Article ID: 213413 - Last Review: January 24, 2007 - Revision: 5.4

Visual Basic macro to show active cell's range names in Excel

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SUMMARY

This article contains a sample Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications macro (Sub procedure) that finds all named ranges that contain the active cell on a worksheet and displays the names in a series of message boxes.

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MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements. This sample macro loops through all the names in the active workbook and checks to see if the range name is referring to the active sheet. It then uses the Intersect method to determine if the range name includes the active cell. This is done by setting an object variable equal to the intersection of the active cell and the named range. If the two ranges intersect, the TypeName of the object variable is "Range." If they do not intersect, the TypeName of the object variable is "Nothing."

If the macro finds a range name that includes the active cell, it displays a message box showing the range name. Once all names have been checked, the macro displays a message box showing that there are "No More Names."

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Sample Visual Basic procedure

Sub Find_Names()
' Loop through all names in workbook.
   For Each n In ActiveWorkbook.Names
      ' Check to see if the name refers to the ActiveSheet.
      If InStr(1, n.RefersTo, ActiveSheet.Name, vbTextCompare) > 0 Then
         ' If name refers to ActiveSheet, then find the intersection of the
         ' named range and the ActiveCell.
         Set y = Intersect(ActiveCell, Range(n.RefersTo))
         ' Display a message box if the ActiveCell is in the named range.
         If Not y Is Nothing Then MsgBox "Cell is in : " & n.Name
      End If
   Next
   MsgBox "No More Names!"
   ' Display message when finished.
End Sub

For more information about looping, in the Visual Basic Editor, click Microsoft Visual Basic Help on the Help menu, type looping through a range of cells in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topic.

For additional information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

226118 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/226118/ ) List of resources that are available to help you learn Visual Basic for Applications programming

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