VBA - Cell Reference Efficiency

[gcm48tx]

In general, is ActiveCell.Offset(row,col) or Cells(row,col) more efficient in referencing another cell?

 

[Joe4]

Welcome to the Board!

They don't necessary do the same thing. ActiveCell depends on whatever the active cell is at the time the code is run, where Cells does not.
As a best programming practice, most experienced programmers avoid using things like ActiveCell and Select/Selection/Activate where possible (Selectiing/Activating things WILL actually slow your code down).
Sometimes there is a need for it, but more often than not, it is not needed. You can move around, loop, etc without actually having to select any cells at all.

For example, if you wanted to loop through A1:A10 and return its value to a MsgBox, there are ways you can do it without having to use ActiveCell or Selections, like this:

Dim c as Range
For each c in Range("A1:A10")
    MsgBox c.Value
Next c

or

Dim i as Long
For i = 1 to 10
    MsgBox Cells(i,"A").Value
Next i

 

[Fluff]

They are both different

Range("A1").Select
activecell.Offset(5, 5).Select

will give F6 whereas

Cells(5,5).Select

will give E5.
That said, it's always better to avoid using Activecell.