trouble returning a workbook level Name object

B

Brian Murphy

I usually need a range object for what the Name refers to. Although sometimes I do need to delete the workbook level Name object.

It was pretty bad when a macro of mine would go to delete a fully qualified book level name, only to find out later that it was a sheet level name that got deleted.

Brian



Dave Peterson said:
If you were only retrieving the value for a few names, didn't going through the
workbook names collection work for you?


Brian said:
Here's what I've arrived at using the "famous" workaround mentioned by Bob Phillips. It goes for deleting and undeleting just a Name instead of a Worksheet. Could use some error checking to make it more robust. I don't think Hidden sheets will cause problems. Protected sheets might be another matter. Seems to do the job in limited testing so far.

It's a far cry from just a simple syntax fix I was hoping for. I wonder how Jan Karel handled this.

Brian

Option Compare Text

Function myWorkbook_Names(thename$) As Variant
'created this routine to work around "first sheet" problem 5/7/2004
Dim nme$, refersto$
Set myWorkbook_Names = Nothing
If IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename) = False Then
'exit and return Nothing
ElseIf InStr(ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename).Name, "!") = 0 Then
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
Else
'even though there's a book level name somewhere, Workbook.Names isn't returning it
With ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
nme = .Name
refersto = .refersto
.Delete
End With
'now ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename) should return the correct book level name
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
'put back the deleted sheet level name
ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=nme, refersto:=refersto
End If
End Function

Function IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename$) As Boolean
Dim o
For Each o In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If o.Name = thename Then
IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel = True
Exit For
End If
Next
End Function

Dave Peterson said:
Ahhh. I get it and remember a post from Jan Karel Pieterse (IIRC) about the
same problem.

I think his solution was to look for a worksheet level name first. If he found
one, the move to a different sheet.

But maybe you could just add a dummy worksheet as the first one. Delete it when
you're done.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range
Dim dummyWks As Worksheet

Set dummyWks = Worksheets.Add(before:=Worksheets(1))

For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
If wks.Name = dummyWks.Name Then
'do nothing
Else
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " & wks.Name & " refers to: " & _

ActiveWorkbook.Names("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
testRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"
End If

Next wks

Application.DisplayAlerts = False
dummyWks.Delete
Application.DisplayAlerts = True

End Sub

Before:
wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1!$D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: sheetlevel1
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2!$D$5:$H$15
-------------


After:

wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1!$D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: Wkbk_level
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2!$D$5:$H$15
-------------

==============

I think Jan Karel (et al) have to be much more careful. The workbook's
structure could be protected and that would eliminate the ability to add a
sheet.

This might not be a factor for you.


=====
And depending on what you're doing, maybe you can go through the names
collection:

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

End Sub

This consistently gave me:
[book1]Wkbk_level!$E$8:$I$20

No matter the order of the sheets.

(Yeah, I missed that bottom part in your original post. Sorry.)







Brian Murphy wrote:

Hello Dave,

Thanks very much for the reply.

The output you showed from your macro tells me that the first sheet in the tab order is Sheet2, and this is the sheet which contains the booklevel instance of the Name. This situation won't exhibit the problem.

Use your mouse to change the sheet order. Have the first sheet contain a sheet level instance. I did this, and with your macro got the following:

3 sheets in the file
Sheet order is: Book_level, Sheet_level_1, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Book_level
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1!$A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2!$A$1
-------------

Sheet order changed to: Sheet_level_1, Book_level, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1!$A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Sheet_level_1
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2!$A$1
-------------

Darn it! Now the book level name is wrong no matter which sheet is active.

The NameManager utility seems to get it right. The j-walk namelist utility, for just one example, does not. That's why I posted to the group in hopes of learning the right way to do this.

This odd behavior becomes a real problem when trying to do something like delete a book level name. The delete method will delete the wrong object, even when it's fully qualified.

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas

Are you sure?

I'm using xl2002 and couldn't duplicate that.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range


For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " & wks.Name & " refers to: " & _
ActiveWorkbook.Names("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
testRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"

Next wks

End Sub

I got this back:

wkbk level from: Sheet2 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet2
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet6 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet6
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet5 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet5
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet4 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet4
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet3 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet3
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet1 refers to: Sheet2
Sheet level also in: [book1.xls]Sheet1!$B$9:$D$18
-------------

It worked the same way with or without the wks.activate.

The best utility that I've ever seen for working with names is Jan Karel
Pieterse's (with Charles Williams and Matthew Henson) Name Manager.

You can find it at:
NameManager.Zip from http://www.bmsltd.ie/mvp

You get lots of options and can see differences very easily. It's well worth
the download.

You can localize and globalize names using this, too.




Brian Murphy wrote:

I'm having trouble finding a fail safe syntax to return a Name object that refers to a cell range.

set obj = ActiveWorkbook.Names(somename)

Here "somename" is a book level name that refers to a range of cells.

The statement above returns a range object for the cells.

Well, sometimes, but not all the time.

If the first sheet in the workbook also contains a sheet level name called "somename", then the above statement returns those cells instead.

So, I'm hoping there is some sort of statement syntax that will work regardless of whether the first sheet has a like named sheet level name.

Thanks,

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
D

Dave Peterson

In a private reply:

If you were looking for the range that global name referred to, I thought that
this suggestion worked ok. Did it not work for you?

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

End Sub

Brian said:
I usually need a range object for what the Name refers to. Although sometimes I do need to delete the workbook level Name object.

It was pretty bad when a macro of mine would go to delete a fully qualified book level name, only to find out later that it was a sheet level name that got deleted.

Brian

Dave Peterson said:
If you were only retrieving the value for a few names, didn't going through the
workbook names collection work for you?


Brian said:
Here's what I've arrived at using the "famous" workaround mentioned by Bob Phillips. It goes for deleting and undeleting just a Name instead of a Worksheet. Could use some error checking to make it more robust. I don't think Hidden sheets will cause problems. Protected sheets might be another matter. Seems to do the job in limited testing so far.

It's a far cry from just a simple syntax fix I was hoping for. I wonder how Jan Karel handled this.

Brian

Option Compare Text

Function myWorkbook_Names(thename$) As Variant
'created this routine to work around "first sheet" problem 5/7/2004
Dim nme$, refersto$
Set myWorkbook_Names = Nothing
If IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename) = False Then
'exit and return Nothing
ElseIf InStr(ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename).Name, "!") = 0 Then
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
Else
'even though there's a book level name somewhere, Workbook.Names isn't returning it
With ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
nme = .Name
refersto = .refersto
.Delete
End With
'now ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename) should return the correct book level name
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
'put back the deleted sheet level name
ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=nme, refersto:=refersto
End If
End Function

Function IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename$) As Boolean
Dim o
For Each o In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If o.Name = thename Then
IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel = True
Exit For
End If
Next
End Function

Ahhh. I get it and remember a post from Jan Karel Pieterse (IIRC) about the
same problem.

I think his solution was to look for a worksheet level name first. If he found
one, the move to a different sheet.

But maybe you could just add a dummy worksheet as the first one. Delete it when
you're done.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range
Dim dummyWks As Worksheet

Set dummyWks = Worksheets.Add(before:=Worksheets(1))

For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
If wks.Name = dummyWks.Name Then
'do nothing
Else
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " & wks.Name & " refers to: " & _

ActiveWorkbook.Names("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
testRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"
End If

Next wks

Application.DisplayAlerts = False
dummyWks.Delete
Application.DisplayAlerts = True

End Sub

Before:
wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1!$D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: sheetlevel1
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2!$D$5:$H$15
-------------


After:

wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1!$D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: Wkbk_level
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2!$D$5:$H$15
-------------

==============

I think Jan Karel (et al) have to be much more careful. The workbook's
structure could be protected and that would eliminate the ability to add a
sheet.

This might not be a factor for you.


=====
And depending on what you're doing, maybe you can go through the names
collection:

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

End Sub

This consistently gave me:
[book1]Wkbk_level!$E$8:$I$20

No matter the order of the sheets.

(Yeah, I missed that bottom part in your original post. Sorry.)







Brian Murphy wrote:

Hello Dave,

Thanks very much for the reply.

The output you showed from your macro tells me that the first sheet in the tab order is Sheet2, and this is the sheet which contains the booklevel instance of the Name. This situation won't exhibit the problem.

Use your mouse to change the sheet order. Have the first sheet contain a sheet level instance. I did this, and with your macro got the following:

3 sheets in the file
Sheet order is: Book_level, Sheet_level_1, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Book_level
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1!$A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2!$A$1
-------------

Sheet order changed to: Sheet_level_1, Book_level, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1!$A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Sheet_level_1
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2!$A$1
-------------

Darn it! Now the book level name is wrong no matter which sheet is active.

The NameManager utility seems to get it right. The j-walk namelist utility, for just one example, does not. That's why I posted to the group in hopes of learning the right way to do this.

This odd behavior becomes a real problem when trying to do something like delete a book level name. The delete method will delete the wrong object, even when it's fully qualified.

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas

Are you sure?

I'm using xl2002 and couldn't duplicate that.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range


For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " & wks.Name & " refers to: " & _
ActiveWorkbook.Names("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
testRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"

Next wks

End Sub

I got this back:

wkbk level from: Sheet2 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet2
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet6 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet6
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet5 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet5
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet4 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet4
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet3 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet3
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet1 refers to: Sheet2
Sheet level also in: [book1.xls]Sheet1!$B$9:$D$18
-------------

It worked the same way with or without the wks.activate.

The best utility that I've ever seen for working with names is Jan Karel
Pieterse's (with Charles Williams and Matthew Henson) Name Manager.

You can find it at:
NameManager.Zip from http://www.bmsltd.ie/mvp

You get lots of options and can see differences very easily. It's well worth
the download.

You can localize and globalize names using this, too.




Brian Murphy wrote:

I'm having trouble finding a fail safe syntax to return a Name object that refers to a cell range.

set obj = ActiveWorkbook.Names(somename)

Here "somename" is a book level name that refers to a range of cells.

The statement above returns a range object for the cells.

Well, sometimes, but not all the time.

If the first sheet in the workbook also contains a sheet level name called "somename", then the above statement returns those cells instead.

So, I'm hoping there is some sort of statement syntax that will work regardless of whether the first sheet has a like named sheet level name.

Thanks,

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
P

Peter T

Dave,

First thought when I looked at your Testme02b() was that
it was pretty much the same as my DelBookName(). Only
difference, yours to reference the named range, mine to
delete the name.

I was surprised when Brian came back and said mine didn't
work. But he was right, in the particular scenario as
outlined by Jan Karel.

With similar Sheet & Book level names, referring to
different ranges, on the active sheet, try the
extra "delete" line in your sub:

'code
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
myName.Delete ' new line
Exit For
'code

Your "myRng" is correctly referenced to the book level
range, but the wrong name is deleted (ie the sheet level
name). I think deleting the Book level name was one of
Brian's objectives.

Regards,
Peter

-----Original Message-----
In a private reply:

If you were looking for the range that global name referred to, I thought that
this suggestion worked ok. Did it not work for you?

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

End Sub
Click to expand...
to. Although sometimes I do need to delete the workbook
level Name object.delete a fully qualified book level name, only to find out
later that it was a sheet level name that got deleted.workaround mentioned by Bob Phillips. It goes for
deleting and undeleting just a Name instead of a
Worksheet. Could use some error checking to make it more
robust. I don't think Hidden sheets will cause problems.
Protected sheets might be another matter. Seems to do the
job in limited testing so far.
It's a far cry from just a simple syntax fix I was hoping for. I wonder how Jan Karel handled this.

Brian

Option Compare Text

Function myWorkbook_Names(thename$) As Variant
'created this routine to work around "first sheet" problem 5/7/2004
Dim nme$, refersto$
Set myWorkbook_Names = Nothing
If IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename) = False Then
'exit and return Nothing
ElseIf InStr(ActiveWorkbook.Names (thename).Name, "!") = 0 Then
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names (thename)
Else
'even though there's a book level name somewhere, Workbook.Names isn't returning it
With ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
nme = .Name
refersto = .refersto
.Delete
End With
'now ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename) should return the correct book level name
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names (thename)
'put back the deleted sheet level name
ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=nme, refersto:=refersto
End If
End Function

Function IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename$) As Boolean
Dim o
For Each o In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If o.Name = thename Then
IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel = True
Exit For
End If
Next
End Function

Ahhh. I get it and remember a post from Jan Karel Pieterse (IIRC) about the
same problem.

I think his solution was to look for a worksheet level name first. If he found
one, the move to a different sheet.

But maybe you could just add a dummy worksheet as the first one. Delete it when
you're done.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range
Dim dummyWks As Worksheet

Set dummyWks = Worksheets.Add (before:=Worksheets(1))

For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
If wks.Name = dummyWks.Name Then
'do nothing
Else
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " & wks.Name & " refers to: " & _

ActiveWorkbook.Names ("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names ("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
testRng.Address (external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"
End If

Next wks

Application.DisplayAlerts = False
dummyWks.Delete
Application.DisplayAlerts = True

End Sub

Before:
wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1!$D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: sheetlevel1
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2!$D$5:$H$15
-------------


After:

wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1!$D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: Wkbk_level
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2!$D$5:$H$15
-------------

==============

I think Jan Karel (et al) have to be much more careful. The workbook's
structure could be protected and that would eliminate the ability to add a
sheet.

This might not be a factor for you.


=====
And depending on what you're doing, maybe you can go through the names
collection:

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

End Sub

This consistently gave me:
[book1]Wkbk_level!$E$8:$I$20

No matter the order of the sheets.

(Yeah, I missed that bottom part in your original post. Sorry.)







Brian Murphy wrote:

Hello Dave,

Thanks very much for the reply.

The output you showed from your macro tells me
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
that the first sheet in the tab order is Sheet2, and this
is the sheet which contains the booklevel instance of the
Name. This situation won't exhibit the problem.the first sheet contain a sheet level instance. I did
this, and with your macro got the following:
3 sheets in the file
Sheet order is: Book_level, Sheet_level_1, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Book_level
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1!$A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2!$A$1
-------------

Sheet order changed to: Sheet_level_1, Book_level, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1!$A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Sheet_level_1
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2!$A$1
-------------

Darn it! Now the book level name is wrong no matter which sheet is active.

The NameManager utility seems to get it right.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
The j-walk namelist utility, for just one example, does
not. That's why I posted to the group in hopes of
learning the right way to do this.trying to do something like delete a book level name. The
delete method will delete the wrong object, even when it's
fully qualified.
Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas

Are you sure?

I'm using xl2002 and couldn't duplicate that.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range


For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " & wks.Name & " refers to: " & _
ActiveWorkbook.Names ("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names ("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
testRng.Address (external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"

Next wks

End Sub

I got this back:

wkbk level from: Sheet2 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet2
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet6 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet6
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet5 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet5
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet4 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet4
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet3 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet3
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet1 refers to: Sheet2
Sheet level also in: [book1.xls]Sheet1! $B$9:$D$18
-------------

It worked the same way with or without the wks.activate.

The best utility that I've ever seen for working with names is Jan Karel
Pieterse's (with Charles Williams and Matthew Henson) Name Manager.

You can find it at:
NameManager.Zip from http://www.bmsltd.ie/mvp

You get lots of options and can see differences very easily. It's well worth
the download.

You can localize and globalize names using this, too.




Brian Murphy wrote:

I'm having trouble finding a fail safe syntax to return a Name object that refers to a cell range.

set obj = ActiveWorkbook.Names(somename)

Here "somename" is a book level name that refers to a range of cells.

The statement above returns a range object for the cells.

Well, sometimes, but not all the time.

If the first sheet in the workbook also
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
contains a sheet level name called "somename", then the
above statement returns those cells instead.statement syntax that will work regardless of whether the
first sheet has a like named sheet level name.
 
J

Jan Karel Pieterse

Hi Brian,
Your NameManager utility does in fact delete the correct book level
name, whereas NameList will not. So you've evidently tackled this
problem before.
Click to expand...

Of course. I can tell you that has been a puzzle to solve...

Regards,

Jan Karel Pieterse
Excel MVP
www.jkp-ads.com
 
B

Brian Murphy

Hello Dave,

There are times when I need to delete the global name object. When all I need is the range object, yes, the loop approach works. In fact, this same loop is part of my final macro-based solution to getting a valid Name object for a book level name.

I still would like to think that there is some way to strong arm excel in to giving you a valid object pointer for a book level Name without having to resort to a complicated and time consuming macro approach.

Suppose you have a sheet level Name on every sheet except for one, and on that one it's book level.

msgbox range("book_level!somename") this displays the right cell
msgbox range("book_level!somename").Name this displays the right .refersto property
msgbox range("book_level!somename").Name.Name this displays the right Name property
range("book_level!somename").Name.Delete this deletes the wrong Name object

The last line will at times delete a sheet level Name object on one of the other sheets.

What I'd like is to get a Name object for which all properties and methods work like they're supposed to, and not have to worry about which sheet I'm on, or which sheet comes first, etc.

Darn it. I thought my macro did this for me, but I just used it to delete a book level name object and it deleted one of the sheet level objects instead (in this case the one on the activesheet).

Well, I've been running myself ragged on this. I think now I see that Jan Karel summed it up pretty well, except the detail regarding sheets(1) containing a sheet level name.

The two situations that are important to me are 1) getting a range reference and 2) deleting a Name object.

1. To get a range object use Range("somename"), you'll either get the sheet level name from the activesheet, or else the book level name. What's on Sheets(1) doesn't matter. If you stick in a sheet qualifier like this Range("shtname!somename"), you'll get that exact range if it exists, otherwise a book range. Sheets(1) still doesn't matter.

2. To delete a book level name. My testing says this simply can not be done if Sheets(1) contains a sheet level name. Once Sheets(1) is clear, you also have to not be on any sheet with a sheet level name. Only then you can use ActiveWorkbook.Names("somename").Delete to delete a book level name object. I don't think there's any other way from VBA to delete the Name.

What a pain in the you know what,

Brian




Dave Peterson said:
In a private reply:

If you were looking for the range that global name referred to, I thought that
this suggestion worked ok. Did it not work for you?

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

End Sub

Brian said:
I usually need a range object for what the Name refers to. Although sometimes I do need to delete the workbook level Name object.

It was pretty bad when a macro of mine would go to delete a fully qualified book level name, only to find out later that it was a sheet level name that got deleted.

Brian

Dave Peterson said:
If you were only retrieving the value for a few names, didn't going through the
workbook names collection work for you?


Brian Murphy wrote:

Here's what I've arrived at using the "famous" workaround mentioned by Bob Phillips. It goes for deleting and undeleting just a Name instead of a Worksheet. Could use some error checking to make it more robust. I don't think Hidden sheets will cause problems. Protected sheets might be another matter. Seems to do the job in limited testing so far.

It's a far cry from just a simple syntax fix I was hoping for. I wonder how Jan Karel handled this.

Brian

Option Compare Text

Function myWorkbook_Names(thename$) As Variant
'created this routine to work around "first sheet" problem 5/7/2004
Dim nme$, refersto$
Set myWorkbook_Names = Nothing
If IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename) = False Then
'exit and return Nothing
ElseIf InStr(ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename).Name, "!") = 0 Then
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
Else
'even though there's a book level name somewhere, Workbook.Names isn't returning it
With ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
nme = .Name
refersto = .refersto
.Delete
End With
'now ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename) should return the correct book level name
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
'put back the deleted sheet level name
ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=nme, refersto:=refersto
End If
End Function

Function IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename$) As Boolean
Dim o
For Each o In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If o.Name = thename Then
IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel = True
Exit For
End If
Next
End Function

Ahhh. I get it and remember a post from Jan Karel Pieterse (IIRC) about the
same problem.

I think his solution was to look for a worksheet level name first. If he found
one, the move to a different sheet.

But maybe you could just add a dummy worksheet as the first one. Delete it when
you're done.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range
Dim dummyWks As Worksheet

Set dummyWks = Worksheets.Add(before:=Worksheets(1))

For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
If wks.Name = dummyWks.Name Then
'do nothing
Else
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " & wks.Name & " refers to: " & _

ActiveWorkbook.Names("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
testRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"
End If

Next wks

Application.DisplayAlerts = False
dummyWks.Delete
Application.DisplayAlerts = True

End Sub

Before:
wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1!$D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: sheetlevel1
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2!$D$5:$H$15
-------------


After:

wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1!$D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: Wkbk_level
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2!$D$5:$H$15
-------------

==============

I think Jan Karel (et al) have to be much more careful. The workbook's
structure could be protected and that would eliminate the ability to add a
sheet.

This might not be a factor for you.


=====
And depending on what you're doing, maybe you can go through the names
collection:

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

End Sub

This consistently gave me:
[book1]Wkbk_level!$E$8:$I$20

No matter the order of the sheets.

(Yeah, I missed that bottom part in your original post. Sorry.)







Brian Murphy wrote:

Hello Dave,

Thanks very much for the reply.

The output you showed from your macro tells me that the first sheet in the tab order is Sheet2, and this is the sheet which contains the booklevel instance of the Name. This situation won't exhibit the problem.

Use your mouse to change the sheet order. Have the first sheet contain a sheet level instance. I did this, and with your macro got the following:

3 sheets in the file
Sheet order is: Book_level, Sheet_level_1, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Book_level
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1!$A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2!$A$1
-------------

Sheet order changed to: Sheet_level_1, Book_level, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1!$A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Sheet_level_1
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2!$A$1
-------------

Darn it! Now the book level name is wrong no matter which sheet is active.

The NameManager utility seems to get it right. The j-walk namelist utility, for just one example, does not. That's why I posted to the group in hopes of learning the right way to do this.

This odd behavior becomes a real problem when trying to do something like delete a book level name. The delete method will delete the wrong object, even when it's fully qualified.

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas

Are you sure?

I'm using xl2002 and couldn't duplicate that.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range


For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " & wks.Name & " refers to: " & _
ActiveWorkbook.Names("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
testRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"

Next wks

End Sub

I got this back:

wkbk level from: Sheet2 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet2
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet6 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet6
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet5 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet5
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet4 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet4
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet3 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet3
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet1 refers to: Sheet2
Sheet level also in: [book1.xls]Sheet1!$B$9:$D$18
-------------

It worked the same way with or without the wks.activate.

The best utility that I've ever seen for working with names is Jan Karel
Pieterse's (with Charles Williams and Matthew Henson) Name Manager.

You can find it at:
NameManager.Zip from http://www.bmsltd.ie/mvp

You get lots of options and can see differences very easily. It's well worth
the download.

You can localize and globalize names using this, too.




Brian Murphy wrote:

I'm having trouble finding a fail safe syntax to return a Name object that refers to a cell range.

set obj = ActiveWorkbook.Names(somename)

Here "somename" is a book level name that refers to a range of cells.

The statement above returns a range object for the cells.

Well, sometimes, but not all the time.

If the first sheet in the workbook also contains a sheet level name called "somename", then the above statement returns those cells instead.

So, I'm hoping there is some sort of statement syntax that will work regardless of whether the first sheet has a like named sheet level name.

Thanks,

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
B

Brian Murphy

I sent that last posting too quickly. I said my macro produces a valid book level Name object, but sometimes that's just not possible without shuffling sheets as explained later in the post.

Brian



Dave Peterson said:
In a private reply:

If you were looking for the range that global name referred to, I thought that
this suggestion worked ok. Did it not work for you?

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

End Sub

Brian said:
I usually need a range object for what the Name refers to. Although sometimes I do need to delete the workbook level Name object.

It was pretty bad when a macro of mine would go to delete a fully qualified book level name, only to find out later that it was a sheet level name that got deleted.

Brian

Dave Peterson said:
If you were only retrieving the value for a few names, didn't going through the
workbook names collection work for you?


Brian Murphy wrote:

Here's what I've arrived at using the "famous" workaround mentioned by Bob Phillips. It goes for deleting and undeleting just a Name instead of a Worksheet. Could use some error checking to make it more robust. I don't think Hidden sheets will cause problems. Protected sheets might be another matter. Seems to do the job in limited testing so far.

It's a far cry from just a simple syntax fix I was hoping for. I wonder how Jan Karel handled this.

Brian

Option Compare Text

Function myWorkbook_Names(thename$) As Variant
'created this routine to work around "first sheet" problem 5/7/2004
Dim nme$, refersto$
Set myWorkbook_Names = Nothing
If IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename) = False Then
'exit and return Nothing
ElseIf InStr(ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename).Name, "!") = 0 Then
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
Else
'even though there's a book level name somewhere, Workbook.Names isn't returning it
With ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
nme = .Name
refersto = .refersto
.Delete
End With
'now ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename) should return the correct book level name
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
'put back the deleted sheet level name
ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=nme, refersto:=refersto
End If
End Function

Function IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename$) As Boolean
Dim o
For Each o In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If o.Name = thename Then
IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel = True
Exit For
End If
Next
End Function

Ahhh. I get it and remember a post from Jan Karel Pieterse (IIRC) about the
same problem.

I think his solution was to look for a worksheet level name first. If he found
one, the move to a different sheet.

But maybe you could just add a dummy worksheet as the first one. Delete it when
you're done.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range
Dim dummyWks As Worksheet

Set dummyWks = Worksheets.Add(before:=Worksheets(1))

For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
If wks.Name = dummyWks.Name Then
'do nothing
Else
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " & wks.Name & " refers to: " & _

ActiveWorkbook.Names("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
testRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"
End If

Next wks

Application.DisplayAlerts = False
dummyWks.Delete
Application.DisplayAlerts = True

End Sub

Before:
wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1!$D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: sheetlevel1
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2!$D$5:$H$15
-------------


After:

wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1!$D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: Wkbk_level
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2!$D$5:$H$15
-------------

==============

I think Jan Karel (et al) have to be much more careful. The workbook's
structure could be protected and that would eliminate the ability to add a
sheet.

This might not be a factor for you.


=====
And depending on what you're doing, maybe you can go through the names
collection:

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

End Sub

This consistently gave me:
[book1]Wkbk_level!$E$8:$I$20

No matter the order of the sheets.

(Yeah, I missed that bottom part in your original post. Sorry.)







Brian Murphy wrote:

Hello Dave,

Thanks very much for the reply.

The output you showed from your macro tells me that the first sheet in the tab order is Sheet2, and this is the sheet which contains the booklevel instance of the Name. This situation won't exhibit the problem.

Use your mouse to change the sheet order. Have the first sheet contain a sheet level instance. I did this, and with your macro got the following:

3 sheets in the file
Sheet order is: Book_level, Sheet_level_1, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Book_level
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1!$A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2!$A$1
-------------

Sheet order changed to: Sheet_level_1, Book_level, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1!$A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Sheet_level_1
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2!$A$1
-------------

Darn it! Now the book level name is wrong no matter which sheet is active.

The NameManager utility seems to get it right. The j-walk namelist utility, for just one example, does not. That's why I posted to the group in hopes of learning the right way to do this.

This odd behavior becomes a real problem when trying to do something like delete a book level name. The delete method will delete the wrong object, even when it's fully qualified.

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas

Are you sure?

I'm using xl2002 and couldn't duplicate that.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range


For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " & wks.Name & " refers to: " & _
ActiveWorkbook.Names("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
testRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"

Next wks

End Sub

I got this back:

wkbk level from: Sheet2 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet2
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet6 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet6
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet5 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet5
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet4 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet4
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet3 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet3
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet1 refers to: Sheet2
Sheet level also in: [book1.xls]Sheet1!$B$9:$D$18
-------------

It worked the same way with or without the wks.activate.

The best utility that I've ever seen for working with names is Jan Karel
Pieterse's (with Charles Williams and Matthew Henson) Name Manager.

You can find it at:
NameManager.Zip from http://www.bmsltd.ie/mvp

You get lots of options and can see differences very easily. It's well worth
the download.

You can localize and globalize names using this, too.




Brian Murphy wrote:

I'm having trouble finding a fail safe syntax to return a Name object that refers to a cell range.

set obj = ActiveWorkbook.Names(somename)

Here "somename" is a book level name that refers to a range of cells.

The statement above returns a range object for the cells.

Well, sometimes, but not all the time.

If the first sheet in the workbook also contains a sheet level name called "somename", then the above statement returns those cells instead.

So, I'm hoping there is some sort of statement syntax that will work regardless of whether the first sheet has a like named sheet level name.

Thanks,

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
D

Dave Peterson

Ahh. I thought Brian just wanted the reference to the range--not to delete the
name. (I only missed that a handful of times!)

And I (now) see the problem when deleting that name.

Maybe going to that worksheet, deleting the name and coming back would be worth
the effort.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02C()

Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRngAddr As String
Dim curSelAddr As String
Dim ActCellAddr As String

myStr = "somename"

application.screenupdating = false

For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
myRngAddr = myName.RefersToRange.Address(external:=True)
curSelAddr = Selection.Address(external:=True)
ActCellAddr = ActiveCell.Address(external:=True)
Application.Goto Range(myRngAddr)
myName.Delete
Application.Goto Range(curSelAddr)
Range(ActCellAddr).Activate
Exit For
End If
Next myName

Application.screenupdating = true

End Sub

It seems like a lot to go through, but it worked (twice in a row for me <bg>).

Peter said:
Dave,

First thought when I looked at your Testme02b() was that
it was pretty much the same as my DelBookName(). Only
difference, yours to reference the named range, mine to
delete the name.

I was surprised when Brian came back and said mine didn't
work. But he was right, in the particular scenario as
outlined by Jan Karel.

With similar Sheet & Book level names, referring to
different ranges, on the active sheet, try the
extra "delete" line in your sub:

'code
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
myName.Delete ' new line
Exit For
'code

Your "myRng" is correctly referenced to the book level
range, but the wrong name is deleted (ie the sheet level
name). I think deleting the Book level name was one of
Brian's objectives.

Regards,
Peter
-----Original Message-----
In a private reply:

If you were looking for the range that global name referred to, I thought that
this suggestion worked ok. Did it not work for you?

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

End Sub
Click to expand...
to. Although sometimes I do need to delete the workbook
level Name object.delete a fully qualified book level name, only to find out
later that it was a sheet level name that got deleted.workaround mentioned by Bob Phillips. It goes for
deleting and undeleting just a Name instead of a
Worksheet. Could use some error checking to make it more
robust. I don't think Hidden sheets will cause problems.
Protected sheets might be another matter. Seems to do the
job in limited testing so far.
It's a far cry from just a simple syntax fix I was hoping for. I wonder how Jan Karel handled this.

Brian

Option Compare Text

Function myWorkbook_Names(thename$) As Variant
'created this routine to work around "first sheet" problem 5/7/2004
Dim nme$, refersto$
Set myWorkbook_Names = Nothing
If IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename) = False Then
'exit and return Nothing
ElseIf InStr(ActiveWorkbook.Names (thename).Name, "!") = 0 Then
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names (thename)
Else
'even though there's a book level name somewhere, Workbook.Names isn't returning it
With ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
nme = .Name
refersto = .refersto
.Delete
End With
'now ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename) should return the correct book level name
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names (thename)
'put back the deleted sheet level name
ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=nme, refersto:=refersto
End If
End Function

Function IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename$) As Boolean
Dim o
For Each o In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If o.Name = thename Then
IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel = True
Exit For
End If
Next
End Function

Ahhh. I get it and remember a post from Jan Karel Pieterse (IIRC) about the
same problem.

I think his solution was to look for a worksheet level name first. If he found
one, the move to a different sheet.

But maybe you could just add a dummy worksheet as the first one. Delete it when
you're done.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range
Dim dummyWks As Worksheet

Set dummyWks = Worksheets.Add (before:=Worksheets(1))

For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
If wks.Name = dummyWks.Name Then
'do nothing
Else
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " & wks.Name & " refers to: " & _

ActiveWorkbook.Names ("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names ("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
testRng.Address (external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"
End If

Next wks

Application.DisplayAlerts = False
dummyWks.Delete
Application.DisplayAlerts = True

End Sub

Before:
wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1!$D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: sheetlevel1
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2!$D$5:$H$15
-------------


After:

wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1!$D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: Wkbk_level
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2!$D$5:$H$15
-------------

==============

I think Jan Karel (et al) have to be much more careful. The workbook's
structure could be protected and that would eliminate the ability to add a
sheet.

This might not be a factor for you.


=====
And depending on what you're doing, maybe you can go through the names
collection:

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

End Sub

This consistently gave me:
[book1]Wkbk_level!$E$8:$I$20

No matter the order of the sheets.

(Yeah, I missed that bottom part in your original post. Sorry.)







Brian Murphy wrote:

Hello Dave,

Thanks very much for the reply.

The output you showed from your macro tells me
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
that the first sheet in the tab order is Sheet2, and this
is the sheet which contains the booklevel instance of the
Name. This situation won't exhibit the problem.the first sheet contain a sheet level instance. I did
this, and with your macro got the following:
3 sheets in the file
Sheet order is: Book_level, Sheet_level_1, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Book_level
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1!$A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2!$A$1
-------------

Sheet order changed to: Sheet_level_1, Book_level, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1!$A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Sheet_level_1
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2!$A$1
-------------

Darn it! Now the book level name is wrong no matter which sheet is active.

The NameManager utility seems to get it right.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
The j-walk namelist utility, for just one example, does
not. That's why I posted to the group in hopes of
learning the right way to do this.trying to do something like delete a book level name. The
delete method will delete the wrong object, even when it's
fully qualified.
Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas

Are you sure?

I'm using xl2002 and couldn't duplicate that.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range


For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " & wks.Name & " refers to: " & _
ActiveWorkbook.Names ("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names ("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
testRng.Address (external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"

Next wks

End Sub

I got this back:

wkbk level from: Sheet2 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet2
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet6 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet6
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet5 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet5
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet4 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet4
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet3 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet3
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet1 refers to: Sheet2
Sheet level also in: [book1.xls]Sheet1! $B$9:$D$18
-------------

It worked the same way with or without the wks.activate.

The best utility that I've ever seen for working with names is Jan Karel
Pieterse's (with Charles Williams and Matthew Henson) Name Manager.

You can find it at:
NameManager.Zip from http://www.bmsltd.ie/mvp

You get lots of options and can see differences very easily. It's well worth
the download.

You can localize and globalize names using this, too.




Brian Murphy wrote:

I'm having trouble finding a fail safe syntax to return a Name object that refers to a cell range.

set obj = ActiveWorkbook.Names(somename)

Here "somename" is a book level name that refers to a range of cells.

The statement above returns a range object for the cells.

Well, sometimes, but not all the time.

If the first sheet in the workbook also
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
contains a sheet level name called "somename", then the
above statement returns those cells instead.statement syntax that will work regardless of whether the
first sheet has a like named sheet level name.
--

Dave Peterson
(e-mail address removed)
.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
P

Peter T

Dave,

You're not going to like this, but I don't think it solves
the problem.

Sub MakeSomename()
Dim wk As Worksheet, sName As String
sName = "somename"

For Each nm In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If nm.Name Like "*" & sName Then nm.Delete
Next

ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=sName, _
RefersToR1C1:="=Sheet1!R7C2"
For Each wk In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
i = i + 1
wk.Names.Add Name:=sName, _
RefersToR1C1:="=R1C" & i
Next

For Each nm In ActiveWorkbook.Names
Debug.Print nm.Name, nm
Next
Debug.Print
End Sub

Try MakeSomename, then your testme02C(), then check what
names are left.

Seems the only way is to find and activate a sheet that
does not have Sheet name "somename". If no such sheet
exists, add and activate a new sheet.

I tried building an array of "samename" refersto strings
and relative sheetnames, deleting all "samename", then
rebuilding the sheet level names. But I think that
approach is fraught with problems. I also suspect the new
sheet method might give problems in certain situations.

Don't think there is any problem to reliably reference the
correct book name, only to delete.

Jan Karel suggested the method, then went on to hint - try
it, stumble on unforeseen problems, make a ton of code,
give up, resort to NameManager.xla !

Regards,
Peter

PS For googlers, part of this thread is under the shorter
subject line:
"trouble returning a workbook level Name object "

-----Original Message-----
Ahh. I thought Brian just wanted the reference to the range--not to delete the
name. (I only missed that a handful of times!)

And I (now) see the problem when deleting that name.

Maybe going to that worksheet, deleting the name and coming back would be worth
the effort.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02C()

Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRngAddr As String
Dim curSelAddr As String
Dim ActCellAddr As String

myStr = "somename"

application.screenupdating = false

For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
myRngAddr = myName.RefersToRange.Address (external:=True)
curSelAddr = Selection.Address(external:=True)
ActCellAddr = ActiveCell.Address (external:=True)
Application.Goto Range(myRngAddr)
myName.Delete
Application.Goto Range(curSelAddr)
Range(ActCellAddr).Activate
Exit For
End If
Next myName

Application.screenupdating = true

End Sub

It seems like a lot to go through, but it worked (twice
Click to expand...
in a row for me said:
Peter said:
Dave,

First thought when I looked at your Testme02b() was that
it was pretty much the same as my DelBookName(). Only
difference, yours to reference the named range, mine to
delete the name.

I was surprised when Brian came back and said mine didn't
work. But he was right, in the particular scenario as
outlined by Jan Karel.

With similar Sheet & Book level names, referring to
different ranges, on the active sheet, try the
extra "delete" line in your sub:

'code
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
myName.Delete ' new line
Exit For
'code

Your "myRng" is correctly referenced to the book level
range, but the wrong name is deleted (ie the sheet level
name). I think deleting the Book level name was one of
Brian's objectives.

Regards,
Peter
-----Original Message-----
In a private reply:

If you were looking for the range that global name referred to, I thought that
this suggestion worked ok. Did it not work for you?

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

End Sub

Brian Murphy wrote:

I usually need a range object for what the Name
Click to expand...
refers
to. Although sometimes I do need to delete the workbook
level Name object.
It was pretty bad when a macro of mine would go to
Click to expand...
delete a fully qualified book level name, only to find out
later that it was a sheet level name that got deleted.
Brian

If you were only retrieving the value for a few
Click to expand...
names, didn't going through the
workbook names collection work for you?


Brian Murphy wrote:

Here's what I've arrived at using the "famous"
Click to expand...
workaround mentioned by Bob Phillips. It goes for
deleting and undeleting just a Name instead of a
Worksheet. Could use some error checking to make it more
robust. I don't think Hidden sheets will cause problems.
Protected sheets might be another matter. Seems to do the
job in limited testing so far.
It's a far cry from just a simple syntax fix I
Click to expand...
was
hoping for. I wonder how Jan Karel handled this.
Brian

Option Compare Text

Function myWorkbook_Names(thename$) As Variant
'created this routine to work around "first
Click to expand...
sheet"
problem 5/7/2004
Dim nme$, refersto$
Set myWorkbook_Names = Nothing
If IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename) = False Then
'exit and return Nothing
ElseIf InStr(ActiveWorkbook.Names (thename).Name, "!") = 0 Then
Set myWorkbook_Names =
Click to expand...
ActiveWorkbook.Names
(thename)
Else
'even though there's a book level name
Click to expand...
somewhere, Workbook.Names isn't returning it
With ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
nme = .Name
refersto = .refersto
.Delete
End With
'now ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename) should
Click to expand...
return the correct book level name
Set myWorkbook_Names =
Click to expand...
ActiveWorkbook.Names
(thename)
'put back the deleted sheet level name
ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=nme, refersto:=refersto
End If
End Function

Function IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename$) As Boolean
Dim o
For Each o In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If o.Name = thename Then
IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel = True
Exit For
End If
Next
End Function

"Dave Peterson" <[email protected]> wrote in
Click to expand...
message
Ahhh. I get it and remember a post from Jan
Click to expand...
Karel Pieterse (IIRC) about the
same problem.

I think his solution was to look for a
Click to expand...
worksheet
level name first. If he found
one, the move to a different sheet.

But maybe you could just add a dummy worksheet
Click to expand...
as
the first one. Delete it when
you're done.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range
Dim dummyWks As Worksheet

Set dummyWks = Worksheets.Add (before:=Worksheets(1))

For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
If wks.Name = dummyWks.Name Then
'do nothing
Else
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " & wks.Name & " refers to: " & _

ActiveWorkbook.Names ("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names ("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
Click to expand...
testRng.Address
(external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"
End If

Next wks

Application.DisplayAlerts = False
dummyWks.Delete
Application.DisplayAlerts = True

End Sub

Before:
wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1! $D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: sheetlevel1
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2! $D$5:$H$15
-------------


After:

wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1! $D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: Wkbk_level
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2! $D$5:$H$15
-------------

==============

I think Jan Karel (et al) have to be much more careful. The workbook's
structure could be protected and that would eliminate the ability to add a
sheet.

This might not be a factor for you.


=====
And depending on what you're doing, maybe you
Click to expand...
can
go through the names
collection:

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address (external:=True)
End If

End Sub

This consistently gave me:
[book1]Wkbk_level!$E$8:$I$20

No matter the order of the sheets.

(Yeah, I missed that bottom part in your
Click to expand...
original
post. Sorry.)
Brian Murphy wrote:

Hello Dave,

Thanks very much for the reply.

The output you showed from your macro tells
Click to expand...
me
that the first sheet in the tab order is Sheet2, and this
is the sheet which contains the booklevel instance of the
Name. This situation won't exhibit the problem.
Use your mouse to change the sheet order.
Click to expand...
Have
the first sheet contain a sheet level instance. I did
this, and with your macro got the following:
3 sheets in the file
Sheet order is: Book_level, Sheet_level_1, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Book_level
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1! $A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2! $A$1
-------------

Sheet order changed to: Sheet_level_1, Book_level, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1! $A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Sheet_level_1
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2! $A$1
-------------

Darn it! Now the book level name is wrong no matter which sheet is active.

The NameManager utility seems to get it
Click to expand...
right.
The j-walk namelist utility, for just one example, does
not. That's why I posted to the group in hopes of
learning the right way to do this.
This odd behavior becomes a real problem when
Click to expand...
trying to do something like delete a book level name. The
delete method will delete the wrong object, even when it's
fully qualified.
Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas

"Dave Peterson" <[email protected]> wrote in
Click to expand...
message news:[email protected]...
Are you sure?

I'm using xl2002 and couldn't duplicate that.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range


For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " &
Click to expand...
wks.Name & " refers to: " & _
ActiveWorkbook.Names ("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names ("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
Click to expand...
testRng.Address
(external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"

Next wks

End Sub

I got this back:

wkbk level from: Sheet2 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet2
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet6 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet6
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet5 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet5
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet4 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet4
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet3 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet3
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet1 refers to: Sheet2
Sheet level also in: [book1.xls]Sheet1! $B$9:$D$18
-------------

It worked the same way with or without the wks.activate.

The best utility that I've ever seen for
Click to expand...
working with names is Jan Karel
Pieterse's (with Charles Williams and
Click to expand...
Matthew
Henson) Name Manager.
You can find it at:
NameManager.Zip from http://www.bmsltd.ie/mvp

You get lots of options and can see
Click to expand...
differences very easily. It's well worth
the download.

You can localize and globalize names using this, too.




Brian Murphy wrote:

I'm having trouble finding a fail safe
Click to expand...
syntax to return a Name object that refers to a cell range.
set obj = ActiveWorkbook.Names(somename)

Here "somename" is a book level name that refers to a range of cells.

The statement above returns a range
Click to expand...
object
for the cells.
Well, sometimes, but not all the time.

If the first sheet in the workbook also
Click to expand...
contains a sheet level name called "somename", then the
above statement returns those cells instead.
So, I'm hoping there is some sort of
Click to expand...
statement syntax that will work regardless of whether the
first sheet has a like named sheet level name.
Thanks,

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas

--

Dave Peterson
(e-mail address removed)

--

Dave Peterson
(e-mail address removed)

--

Dave Peterson
(e-mail address removed)

--

Dave Peterson
(e-mail address removed)
.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

--

Dave Peterson
(e-mail address removed)
.
Click to expand...
 
D

Dave Peterson

I see your point.

But I think you're stretching it a bit with a name that looks like that! <vbg>.

I can understand the problem with generic code that has to run against any
workbook (like Jan Karel's name manager). But in real life, I don't think I've
ever used a name like that. Have you?

Either way, I learned a lot about names and limitations and have another good
reason to use Jan Karel's addin!



Peter said:
Dave,

You're not going to like this, but I don't think it solves
the problem.

Sub MakeSomename()
Dim wk As Worksheet, sName As String
sName = "somename"

For Each nm In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If nm.Name Like "*" & sName Then nm.Delete
Next

ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=sName, _
RefersToR1C1:="=Sheet1!R7C2"
For Each wk In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
i = i + 1
wk.Names.Add Name:=sName, _
RefersToR1C1:="=R1C" & i
Next

For Each nm In ActiveWorkbook.Names
Debug.Print nm.Name, nm
Next
Debug.Print
End Sub

Try MakeSomename, then your testme02C(), then check what
names are left.

Seems the only way is to find and activate a sheet that
does not have Sheet name "somename". If no such sheet
exists, add and activate a new sheet.

I tried building an array of "samename" refersto strings
and relative sheetnames, deleting all "samename", then
rebuilding the sheet level names. But I think that
approach is fraught with problems. I also suspect the new
sheet method might give problems in certain situations.

Don't think there is any problem to reliably reference the
correct book name, only to delete.

Jan Karel suggested the method, then went on to hint - try
it, stumble on unforeseen problems, make a ton of code,
give up, resort to NameManager.xla !

Regards,
Peter

PS For googlers, part of this thread is under the shorter
subject line:
"trouble returning a workbook level Name object "
-----Original Message-----
Ahh. I thought Brian just wanted the reference to the range--not to delete the
name. (I only missed that a handful of times!)

And I (now) see the problem when deleting that name.

Maybe going to that worksheet, deleting the name and coming back would be worth
the effort.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02C()

Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRngAddr As String
Dim curSelAddr As String
Dim ActCellAddr As String

myStr = "somename"

application.screenupdating = false

For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
myRngAddr = myName.RefersToRange.Address (external:=True)
curSelAddr = Selection.Address(external:=True)
ActCellAddr = ActiveCell.Address (external:=True)
Application.Goto Range(myRngAddr)
myName.Delete
Application.Goto Range(curSelAddr)
Range(ActCellAddr).Activate
Exit For
End If
Next myName

Application.screenupdating = true

End Sub

It seems like a lot to go through, but it worked (twice
Click to expand...
in a row for me said:
Peter said:
Dave,

First thought when I looked at your Testme02b() was that
it was pretty much the same as my DelBookName(). Only
difference, yours to reference the named range, mine to
delete the name.

I was surprised when Brian came back and said mine didn't
work. But he was right, in the particular scenario as
outlined by Jan Karel.

With similar Sheet & Book level names, referring to
different ranges, on the active sheet, try the
extra "delete" line in your sub:

'code
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
myName.Delete ' new line
Exit For
'code

Your "myRng" is correctly referenced to the book level
range, but the wrong name is deleted (ie the sheet level
name). I think deleting the Book level name was one of
Brian's objectives.

Regards,
Peter

-----Original Message-----
In a private reply:

If you were looking for the range that global name
referred to, I thought that
this suggestion worked ok. Did it not work for you?

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

End Sub

Brian Murphy wrote:

I usually need a range object for what the Name refers
to. Although sometimes I do need to delete the workbook
level Name object.

It was pretty bad when a macro of mine would go to
delete a fully qualified book level name, only to find out
later that it was a sheet level name that got deleted.

Brian

If you were only retrieving the value for a few
names, didn't going through the
workbook names collection work for you?


Brian Murphy wrote:

Here's what I've arrived at using the "famous"
workaround mentioned by Bob Phillips. It goes for
deleting and undeleting just a Name instead of a
Worksheet. Could use some error checking to make it more
robust. I don't think Hidden sheets will cause problems.
Protected sheets might be another matter. Seems to do the
job in limited testing so far.

It's a far cry from just a simple syntax fix I was
hoping for. I wonder how Jan Karel handled this.

Brian

Option Compare Text

Function myWorkbook_Names(thename$) As Variant
'created this routine to work around "first sheet"
problem 5/7/2004
Dim nme$, refersto$
Set myWorkbook_Names = Nothing
If IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename) = False
Then
'exit and return Nothing
ElseIf InStr(ActiveWorkbook.Names
(thename).Name, "!") = 0 Then
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names
(thename)
Else
'even though there's a book level name
somewhere, Workbook.Names isn't returning it
With ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
nme = .Name
refersto = .refersto
.Delete
End With
'now ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename) should
return the correct book level name
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names
(thename)
'put back the deleted sheet level name
ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=nme,
refersto:=refersto
End If
End Function

Function IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename$) As
Boolean
Dim o
For Each o In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If o.Name = thename Then
IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel = True
Exit For
End If
Next
End Function

Ahhh. I get it and remember a post from Jan
Karel Pieterse (IIRC) about the
same problem.

I think his solution was to look for a worksheet
level name first. If he found
one, the move to a different sheet.

But maybe you could just add a dummy worksheet as
the first one. Delete it when
you're done.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range
Dim dummyWks As Worksheet

Set dummyWks = Worksheets.Add
(before:=Worksheets(1))

For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
If wks.Name = dummyWks.Name Then
'do nothing
Else
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " &
wks.Name & " refers to: " & _

ActiveWorkbook.Names
("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names
("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level
name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also
in: " & _
testRng.Address
(external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"
End If

Next wks

Application.DisplayAlerts = False
dummyWks.Delete
Application.DisplayAlerts = True

End Sub

Before:
wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to:
sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1! $D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to:
sheetlevel1
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to:
sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2! $D$5:$H$15
-------------


After:

wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to:
Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1! $D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: Wkbk_level
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to:
Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2! $D$5:$H$15
-------------

==============

I think Jan Karel (et al) have to be much more
careful. The workbook's
structure could be protected and that would
eliminate the ability to add a
sheet.

This might not be a factor for you.


=====
And depending on what you're doing, maybe you can
go through the names
collection:

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address (external:=True)
End If

End Sub

This consistently gave me:
[book1]Wkbk_level!$E$8:$I$20

No matter the order of the sheets.

(Yeah, I missed that bottom part in your original
post. Sorry.)







Brian Murphy wrote:

Hello Dave,

Thanks very much for the reply.

The output you showed from your macro tells me
that the first sheet in the tab order is Sheet2, and this
is the sheet which contains the booklevel instance of the
Name. This situation won't exhibit the problem.

Use your mouse to change the sheet order. Have
the first sheet contain a sheet level instance. I did
this, and with your macro got the following:

3 sheets in the file
Sheet order is: Book_level, Sheet_level_1,
Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Book_level refers to:
Book_level
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to:
Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1! $A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to:
Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2! $A$1
-------------

Sheet order changed to: Sheet_level_1,
Book_level, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to:
Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1! $A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Book_level refers to:
Sheet_level_1
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to:
Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2! $A$1
-------------

Darn it! Now the book level name is wrong no
matter which sheet is active.

The NameManager utility seems to get it right.
The j-walk namelist utility, for just one example, does
not. That's why I posted to the group in hopes of
learning the right way to do this.

This odd behavior becomes a real problem when
trying to do something like delete a book level name. The
delete method will delete the wrong object, even when it's
fully qualified.

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas

message Are you sure?

I'm using xl2002 and couldn't duplicate that.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range


For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " &
wks.Name & " refers to: " & _
ActiveWorkbook.Names
("somename").RefersToRange.Parent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names
("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level
name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also
in: " & _
testRng.Address
(external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"

Next wks

End Sub

I got this back:

wkbk level from: Sheet2 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet2
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet6 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet6
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet5 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet5
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet4 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet4
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet3 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet3
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet1 refers to: Sheet2
Sheet level also in: [book1.xls]Sheet1!
$B$9:$D$18
-------------

It worked the same way with or without the
wks.activate.

The best utility that I've ever seen for
working with names is Jan Karel
Pieterse's (with Charles Williams and Matthew
Henson) Name Manager.

You can find it at:
NameManager.Zip from http://www.bmsltd.ie/mvp

You get lots of options and can see
differences very easily. It's well worth
the download.

You can localize and globalize names using
this, too.




Brian Murphy wrote:

I'm having trouble finding a fail safe
syntax to return a Name object that refers to a cell range.

set obj = ActiveWorkbook.Names(somename)

Here "somename" is a book level name that
refers to a range of cells.

The statement above returns a range object
for the cells.

Well, sometimes, but not all the time.

If the first sheet in the workbook also
contains a sheet level name called "somename", then the
above statement returns those cells instead.

So, I'm hoping there is some sort of
statement syntax that will work regardless of whether the
first sheet has a like named sheet level name.

Thanks,

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas

--

Dave Peterson
(e-mail address removed)

--

Dave Peterson
(e-mail address removed)

--

Dave Peterson
(e-mail address removed)

--

Dave Peterson
(e-mail address removed)
.
Click to expand...

--

Dave Peterson
(e-mail address removed)
.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
J

Jan Karel Pieterse

Hi Brian
What I'd like is to get a Name object for which all properties and
methods work like they're supposed to, and not have to worry about which
sheet I'm on, or which sheet comes first, etc.

Darn it. I thought my macro did this for me, but I just used it to
delete a book level name object and it deleted one of the sheet level
objects instead (in this case the one on the activesheet).

Well, I've been running myself ragged on this. I think now I see that
Jan Karel summed it up pretty well, except the detail regarding
sheets(1) containing a sheet level name.
Click to expand...

That is right, to exactly reference and use a global name, you MUST
have an activesheet that does NOT contain an identically named sheet
name. The fastest VBA method to ensure you get it right is to
temporarily insert an empty worksheet. If you need to change either
the visible property or the refersto property, you need to do the
above to make sure you stay away from local names on the active sheet.
Even fully qualifying the name by preceding it with the workbook's
name will not help.

BTW:

I have been working on enabling editing of names which refersto string
is more than 240 characters. It seems to work (but only for direct
range references, not for formulas, which is impossible). One can now
reliably edit a rangename that refers to (e.g.) 231 areas! Find the
beta here:

http://www.jkp-ads.com/NameManager31Beta.zip

Regards,

Jan Karel Pieterse
Excel MVP
www.jkp-ads.com
 
J

Jan Karel Pieterse

Hi Jan Karel,
That is right, to exactly reference and use a global name, you MUST
have an activesheet that does NOT contain an identically named sheet
name.
Click to expand...

You fool <g>, you meant to write:

That is right, to exactly reference and use a global name, you MUST
have an activesheet that does NOT contain an identically named sheet
*level* name.

Regards,

Jan Karel Pieterse
Excel MVP
www.jkp-ads.com
 
B

Brian Murphy

Thank you for your help, Jan Karel.

My code is now working the way I need it to.

Hurray,

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas
 

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