how to do these things in Excel with and without VBA?

[LunaMoon]

Hi all,

I am learning Excel/VBA via using it in real day-to-day work.

Two questions:

1. How to multiple a whole range of cells by 2 all together and all at
once? (element-wise).

Of course, I am looking for more flexibility, such as apply a function
to the whole region of cells.

I understand that it could be done for rectangular shapes; is there a
way to do this by first select a bunch of cells and label the cells as
one single region(non-rectangular and non-regular shaped), and then
apply function to this region as a whole?

2. This time I have a function in XLL (treated as black box here, it
usually takes a column of values, or a row of values, treating these
cells internally as a "vector" in C++). I have verified that the
function works properly.

But now, what if I want to select cells which are scattered around and
not arranged in one row or one column ...

It's like a multiple selection, and I don't have criteria for VSelect
-- the cells should be selected by hand, no uniform criteria for any
automatic selection...

Please help me!

Thanks a lot!

 

[Skinman]

Use paste special, Check.. value, multiply..... Copy a 2, Select the cells
either by naming them or selecting them. Use paste special.

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

The cells you wish to multiply by 2 (or do anything else with, within
reason) do not have to be in a contiguous block of cells. Select a bunch of
cells with numbers in them on a worksheet (make sure you use the Ctrl key to
select them so that you have some contiguous cells and some isolated cells
in the selection), then right-click the tab for that worksheet and select
View Code (this will take you to the VBA editor and make sure the active
code window is set for the worksheet where your selections are). Now,
execute this statement in the Immediate window...

Selection.Value = 2 * Selection.Value

Now go back to the worksheet and you will each selected cell's value is
twice as big as it was before. You, of course, do not have to use the
Selection to do this; you can specify a discontiguous range directly in code
and to the same operation...

Range("A1:C4, J4, L6:L9").Value = 2 * Range("A1:C4, J4, L6:L9").Value

And, of course, multiplication is not all you can do...

Range("A1:C4, J4, L6:L9").Value = "XX" & Range("A1:C4, J4, L6:L9").Value

where I have concatenated "XX" onto the front of whatever is in each cell in
the discontiguous range "A1:C4, J4, L6:L9".

Rick

 

[Peter T]

I'm not sure about all that Rick.

2 * Selection.Value
that would only work if the selection is a single cell, although the single
result could be assigned to the value of a multi-area

arr = Range("A1:C4, J4, L6:L9").Value
In this 'arr' would only size to the first area, 4x3. Thereafter cannot do
2 * arr

Generally discontiguous ranges need to be handled separately, eg

For Each rngArea in multiRange.Areas

Copy/paste(special) barely works with multiple areas, although it just might
if the areas are same size or, say multiple areas of different heights but
same width and in same columns.

Regards,
Peter T

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

I'm not sure what to tell you, but I tried what I posted before posting it
(and again just now to confirm it) and what I posted works as I described it
on my system, which the Help/About menu item says is Microsoft Office Excel
2003 (11.8211.8202) SP3.

What I did is layout a large block of cells with 1's in them and then (for
the selection method) I randomly selected discontiguous blocks and single
cells with the Control Key down to make a discontiguous overall selection.
Next, I right-clicked the worksheet tab and picked View Code in order to
make the worksheet the active code window in the VBA editor. And then I
typed...

Selection.Value = 2 * Selection.Value

in the Immediate Window and hit the Enter Key. All the values in the
discontiguous Selection were multiplied by 2. Next I typed

Selection.Value = "AB" & Selection.Value & "CD"

into the Immediate Window and hit the Enter Key. All the values in the
discontiguous Selection that were previously multiplied by 2 now had "AB"
concatenated on the front of them and "CD" onto their backs. Then I repeated
the exact same steps, but used a text string value as the argument for the
Range collection object and the same things happened for the specified
discontiguous cells that the text string represented.

Are you saying none of the above happens for you when you try what I have
outlined?

Rick

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

Okay, this is strange. Everything I posted, which worked fine as I posted
it, has now stopped working! All I did was unselect the selection I had,
went to Help/About again, came back and made a different discontiguous
selection and now

Selection.Value = 2 * Selection.Value

generates a "Type Mismatch" error. Same for Range with the discontiguous
text string reference. I have no answer as to why, but it seems you were
correct.... in the general case, you cannot rely upon what posted (which
**was** working for me just a short time ago). Weird!

Rick

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

One more follow up. I closed down Excel completely, restarted it again and
everything is working as I posted it again. Hmm! It seems to work on a newly
started session of Excel and then, as things happen during the session
(although I am not sure what those things are<g>), it ceases to work any
more until a new session of Excel is started again.

Rick

 

[Peter T]

I was about to send a reply to your previous message, which I'll paste here
instead -

"Strange and weird indeed as I have no doubt you reported what you saw. I
can only speculate there was something accidentally particular about the
multi-area selection you had."

Even if that had not produced the mismatch error, with all cells filled with
one's the result would have been misleading. At best, and providing the
first area was the largest in both dimensions, an array of the first area
only would have been filled into all areas, albeit reduced to respective
sizes, thereby giving the impression that each area of the source had been
processed. Maybe the following will illustrate what I mean -

Sub foo()
Dim r&, c&, rng As Range
[a1:h15].Clear
For r = 1 To 9
Cells(r, 1) = r
For c = 1 To 5
Cells(r, c + 1) = r * 10 ^ c
Next
Next

Set rng = Range("A1:C3,B5:C9,D6:F7,E8:E11,B13:G13,F1")
rng.Select
Stop ' have a look, press F5 to continue

rng.Value = rng.Value

End Sub
"
========================

Now to your latest. This is more than weird it's darn right freaky !
I could not re-create similar in a new session and would not expect to.
Shame, could be quite handy if there was some secret method to expose...

Regards,
Peter T

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

"Strange and weird indeed as I have no doubt you reported what you saw. I

can only speculate there was something accidentally particular about the
multi-area selection you had."

I've tried it with various sized selections and, for a new session of Excel,
I can make it work every time. As I said though, I have no idea what
combination of worksheet events are the trigger, but it seems to always fail
after doing things with the worksheet.

Rick

 

[Peter T]

in

I've tried it with various sized selections and, for a new session of Excel,
I can make it work every time. As I said though, I have no idea what
combination of worksheet events are the trigger, but it seems to always fail
after doing things with the worksheet.

Does it also work with unique values in cells rather than all one's (eg as
populated by that macro I posted earlier). Not only not-error but (say)
multiply values in each area by 2

Selection = 2 * Selection ' a multi area discontiguous range

Is there anyone else who can re-create what Rick has described in a new
session, even with one's throughout ?

Regards,
Peter T

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

LOL... I don't get it! I tried to use varying amounts in the cells (using
series fills) and it didn't work. NOW, I can't even get the method that was
working consistently to work anymore... no matter how many time I start a
new session and repeat the exact same process that worked before, I can no
longer get it to work any more... not even once.

Rick

 

[Peter T]

Oh well, one of life's little mysteries then.

FWIW, anything along the following lines will always work, even where the
selection is a multi area range

Selection.Value = 2 * Selection(1).Value

Regards,
Peter T