Binaryworld - How To Automate Microsoft Excel from Visual Basic ... [ VB -> Excel ]

There are two ways to control an Automation server: by using either late binding or early binding. With late binding, methods are not bound until run-time and the Automation server is declared as Object. With early binding, your application knows at design-time the exact type of object it will be communicating with, and can declare its objects as a specific type. This sample uses early binding, which is considered better in most cases because it affords greater performance and better type safety.

To early bind to an Automation server, you need to set a reference to that server's type library. In Visual Basic, this is done through the References dialog box found under the Project | References menu. For this sample, you will need to add a reference to the type library for Excel before you can run the code. See the steps below on how to add the reference.

Building the Automation Sample
1. Start Visual Basic and create a new Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default.
2. Select Project|References to bring up the References dialog. Scroll down the list until you find "Microsoft Excel 10.0 Object Library" and select the item to add a reference to Excel 2002. If the item does not appear in the list, make sure you have Excel 2002 properly installed.

Note If you are automating Microsoft Office Excel 2003, the type library appears as "Microsoft Excel 11.0 Object Library" in the References list. If you are automating Microsoft Excel 2000, the type library appears as "Microsoft Excel 9.0 Object Library" in the References list , and if you have Microsoft Excel 97, it will appear as the "Microsoft Excel 8.0 Object Library."
3. Click OK to close the References dialog.
4. Add a CommandButton to Form1.
5. In the code window for Form1, insert the following code

Click here to copy the following block

Option Explicit

Private Sub Command1_Click()
  Dim oXL As Excel.Application
  Dim oWB As Excel.Workbook
  Dim oSheet As Excel.Worksheet
  Dim oRng As Excel.Range

  'On Error GoTo Err_Handler

  ' Start Excel and get Application object.
  Set oXL = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
  oXL.Visible = True

  ' Get a new workbook.
  Set oWB = oXL.Workbooks.Add
  Set oSheet = oWB.ActiveSheet

  ' Add table headers going cell by cell.
  oSheet.Cells(1, 1).Value = "First Name"
  oSheet.Cells(1, 2).Value = "Last Name"
  oSheet.Cells(1, 3).Value = "Full Name"
  oSheet.Cells(1, 4).Value = "Salary"

  ' Format A1:D1 as bold, vertical alignment = center.
  With oSheet.Range("A1", "D1")
    .Font.Bold = True
    .VerticalAlignment = xlVAlignCenter
  End With

  ' Create an array to set multiple values at once.
  Dim saNames(5, 2) As String
  saNames(0, 0) = "John"
  saNames(0, 1) = "Smith"
  saNames(1, 0) = "Tom"
  saNames(1, 1) = "Brown"
  saNames(2, 0) = "Sue"
  saNames(2, 1) = "Thomas"
  saNames(3, 0) = "Jane"

  saNames(3, 1) = "Jones"
  saNames(4, 0) = "Adam"
  saNames(4, 1) = "Johnson"

  ' Fill A2:B6 with an array of values (First and Last Names).
  oSheet.Range("A2", "B6").Value = saNames

  ' Fill C2:C6 with a relative formula (=A2 & " " & B2).
  Set oRng = oSheet.Range("C2", "C6")
  oRng.Formula = "=A2 & "" "" & B2"

  ' Fill D2:D6 with a formula(=RAND()*100000) and apply format.
  Set oRng = oSheet.Range("D2", "D6")
  oRng.Formula = "=RAND()*100000"
  oRng.NumberFormat = "$0.00"

  ' AutoFit columns A:D.
  Set oRng = oSheet.Range("A1", "D1")
  oRng.EntireColumn.AutoFit

  ' Manipulate a variable number of columns for Quarterly Sales Data.
  Call DisplayQuarterlySales(oSheet)

  ' Make sure Excel is visible and give the user control
  ' of Microsoft Excel's lifetime.
  oXL.Visible = True
  oXL.UserControl = True

  ' Make sure you release object references.
  Set oRng = Nothing
  Set oSheet = Nothing
  Set oWB = Nothing
  Set oXL = Nothing

  Exit Sub
Err_Handler:
  MsgBox Err.Description, vbCritical, "Error: " & Err.Number
End Sub

Private Sub DisplayQuarterlySales(oWS As Excel.Worksheet)
  Dim oResizeRange As Excel.Range
  Dim oChart As Excel.Chart
  Dim iNumQtrs As Integer
  Dim sMsg As String
  Dim iRet As Integer

  ' Determine how many quarters to display data for.
  For iNumQtrs = 4 To 2 Step -1
    sMsg = "Enter sales data for" & Str(iNumQtrs) & " quarter(s)?"
    iRet = MsgBox(sMsg, vbYesNo Or vbQuestion _
        Or vbMsgBoxSetForeground, "Quarterly Sales")
    If iRet = vbYes Then Exit For
  Next iNumQtrs

  sMsg = "Displaying data for" & Str(iNumQtrs) & " quarter(s)."
  MsgBox sMsg, vbMsgBoxSetForeground, "Quarterly Sales"

  ' Starting at E1, fill headers for the number of columns selected.
  Set oResizeRange = oWS.Range("E1", "E1").Resize(ColumnSize:=iNumQtrs)

  oResizeRange.Formula = "=""Q"" & COLUMN()-4 & CHAR(10) & ""Sales"""

  ' Change the Orientation and WrapText properties for the headers.
  oResizeRange.Orientation = 38
  oResizeRange.WrapText = True

  ' Fill the interior color of the headers.
  oResizeRange.Interior.ColorIndex = 36

  ' Fill the columns with a formula and apply a number format.
  Set oResizeRange = oWS.Range("E2", "E6").Resize(ColumnSize:=iNumQtrs)
  oResizeRange.Formula = "=RAND()*100"
  oResizeRange.NumberFormat = "$0.00"

  ' Apply borders to the Sales data and headers.
  Set oResizeRange = oWS.Range("E1", "E6").Resize(ColumnSize:=iNumQtrs)
  oResizeRange.Borders.Weight = xlThin

  ' Add a Totals formula for the sales data and apply a border.
  Set oResizeRange = oWS.Range("E8", "E8").Resize(ColumnSize:=iNumQtrs)
  oResizeRange.Formula = "=SUM(E2:E6)"
  With oResizeRange.Borders(xlEdgeBottom)
    .LineStyle = xlDouble
    .Weight = xlThick
  End With

  ' Add a Chart for the selected data
  Set oResizeRange = oWS.Range("E2:E6").Resize(ColumnSize:=iNumQtrs)
  Set oChart = oWS.Parent.Charts.Add
  With oChart
    .ChartWizard oResizeRange, xl3DColumn, , xlColumns
    .SeriesCollection(1).XValues = oWS.Range("A2", "A6")
    For iRet = 1 To iNumQtrs
      .SeriesCollection(iRet).Name = "=""Q" & Str(iRet) & """"
    Next iRet
    .Location xlLocationAsObject, oWS.Name
  End With

  ' Move the chart so as not to cover your data.
  With oWS.Shapes("Chart 1")
    .Top = oWS.Rows(10).Top
    .Left = oWS.Columns(2).Left

  End With

  ' Free any references.
  Set oChart = Nothing
  Set oResizeRange = Nothing

End Sub