If, in your VBA program, you need to perform the same task (i.e. repeat the same piece of code) multiple times, this can be done using one of the VBA Loops.
The VBA Loop types are:
Each of the above loop types is discussed separately below.
The Visual Basic 'For' loop takes on two separate forms. These are the For ... Next loop and the For Each loop.
The For ... Next loop uses a variable, which cycles through a series of values within a specified range. The VBA code inside the loop is then executed for each value. This is best explained by way of a simple example:
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For i = 1 To 10 Total = Total + iArray(i) Next i |
The above simple For ... Next loop sets the variable i to have the values 1, 2, 3, ..., 10, and for each of these values, runs through the VBA code inside the loop. Therefore, in the above example, the loop adds each of the members of the array iArray to the variable, Total.
In the above example, no step size is specified, so the loop uses the default step size of 1, when looping from 1 to 10. However, you may sometimes want to step through a loop using different sized steps. This can be done using the Step keyword, as shown in the following simple example.
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For d = 0 To 10 Step 0.1 dTotal = dTotal + d Next d |
In the above For loop, because the step size is specified as 0.1, the value of the variable d is set to the values 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, ..., 9.9, 10.0 for each execution of the VBA code inside the loop.
You can also use negative step sizes in the VBA For loop, as is illustrated below:
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For i = 10 To 1 Step -1 iArray(i) = i Next i |
In this example, the step size is specified as -1, and so the loop sets the variable i to have the values, 10, 9, 8, ..., 1.
The For Each loop is similar to the For ... Next loop but, instead of running through a set of values for a variable, the For Each loop runs through every object within a set of objects. For example, the following code shows the For Each loop used to list every Worksheet in the current Excel Workbook:
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Dim wSheet As Worksheet
For Each wSheet in WorksheetsMsgBox "Found Worksheet: " & wSheet.Name Next wSheet |
If, you want to exit a 'For' Loop early, you can use the Exit For statement. This statement causes VBA to jump out of the loop and continue with the next line of code outside of the loop. For example, when searching for a particular value in an array, you could use a loop to check each entry of the array. However, once you have found the value you are looking for, there is no need to continue searching, so you exit the loop early.
The Exit For statement is illustrated in the following example, which loops through 100 array entries, comparing each to the value 'dVal'. The loop is exited early if dVal is found in the array:
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For i = 1 To 100
If dValues(i) = dVal Then
Next i
indexVal = i
End If
Exit For |
The Do While loop repeatedly executes a section of code while a specified condition continues to evaluate to True. This is shown in the following Sub procedure, where a Do While loop is used to print out all values of the Fibonacci Sequence until the current value is greater than 1,000:
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' Sub procedure to list the Fibonacci series for all values below 1,000 Sub Fibonacci()
Dim i As Integer
' counter for the position in the series
Dim iFib As Integer ' stores the current value in the series Dim iFib_Next As Integer ' stores the next value in the series Dim iStep As Integer ' stores the next step size
' Initialise the variables i and iFib_Next
' Do While loop to be executed as long as the value of thei = 1 iFib_Next = 0 ' current Fibonacci number exceeds 1000 Do While iFib_Next < 1000
If i = 1 Then
' Special case for the first entry of the series
ElseiStep = 1 iFib = 0
' Store the next step size, before overwriting the
End If
' current entry of the series iStep = iFib iFib = iFib_Next
' Print the current Fibonacci value to column A of the
' Calculate the next value in the series and increment' current Worksheet Cells(i, 1).Value = iFib ' the position marker by 1 iFib_Next = iFib + iStep i = i + 1
Loop
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It can be seen that, in the above example, the condition iFib_Next < 1000 is tested at the start of the loop. Therefore, if the first value of iFib_Next were greater than 1,000, the loop would not be executed at all.
Another way that you can implement the Do While loop is to place the condition at the end of the loop instead of at the beginning. This causes the loop to be executed at least once, regardless of whether or not the condition initially evaluates to True.
The following code shows the form of a Do While Loop which has the condition at the end of the loop:
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Do
.
Loop While iFib_Next < 1000
. . |
The Do Until loop is very similar to the Do While loop. The loop repeatedly executes a section of code until a specified condition evaluates to True. This is shown in the following sub procedure, where a Do Until loop is used to extract the values from all cells in Column A of a Worksheet, until it encounters an empty cell:
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iRow = 1 Do Until IsEmpty(Cells(iRow, 1))
' Store the current cell value in the dCellValues array
Loop
dCellValues(iRow) = Cells(iRow, 1).Value iRow = iRow + 1 |
In the above example, as the condition IsEmpty(Cells(iRow, 1)) is at the start of the Do Until loop, the loop will only be entered if the first cell encountered is non-blank.
However, as illustrated in the Do While loop, you may sometimes want to enter the loop at least once, regardless of the initial condition. In this case, the condition can be placed at the end of the loop, as follows:
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Do
.
Loop Until IsEmpty(Cells(iRow, 1))
. . |