Still filename problem

G

Grace

I am sorry to repost this but it looks like too much time is passed and the
solution never came. I have two statements that involve a string called
"strMGR_SHORT_NAME that are having problems. In the first case, the
statement is

fname = StrMGR_SHORT_NAME & Sheets("INPUTS").Range("B45").Value &
Sheets("INPUTS").Range("E11").Value & ".xls"

The compiler error message I am getting says "object variable or with block
variable not set." I am pretty sure this statement had been working but
somehow now is not. I have had it show me that variable, which is entered
thru an Input Box and it is what it's supposed to be. But the command is
not working. Does this error message tell anyone anything?

Then, this subroutine calls another subroutine where I use a similar
statement to try to open a file. In this case, the statement that is
crashing is:

myFilename = StrMGR_SHORT_NAME & Sheets("Inputs").Range("E11").Value &
"SUMPRF" & ".L00"

It was not an XLS file and that caused some confusion but it now seems
evident that the real problem is that this same strMGR_SHORT_NAME is now
blank and so is not automatically being "seen' by the called subroutine.
So, the solution for this seems to be merely to pass the result of the
INPUTBox along and so the question is, shouldn't a calling subroutine pass
its definitions along to a subroutine it calls? And, if not, how do I get
it to do so?

Thanks,
Grace
 
J

JE McGimpsey

The answer to your second question is easy, and you should look up
"Understanding Scope and Visibility" in XL/VBA Help. Variables declared
within a module are only visible within the module:

Public Sub foo()
Dim vTest As Variant
vTest = "test"
bar
End Sub

Public Sub bar()
MsgBox vTest
End Sub

In this case, bar() will display an empty message box. Incidentally,
this is a superb reason to put "Option Explicit" at the top of your
modules (choose Preference/Editor in the VBE, and check the Require
variable declaration checkbox to make this automatic). If you'd had
that, you would have gotten a compile error - variable not declared in
bar().

To pass variables on, you could declare them globally (at the top of the
module), which is a widely used technique, but one that sometimes gets
beginning coders in trouble when two procedures operate on the same
global.

Dim vTest As Variant

Public Sub foo()
vTest = "test"
bar
End Sub

Public Sub bar()
MsgBox vTest
End Sub

Or you could explicitly pass them as an argument:

Public Sub foo()
Dim vTest As Variant
vTest = "test"
bar vTest
End Sub

Public Sub bar(ByRef vTest2 As Variant)
MsgBox vTest
End Sub

this time, bar() will display "test" in the message box.
 
G

Grace

Your use of subroutines in your answer confuses me. I guess good VBA
programmers use them a lot. But after reading the VBA help section you
mentioned, I assume that all I need to do is something like:

Dim PublicstrSHORT_MGR_NAME as string

and that should make that variable available to all modules. Is that right?
Do I have to declare it in each module or just any module? If just one
module, does it have to be in Module 1, in order to be available in Module 2
and not vice versa (or are module names just names)?

In any event, I tried what I've suggested above and it didn't help. It
still is not recognized in Module 2. By the way the help section indicated
there should be a space after Public but when I tried that, the compiler
gave me syntax errors.

Please help, anyone!

Thanks,
Grace
 
J

JE McGimpsey

Yup, I was sloppy in my terminology.

You can make a variable available to all modules by declaring them with
the Public keyword:

Public strSHORT_MGR_NAME As String

You got a syntax error because Public is not valid after a Dim

By removing the space, you declared a variable visible only within the
module wi the name "PublicstrSHORT_MGR_NAME"

From XL/VBA Help on "Dim":
Variables declared with Dim at the module level are available to all
procedures within the module. At the procedure level, variables are available
only within the procedure.
Click to expand...

This is an excellent reason that you should go to Tools/Options in the
VBE, and in the Editor pane, check the Require Variable Declaration
checkbox. If you'd had that checked, you would have gotten an error when
compiling telling you that the variable "strSHORT_MGR_NAME" was not
declared, even within the module.
 
J

JWolf

Put it immediately above the option explicit statement, any module, but
sometimes its easier to keep track of if you put all your subs using the
public variable in one module (not always possible).

The public statement is equivalent to a dim statement within a module,
thus public variables can't be declared inside the sub, they already exist.
 
G

Grace

I use this variable plus a number of others I enter through InputBox to
create filenames that I will later open (after I, knowingly, give them just
the right names). What you just told me helped but I was still encountering
problems in other modules. Then, it occurred to me that this variable was
the only one giving me problems. For all the other variables, I assigned
there values to a cell in the workbook. This seems like a better way to
make something "public". Once it is in a cell, any module or subroutine
should be able to get that cell's value. Do you agree?

In any event, the happy ending has not yet quite arrived. For some reason,
even thought he macro's msgbox shows that strMGR_SHORT_NAME has the right
result:

Sheets("INPUTS").Range("C29").Value = StrMGR_SHORT_NAME

is not successfully populating cell C29. This procedure worked for all the
other variables. I just started a new thread called "help anyone". If you
could review that, I would appreciate it.

Thanks,
Grace
 
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