I second VoGII's recommendation.

Apart from being very good books, a big advantage is that code can be copied and pasted straight to your macros.

 

[F1f3r2k6]

Forget my question, I just noticed that it has already been answered in this post, Thanks.

I am also looking for books to buy for VB, has anyone heard of

Excel VBA Programming for Dummies (For Dummies) - Author John Walkenbach

Is this book any good?

The only reason I am asking is because I don't have all that much money so I would rather buy 2 or 3 books that will be useful and worthwhile than buying books and finding out that I don't understand them because they are too far advanced for me as I am a total noobie at this.

I will be going with VOGII's recommendation, its just that I find I learn better if I use different sources (theres usually something a little different, if you know what I mean)

Thanks.

Forget my question, I just noticed that it has already been answered in this post, Thanks.