Question

Is there an alternative to using ActiveWorkbook and ActiveSheet in VBA when working with multiple workbooks (copying from workbooks in a list to a master sheet) ? It is turning out to be more confusing than anything to know which workbook is open when working with multiple functions which need to use different workbooks. Is it a matter of code organization ?

For the moment I think I can manage by storing the activeworkbook’s name at the beginning of every function and restoring it, but it seems like a lot of work and probably a lot of processing time for not much results.

Ideas ?

Answer 1

Typically when you work through a list you will use a workbook variable to open, manipulate and then close each book

My code below is an example of work through and collate a directory of workbooks (similar to your list example). From Collating worksheets from one or more workbooks into a summary file

Public Sub ConsolidateSheets()
    Dim Wb1 As Workbook
    Dim Wb2 As Workbook
    Dim ws1 As Worksheet
    Dim ws2 As Worksheet
    Dim ws3 As Worksheet
    Dim rng1 As Range
    Dim rng2 As Range
    Dim rng3 As Range
    Dim rngArea As Range
    Dim lrowSpace As Long
    Dim lSht As Long
    Dim lngCalc As Long
    Dim lngRow As Long
    Dim lngCol As Long
    Dim X()
    Dim bProcessFolder As Boolean
    Dim bNewSheet As Boolean

    Dim StrPrefix
    Dim strFileName As String
    Dim strFolderName As String

    'variant declaration needed for the Shell object to use a default directory
    Dim strDefaultFolder As Variant


 bProcessFolder = (MsgBox("Process a single folder (Yes)," & vbNewLine & "or single file (No)", vbYesNo, "Application Scope: Folder or single File") = vbYes)
    bNewSheet = (MsgBox("Extract all data to a single sheet (Yes)," & vbNewLine & "or a target file sheet for each source sheet (No)", vbYesNo, "Output Format: Single sheet or sheet by sheet collection") = vbYes)
    If Not bProcessFolder Then
        If Not bNewSheet Then
            MsgBox "There isn't much point creating a exact replica of your source file :)"
            Exit Sub
        End If
    End If

    'set default directory here if needed
    strDefaultFolder = "C:\temp"

    'If the user is collating all the sheets to a single target sheet then the row spacing
    'to distinguish between different sheets can be set here
    lrowSpace = 1

    If bProcessFolder Then
        strFolderName = BrowseForFolder(strDefaultFolder)
        'Look for xls, xlsx, xlsm files
        strFileName = Dir(strFolderName & "\*.xls*")
    Else
        strFileName = Application _
                      .GetOpenFilename("Select file to process (*.xls*), *.xls*")
    End If

    Set Wb1 = Workbooks.Add(1)
    Set ws1 = Wb1.Sheets(1)
    If Not bNewSheet Then ws1.Range("A1:B1") = Array("workbook name", "worksheet count")

    'Turn off screenupdating, events, alerts and set calculation to manual
    With Application
        .DisplayAlerts = False
        .EnableEvents = False
        .ScreenUpdating = False
        lngCalc = .Calculation
        .Calculation = xlCalculationManual
    End With

    'set path outside the loop
    StrPrefix = strFolderName & IIf(bProcessFolder, "\", vbNullString)

    Do While Len(strFileName) > 0
        'Provide progress status to user
        Application.StatusBar = Left("Processing " & strFolderName & "\" & strFileName, 255)
        'Open each workbook in the folder of interest
        Set Wb2 = Workbooks.Open(StrPrefix & strFileName)
        If Not bNewSheet Then
            'add summary details to first sheet
            ws1.Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Offset(1, 0) = Wb2.Name
            ws1.Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Offset(0, 1) = Wb2.Sheets.Count
        End If
        For Each ws2 In Wb2.Sheets
            If bNewSheet Then
                'All data to a single sheet
                'Skip importing target sheet data if the source sheet is blank
                Set rng2 = ws2.Cells.Find("*", ws2.[a1], xlValues, , xlByRows, xlPrevious)

                If Not rng2 Is Nothing Then
                    Set rng1 = ws1.Cells.Find("*", ws1.[a1], xlValues, , xlByRows, xlPrevious)
                    'Find the first blank row on the target sheet
                    If Not rng1 Is Nothing Then
                        Set rng3 = ws2.Range(ws2.UsedRange.Cells(1), ws2.Cells(rng2.Row, "A"))
                        'Ensure that the row area in the target sheet won't be exceeded
                        If rng3.Rows.Count + rng1.Row < Rows.Count Then
                            'Copy the data from the used range of each source sheet to the first blank row
                            'of the target sheet, using the starting column address from the source sheet being copied
                            ws2.UsedRange.Copy ws1.Cells(rng1.Row + 1 + lrowSpace, ws2.UsedRange.Cells(1).Column)
                        Else
                            MsgBox "Summary sheet size exceeded. Process stopped on " & vbNewLine & _
                                   "sheet: " & ws2.Name & vbNewLine & "of" & vbNewLine & "workbook: " & Wb2.Name
                            Wb2.Close False
                            Exit Do
                        End If
                        'colour the first of any spacer rows
                        If lrowSpace <> 0 Then ws1.Rows(rng1.Row + 1).Interior.Color = vbGreen
                    Else
                        'target sheet is empty so copy to first row
                        ws2.UsedRange.Copy ws1.Cells(1, ws2.UsedRange.Cells(1).Column)
                    End If
                End If
            Else
                'new target sheet for each source sheet
                ws2.Copy after:=Wb1.Sheets(Wb1.Sheets.Count)
                'Remove any links in our target sheet
                With Wb1.Sheets(Wb1.Sheets.Count).Cells
                    .Copy
                    .PasteSpecial xlPasteValues
                End With
                On Error Resume Next
                Wb1.Sheets(Wb1.Sheets.Count).Name = ws2.Name
                'sheet name already exists in target workbook
                If Err.Number <> 0 Then
                    'Add a number to the sheet name till a unique name is derived
                    Do
                        lSht = lSht + 1
                        Set ws3 = Wb1.Sheets(ws2.Name & " " & lSht)
                    Loop While Not ws3 Is Nothing
                    lSht = 0
                End If
                On Error GoTo 0
            End If
        Next ws2
        'Close the opened workbook
        Wb2.Close False
        'Check whether to force a DO loop exit if processing a single file
        If bProcessFolder = False Then Exit Do
        strFileName = Dir
    Loop

    'Remove any links if the user has used a target sheet
    If bNewSheet Then
        With ws1.UsedRange
            .Copy
            .Cells(1).PasteSpecial xlPasteValues
            .Cells(1).Activate
        End With
    Else
        'Format the summary sheet if the user has created separate target sheets
        ws1.Activate
        ws1.Range("A1:B1").Font.Bold = True
        ws1.Columns.AutoFit
    End If

    With Application
        .CutCopyMode = False
        .DisplayAlerts = True
        .EnableEvents = True
        .ScreenUpdating = True
        .Calculation = lngCalc
        .StatusBar = vbNullString
    End With
End Sub


Function BrowseForFolder(Optional OpenAt As Variant) As Variant
'From Ken Puls as used in his vbaexpress.com article
'http://www.vbaexpress.com/kb/getarticle.php?kb_id=284

    Dim ShellApp As Object
    'Create a file browser window at the default folder
    Set ShellApp = CreateObject("Shell.Application"). _
                   BrowseForFolder(0, "Please choose a folder", 0, OpenAt)

    'Set the folder to that selected.  (On error in case cancelled)
    On Error Resume Next
    BrowseForFolder = ShellApp.self.Path
    On Error GoTo 0

    'Destroy the Shell Application
    Set ShellApp = Nothing

    'Check for invalid or non-entries and send to the Invalid error
    'handler if found
    'Valid selections can begin L: (where L is a letter) or
    '\\ (as in \\servername\sharename.  All others are invalid
    Select Case Mid(BrowseForFolder, 2, 1)
    Case Is = ":"
        If Left(BrowseForFolder, 1) = ":" Then GoTo Invalid
    Case Is = "\"
        If Not Left(BrowseForFolder, 1) = "\" Then GoTo Invalid
    Case Else
        GoTo Invalid
    End Select

    Exit Function

Invalid:
    'If it was determined that the selection was invalid, set to False
    BrowseForFolder = False
End Function