What is a VBA Macro in Excel? - Corporate Finance Institute

VBA Macros use the Visual Basic Application in Excel to create custom user-generated functions and speed up manual tasks by creating ... Home›Resources›ExcelResources›Study›VBAMacros VBAMacros HowtosetupmacrosinVBA Writtenby CFITeam UpdatedFebruary9,2022 WhatareVBAMacrosinExcel? VBAMacrosusetheVisualBasicApplicationinExceltocreatecustomuser-generatedfunctionsandspeedupmanualtasksbycreatingautomatedprocesses. Additionally,VBAcanbeusedtoaccesstheWindowsApplicationProgrammingInterface(API). Oneofitsmainusesistochangeandcustomizetheuserinterfacebycreatingpersonalizedtoolbars,menus,dialogboxes,andforms. Tolearnmore,launchCFI’sExcelVBAcoursenow! Beforeyoucontinue,usetheformbelowtogetaccesstoourcomprehensiveVBAcheatsheetforanoverviewofkeycodesandmacros,terminology,andbestpracticesinExcelVBA. HowtoCreateExcelVBAMacros Inaseparatearticle,CFIdiscusseswhatVBAisandhowtoaccesstheVBAEditor.Asasummary,pressingAlt+F11inExcelopensuptheVBAwindowandallowstheusertobegincodingmacros. Tostartcoding,theuserwillhavetocreateaModulefile.Modulefilescontainagroupofmacros.Tocreateanewmodule,pressInsert>Module.Optionally,theusercannamethismoduleusingthepropertieswindowinthebottomleftcorneroftheeditor.Simplytypeinanewmodulenameandpressenter. HowtoNameExcelVBAMacros Tostartoff,themacromustbegivenauniquename.Thisnamecannotmatchothermacros,anditusuallycannotmatchthenameofotherproperties,functions,andtoolswithinExcel.Themacronameiswhattheuserwillusetocallthemacrointoaction. Todefineamacroname,theusermusttypeSubname()andpress“enter”inthecodingwindowoftheeditor.PressingenterwillautomaticallyfillthewindowwiththegeneralformatofanExcelmacro.Forexample,tonamethemacro“CFIMacro”,ausershouldtype“SubcfiMacro()”andpressenter.TheVBAEditorwillautomaticallyaddan“EndSub”lineafewlinesbelowthe“Sub”. Note:Thegeneralconventionfortypingnamesforanymacro,function,orvariableinVBAistouselowercaseifthereisonlyoneword,andtouseanuppercaseletteratthestartofeverynewword.VBAnamesgenerallycannotcontainspaces.SinceCFIMacroistwowords,thisshouldbewrittenascfiMacro.However,thesearejustbestpracticeguidelinesandneednotnecessarilybeadheredto. SubNameinVBA TheSubName()linetellstheeditorthestartofthemacrocode.TheEndSubdenotestheend.Iftheuserwantedto,heorshecouldcreateasecondnewmacrobystartinganewSubName()linebelowthefirstEndSub.TrythisoutandyoushouldnoticethatExcelwillautomaticallycreatealinebetweenthetwodifferentmacros. ThisisthebasicstructureofanExcelmacro.Thenextstep,beforejumpingintotheactualprocesscoding,istodefinethevariablestheuserisgoingtouseinthecode.Youmaybeinterestedinourfully-fledgedExcelVBAmacrocourse.Clickhere tolaunchthecoursenow! AdditionalResources ThankyouforreadingtheCFIintroductoryguidetoVBAmacrosinExcel.Tokeeplearningandadvancingyourcareer,checkouttheseadditionalCFIresources: ExcelShortcuts(PCandMac) AdvancedExcelFormulas ListofExcelFunctions FreeExcelCourse Sharethisarticle GetCertifiedfor
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