Excel vba array of user defined types

Создание пользовательских типов данных в VBA Excel. Оператор Type, его описание и параметры. Создание массива «одномерных массивов» с пользовательскими данными.

Определение пользовательских типов данных

Пользовательский тип данных в VBA Excel представляет из себя набор элементов, каждому из которых пользователем присваивается свой тип данных. Другими словами, пользовательский тип данных — это набор данных разного типа, который может быть присвоен одной переменной.

Если простую переменную (не массив) объявить с пользовательским типом данных, она будет представлять из себя «одномерный массив»* с элементами разных типов данных, определенных пользователем.

Если с пользовательским типом данных объявить переменную массива, она будет представлять из себя массив «одномерных массивов»* пользовательских данных.

* Выражение «одномерный массив» взято в кавычки, так как фактически это не массив, а набор пользовательских данных, но для практического применения это не имеет значения.

Синтаксис оператора Type

Type <strong>Name</strong> <strong>Element</strong>_1 as <strong>Tip</strong> <strong>Element</strong>_2 as <strong>Tip</strong> <strong>Element</strong>_3 as <strong>Tip</strong> ———————— <strong>Element</strong>_n as <strong>Tip</strong> End Type

Пользовательский тип данных в VBA Excel может быть объявлен с ключевым словом Public или Private, которое явно укажет зону его видимости. Если ключевое слово опущено, конструкция с оператором Type по умолчанию объявляется с зоной видимости Public.

Параметры оператора Type

Параметр	Описание
Name	Имя пользовательского типа данных, по которому этот тип данных будет присваиваться переменным.
Element	Наименование отдельного элемента пользовательского типа данных.
Tip	Тип данных отдельного элемента (стандартный тип VBA).

Применение пользовательских типов данных

Применение пользовательских типов данных в VBA Excel рассмотрим на примере домиков для животных.

Объявление пользовательского типа данных

Объявление пользовательского типа данных (конструкция с оператором Type) размещается в самом начале модуля в разделе Declarations.

Пример 1

Type Domik naimenovaniye As String obyem_m3 As Single material As String kolichestvo As Long End Type

В этом примере:

• Domik — имя, по которому этот тип данных будет присваиваться переменным;
• naimenovaniye — наименование домика для животных;
• obyem_m3 — объем домика в куб. метрах;
• material — материал, из которого сделан домик;
• kolichestvo — количество домиков на складе.

Заполнение данными массива

Обычно в качестве контейнеров для пользовательских типов данных в VBA Excel используются массивы. В простую переменную можно уместить только один набор пользовательских данных, а в массив — сколько нужно. В следующем примере мы заполним трехэлементный массив тремя наборами пользовательских данных.

Если представить набор пользовательских данных как «одномерный массив», то таким образом мы создадим массив «одномерных массивов» с пользовательскими данными.

Пример 2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Sub Primer2() ‘Объявляем трехэлементный массив ‘с пользовательским типом данных Dim a(1 To 3) As Domik ‘Заполняем первый элемент массива a(1).naimenovaniye = «Скворечник» a(1).obyem_m3 = 0.02 a(1).material = «сосна» a(1).kolichestvo = 15 ‘Заполняем второй элемент массива a(2).naimenovaniye = «Собачья будка» a(2).obyem_m3 = 0.8 a(2).material = «береза» a(2).kolichestvo = 5 ‘Заполняем третий элемент массива a(3).naimenovaniye = «Клетка кролика» a(3).obyem_m3 = 0.4 a(3).material = «металл» a(3).kolichestvo = 6 End Sub

Обращение к пользовательским данным в массиве

Для обращения в коде VBA Excel к пользовательским данным в массиве используется та же конструкция, что и при записи: указывается элемент массива и через точку наименование элемента пользовательских данных.

Пример 3

‘Считываем информацию из массива Dim b As Variant b = a(2).naimenovaniye MsgBox b b = a(3).obyem_m3 MsgBox b b = «Мы продаем следующие товары: « _ & a(1).naimenovaniye & «, « _ & a(2).naimenovaniye & » и « _ & a(3).naimenovaniye MsgBox b

Для наглядной демонстрации вставьте строки кода Примера 3 перед строкой End Sub Примера 2.

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User-defined types are composite data types containing one or more variables of other data types. User-defined types can be used to return multiple values from a function, pass a struct to a DLL procedure, improve efficiency when used in place of a class, and to make code more organized and readable.

User-Defined Types Vs Classes

Although user-defined types can sometimes take the place of using a class, they have several key differences from classes:

• Classes can define methods, user-defined types cannot
• Classes can be instantiated, user-defined types cannot
• Classes require their own dedicated modules, user-defined types do not
• Class instances can be added to a Collection object, user-defined types cannot
• User-defined types are more efficient than classes

Although there are some limitations with user-defined types when compared to classes, user-defined types can be a more efficient and light-weight alternative when all that is needed is a structure containing data fields. User-defined types do not have the overhead of a dedicated module and can help keep the size of a VBA project small when defining a number of data structures. Using a user-defined type with an array is more efficient than using a user-defined class with a Collection object. If a data structure does not need methods or instances then one should consider using a user-defined type instead of a class.

Declaring User-Defined Types

User-defined types are declared using the Type statement. There are a number of rules when declaring user-defined types:

• Must be declared above all procedures in a module.
• Must have at least one member.
• When Public or Private is not specified, user-defined types are Public by default.
• Public types cannot be declared in class modules.
• Private types in a class module cannot be used as parameters for public procedures.
• Private types in a class cannot be return types for public procedures of the class.
• Private types in class modules cannot be public member variables of the class.
• Types cannot contain a member that is declared as its own type. No circular dependencies.
• When a type contains another type as a member, the member’s type must be declared first.

'Standard Module

Option Explicit

Public Type TExample1
    Message As String
    Number  As Double
End Type

Public Type TExample2
    Message As String
    T1      As TExample1
End Type

Public Sub Example()

    Dim T1 As TExample1
    T1.Message = "MT1 Message"
    T1.Number = 3.5

    Dim T2 As TExample2
    T2.Message = "T2 Message"
    T2.T1 = T1

    Debug.Print T2.Message, T2.T1.Message, T2.T1.Number
    
End Sub

In a standard code module, Private user-defined types can be accessed publicly as a member variable of a Public user-defined type.

'Standard Module: Module1

Option Explicit

Private Type TPrivate
    Message  As String
    Number   As Double
End Type

Public Type TPublic
    Message  As String
    Priv     As TPrivate
End Type

'Standard Module: Module2

Option Explicit

Public Sub Example()

    Dim T As TPublic

    T.Priv.Message = "Hello, World!"
    T.Priv.Number = 3.5

    Debug.Print T.Priv.Message
    Debug.Print T.Priv.Number

End Sub

Multiple Return Values

There are times when it may be necessary for a function to return more than one value. A user-defined type can be used to return multiple values from a function.

Option Explicit

Public Type TExample
    Message As String
    Number  As Double
End Type

Public Function GetData() As TExample
    GetData.Message = "Hello, World!"
    GetData.Number = 3.5
End Function

Public Sub Example()

    Dim E As TExample
    E = GetData()

    Debug.Print E.Message
    Debug.Print E.Number

End Sub

User-Defined Type Parameter

User-defined types can be used as parameters of procedures.

Option Explicit

Public Type TExample
    Message As String
    Number  As Double
    Bool    As Boolean
End Type

Public Sub PrintTExample(T As TExample)
    Debug.Print T.Message, T.Number, T.Bool
End Sub

Public Sub Example()

    Dim T As TExample

    T.Message = "Hello, World!"
    T.Number = 3.5
    T.Bool = True

    PrintTExample T

End Sub

Pass Struct To DLL Procedure

User-defined types can be used to pass or return structs to and from DLL procedures.

// C++ 64-bit DLL

#define DLLExport __declspec(dllexport)

struct RECTANGLE {
    int s1;
    int s2;
};

extern "C" {

    DLLExport int __stdcall CppRectangleArea(RECTANGLE* rect) {
        return rect->s1 * rect->s2;
    }

}

Option Explicit

Public Type TRectangle
    S1 As Long
    S2 As Long
End Type

Public Declare PtrSafe Function CppRectangleArea _
    Lib "C:ExampleDLL.dll" (ByRef Rect As TRectangle) As Long

Public Sub Example()

    Dim Rect As TRectangle
    Rect.S1 = 10
    Rect.S2 = 20

    Dim Area As Long
    Area = CppRectangleArea(Rect)

    Debug.Print Area

End Sub

Arrays and User-Defined Types

Using an array with a user-defined type is an excellent way of storing tabular data in a type-safe, meaningful, and memory efficient way. Using a user-defined type array instead of a multi-dimensional array of type Variant provides the correct explicit data type for each field, a clear meaning for what each field represents, and saves memory when compared to using Variants. Consider the example below using a multi-dimensional array of type Variant and then again using an array with a user-defined type.

Note: Arrays of user-defined types cannot be iterated over using a For Each loop.

Option Explicit

Public Sub Example()

    Dim PersonInfoArray(0 To 2, 0 To 2) As Variant

    PersonInfoArray(0, 0) = "Bill"
    PersonInfoArray(0, 1) = #01/01/1992#
    PersonInfoArray(0, 2) = "New York"

    PersonInfoArray(1, 0) = "Bob"
    PersonInfoArray(1, 1) = #01/01/1993#
    PersonInfoArray(1, 2) = "Chicago"

    PersonInfoArray(2, 0) = "Ben"
    PersonInfoArray(2, 1) = #01/01/1994#
    PersonInfoArray(2, 2) = "Los Angeles"

    Dim i As Long
    For i = LBound(PersonInfoArray, 1) To UBound(PersonInfoArray, 1)
        Debug.Print PersonInfoArray(i, 0), PersonInfoArray(i, 1), PersonInfoArray(i, 2)
    Next i

End Sub

Option Explicit

Public Type TPersonInfo
    FirstName As String
    BirthDate As Date
    HomeTown  As String
End Type

Public Sub Example()

    Dim PersonInfoArray(0 To 2) As TPersonInfo

    With PersonInfoArray(0)
        .FirstName = "Bill"
        .BirthDate = #01/01/1992#
        .HomeTown = "New York"
    End With

    With PersonInfoArray(1)
        .FirstName = "Bob"
        .BirthDate = #01/01/1993#
        .HomeTown = "Chicago"
    End With

    With PersonInfoArray(2)
        .FirstName = "Ben"
        .BirthDate = #01/01/1994#
        .HomeTown = "Los Angeles"
    End With

    Dim i As Long
    For i = LBound(PersonInfoArray) To UBound(PersonInfoArray)
        With PersonInfoArray(i)
            Debug.Print .FirstName, .BirthDate, .HomeTown
        End With
    Next i

End Sub

LSet

LSet can be used with User-Defined Types to assign the values in one type with the values of another type.

Note: It is not recommended to use LSet with user-defined types because there is no guarantee that the members of both types are the same.

Option Explicit

Public Type TExample1
    Message As String * 15
    Number  As Double
End Type

Public Type TExample2
    Message As String * 15
    Number  As Double
End Type

Public Sub Example()

    Dim T1 As TExample1
    T1.Message = "Hello, World!"
    T1.Number = 3.5

    Dim T2 As TExample2
    LSet T2 = T1

    Debug.Print T2.Message
    Debug.Print T2.Number

End Sub

Option Explicit

'''VBA does not ensure that user-defined types match

Public Type TExample1
    Message As String * 15
    Number  As Double
End Type

Public Type TExample2
    Number  As Long
    Message As String * 15
End Type

Public Sub Example()

    Dim T1 As TExample1
    T1.Message = "Hello, World!"
    T1.Number = 3.5
    
    Dim T2 As TExample2
    LSet T2 = T1
    
    Debug.Print T2.Number  'Prints: '6619208
    Debug.Print T2.Message 'Prints: 'llo, World!

End Sub

1. 04-25-2017, 07:11 PM

   
   

   #1

   

   
   Forum Contributor
   

   

   ---

   how return an array of user defined datatype
   

   Question How return an array of User defined Types

   Context of question:
   Within one module associated with a single workbook
   I have defined a user data type:
   Type FieldData
   ID As Integer
   Elevation As Double
   DataType As String * 2
   End Type

   outside of several subroutines written in the code section
   I wrote a function which I would like to return an array of the above data type

   IF I were to write a function which returned just one element of my user defined data type I would have no
   problem writing the function. Function Boo (wrkshtPtr as worksheet, something as integer, etc) as FieldData

   BUT if I wanted to return an array of FieldData, I have no idea how to write the function returning an array of
   Field Data
   ie: Function Boo (WrkShtPtr as worksheet, something as integer, etc) Array as FieldData

   ---

2. 04-25-2017, 07:13 PM

   
   

   #2

   Re: how return an array of user defined datatype
   

   Please use CODE tags when posting code.

   Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate

   ---

3. 04-25-2017, 07:32 PM

   
   

   #3

   

   
   Forum Contributor
   

   

   ---

   Re: how return an array of user defined datatype
   

   SHG,

   Thank you for replying.

   Please help me understand your answer.

   the term «Array» as used in your example…..is it a keyword that has special meaning in VBA or is it an arbitrary term
   and the () after FieldData is the clue to VBA that «Array» is an array?

   Thank you for replying so quickly. Much appreciated.

   bil

   ---

4. 04-25-2017, 08:09 PM

   
   

   #4

   Re: how return an array of user defined datatype
   

   That tells VBA that it’s an array, yes.

   ---

5. 04-26-2017, 09:00 AM

   
   

   #5

   

   
   Forum Contributor
   

   

   ---

   Re: how return an array of user defined datatype
   

   shg,

   I apologize….I still do not understand your answer. please be patient with me.

   is this how the function would be written?

   Function Boo (args) FieldDataArray() as FieldData

   what is baffling for me is that normally i would write a function as:
   function Boo (args) as datatype
   but in your example, it seems as if i am writing more than datatype after Boo(args)

   please be patient with me.
   bil

   ---

6. 04-26-2017, 11:14 AM

   
   

   #6

   Re: how return an array of user defined datatype
   

   No, it would be written as shown in post #2 (with the args detailed).

   ---

7. 04-26-2017, 11:20 AM

   
   

   #7

   Re: how return an array of user defined datatype
   

   Hi,

   You would omit the Array keyword

   the brackets on the end indicate that an array is to be returned.

   Don
   Please remember to mark your thread ‘Solved’ when appropriate.

   ---

8. 04-26-2017, 11:48 AM

   
   

   #8

   

   
   Forum Contributor
   

   

   ---

   Re: how return an array of user defined datatype
   

   xlnitwit and shg……thank you so much for having spent so much time with my problem

   I hope both of you have a wonderful day.

   Bil

   ---

9. 04-26-2017, 03:04 PM

   
   

   #9

   Re: how return an array of user defined datatype
   

   My bad, missed that, sorry.

   ---

In my last week’s Blog post I elaborated on data types and their use in VBA.

Beyond using the readily available native data types we’re all familiar with, such as Integer, Date, String and Boolean, we can define our own, user-defined data type.

What is a User-Defined Data Type?

Simply put, a user-defined data type is a group of variables of native data types.

Here’s an example of grouping together several variables to define a new data type representing (or holding) information about a vehicle:

Type Vehicle

   VIN as Long

   Make as String

   Model as String

   Year as Integer

End Type

That’s it! As simple as that.

We can now dimension variables of type Vehicle:

Dim vehLeasedCar as Vehicle

We now have a kind of a hierarchy: a variable of type Vehicle containing sub-variables of different (native) types: Long, String and Integer in this example.

We can think of the sub-variables as properties of the Vehicle-type variable and use the “dot” to address each of these sub-variables. Let’s assign some values to our vehLeasedCar variable:

vehLeasedCar.VIN = 4656418

vehLeasedCar.Make = “Ford”

vehLeasedCar.Model = “Taurus”

vehLeasedCar.Year = 2001

In the same way, we can read the values of our variable (or its sub-variables). Let’s print out our vehicle’s model:

Debug.Print vehLeasedCar.Model

Why use User-Defined Data Types?

I can think of two main reasons to make use of user-defined data types:

1. They are suitable for records arrangement in a readable format
2. They are very efficient to process, even more than collections

Think of a process that needs to store and manipulate 5,000 vehicles.

One way would be to have a two-dimensional array store a table-like structure of the vehicles. This is valid (and you know how much I love arrays), and even performant. However, it would not be that clear by viewing the code what we are doing. What do you find more telling in your code: arrCars(i,j) or arrCars(i).Model?

Let’s define another data type to store information about an employee:

Private Type TEmployeeRecord

    Name As String

    DOB As Date

    Age As Integer

    City As String

    Score As Integer

End Type

Consider how readable and self-explanatory the following Sub is, tasked with printing out all data of an employee, passed over as a TEmployeeRecord type variable:

Sub PrintEmployeeReport(employee As TEmployeeRecord)

    With employee

        Debug.Print .Name, .City, .DOB, .Age, .Score

    End With

End Sub

Storing Many Records in an Array

Of course, storing a single record, as in the above examples, is not very helpful. We typically need to store many records of data in our program.

For this, we can combine our own defined data type (record structure) with a one-dimensional array.

To illustrate this in an example, let’s pick up a list of employees with some data on them from an Excel table and arrange it in an array of employees’ records. Our table look like this:

We first use a 2-dimensional array as an interim structure to quickly read the table from the Worksheet:

Dim arrEmployees() As Variant

arrEmployees = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Scores").Range("ScoresTable[#Data]").Value

Next, we loop our array and transfer each employee (“row”) in the array into a new, 1-dimentional array, holding employees’ records:

Dim employees(5) As TEmployeeRecord

Dim i As Integer

For i = LBound(arrEmployees, 1) To UBound(arrEmployees, 1)

        With employees(i - 1)

            .Name = arrEmployees(i, 1)

            .DOB = arrEmployees(i, 2)

            .Age = arrEmployees(i, 3)

            .City = arrEmployees(i, 4)

            .Score = arrEmployees(i, 5)

        End With

Next i

With that, we have an efficient array of employees to work with.

We can now write a function to return the score of an employee, given a pointer to the array of employees we prepared and the employee name to look for.

Function GetScoreOfEmployee(strName As String, employees() As TEmployeeRecord) As Integer

    Dim i As Integer  

    GetScoreOfEmployee = 0 

    For i = LBound(employees) To UBound(employees)

        With employees(i)

            If (.Name = strName) Then

                GetScoreOfEmployee = .Score

                Exit For

            End If

        End With

    Next i

End Function

See how elegant and clear this function is? We’re looping the employees array, checking each employee name to match strName we’re looking for, returning his score upon a successful match.

Here’s how we can make use of the above function to ask the user for a name of an employee and get his score (we’ll store his score in the intScore variable). We’re making use of the employees array we have populated earlier with our employees:

Dim strName As String

Dim intScore As Integer

strName = InputBox("Name of employee:", "Query Employee Form")

intScore = GetScoreOfEmployee(strName, employees)

If (intScore = 0) Then

   MsgBox "Employee not found", vbOKOnly + vbInformation, "Employee Error"

Else

   MsgBox strName & "'s score: " & intScore, vbOKOnly + vbInformation, "Employee Score Result"

End If

By the way, if you are not familiar with the InputBox function, I have a detailed Blog post about it for you here. Similarly, the MsgBox function is explained here.

Unfortunately, Excel VBA doesn’t allow us to add user-defined type variables to a collection, therefore we’re missing out on a potentially very useful and efficient data structure. One can argue that if a collection is our best structure to maintain our records, we can implement our records as objects defined in a Class Module instead of a user-defined data type. Yes, I have a series of Blog posts about objects and Class Modules starting right here.

The above examples are featured in my flagship on-line course: Computer Programming with Excel VBA, in case they seemed familiar to you 😉.

Hey, a small request from me to you: please share this Blog post so that we can help more colleagues with Excel VBA.

Let’s say you are trying to create a school management system. Here, you will have different types of variables like student name, student roll no, class, etc. A school also has teachers, so there will be teacher names, teacher subject, classes, etc. Similarly, there will be many other objects like, librarian, classes, principle etc. Now having different variables for each entity in school will be messy work. How about creating a data type of student, teacher, classes, etc that stores values related to them. For this we can use defined data types of VBA.

In this article, we will learn  how you can create your own data type in VBA. They are referred to as UDTs of VBA. 

Defining a User Defined Data Type

To define a structure or UDTs in VBA we use Type___End Type block. Here’s the syntax of a UDT.

Type Tname_Of_Data_Type

   var1 as datatype   'datatype can be anything, int, array,or even UDT

   var2 as datatype

   Var3() as datatype

   ---

   VarN() as datatype

End Type

So to define a custom data type in VBA we start with Type Keyword. Then we write the name of our custom data type. It is convention to use T before the Name of Data Type so that you can differentiate between vba collections and UDTs. 

The DataTypes can be anything. And Integer, String, Variant, another UDT, Arrays, collections, anything.

To use your UDT in the program declare its variable like any other variable.

Sub UseUDT

'Declaring variable of user defined data type 

Dim myVar1 as Tname_Of_Data_Type

 Dim myVar2 as Tname_Of_Data_Type

End Sub

Simple. Now to use the variables within this UDT we use dot operator. Use the name of the data type followed by a dot and name of variable within.

Sub UseUDT

'Declaring variable of user defined data type 

 Dim myVar1 as Tname_Of_Data_Type

 Dim myVar2 as Tname_Of_Data_Type

 

 myVar1.var1="Abcd"

 myVar2.Var2="xyvz"

End Sub

Enough of the theory, let’s jump into an example to see how it works.

Create A Student Variable that Stores Information Related to Student

So we have a task to create a user defined data type that stores information related to students.

A student has a first name, last name, roll number, date of birth, class, section, subjects.

So let’s create it.

'Created a Public Student Data Type

Public Type Tstudent  

  fName As String       'For First Name

  lName As String       'For Last Name

  rNo As Integer        'For Roll Number

  clss As string        'For Class

  section As String     'For Section Name   

  subjects() As String  'For Subjects of student

End Type

'Use this Tstudent type in subroutine

Sub StudentsInfo()

 

'Creating and initializing student type variable

 Dim student1 As Tstudent

 student1.fName = "Manish"

 student1.lName = "Singh"

 student1.rNo = 12334

 student1.clss = 10

 student1.section = "A"

 ReDim student1.subjects(2)

 student1.subjects(0) = "physics"

 student1.subjects(1) = "Math"

 

 'Printing student details.

 Debug.Print (student1.fName)

 Debug.Print (student1.lName)

 Debug.Print (student1.rNo)

 Debug.Print (student1.clss)

 Debug.Print (student1.section)

 Debug.Print (student1.subjects(0))

 Debug.Print (student1.subjects(1))

End Sub

When you run the above sub it will print the result as shown below:

Creating an Array of UDTs and Accessing Elements

Similarly you can create as many as variables of Tstudent type you need. You can even create an array of  Tstudent type like any other data type.

Public Type Tstudent  

  fName As String       'For First Name

  lName As String       'For Last Name

  rNo As Integer        'For Roll Number

  clss As string        'For Class

  section As String     'For Section Name   

  subjects() As String  'For Subjects of student

End Type

'Creating an arrays of Tstudents type

Sub SchoolInfo()

Dim schoolName As String

Dim students() As Tstudent

schoolName = "Senior School"

ReDim students(10)

For i = 0 To 9

 students(i).fName = "name" & Str(i + 1)

 students(i).rNo = i + 1

Next i

Debug.Print ("Name : Roll No")

For i = 0 To 9

 Debug.Print (students(i).fName & " : " & students(i).rNo)

Next i

End Sub

When you run this code, this will be printed in the immediate window.

In the above code, first defined UDT structure before and the sub (I’ll explain later why). The we just created an array using a dim keyword like we do for any variable in VBA. 

Then we used Redim to define the size of arrays. Afterwards we use a for loop to initialize the array.

To access the structure’s  elements we use another for loop. That is it.

Why Did We Declare UDT on Top of the Module?

If we declare a UDT first in a module, outside of any subroutine or function, it is available to all the modules in the workbook. It means if you have a hundred subs and functions in a module all of them can declare Student type variables in their body. 

If the UDT is not private, it will be available to all the modules in the workbook. If want a structure (UDT) to be available only to a containing module, declare it private.

Private Type Tstudent

  fName As String

  lName As String

  rNo As Integer

  clss As Integer

  section As String

  subjects() As String

End Type

You can’t have UDT on a procedural level. It means you can’t define a user defined data type inside a subroutine or function.

Nested User Defined Types

Let’s say you have UDT called a car. Car has its own elements. Similarly you have a UDT called a bike that can have its own properties.

Now let’s say you need a data type called vehicle. Vehicle can have a car and bike as its elements. Can we do this? Yes we can do this. See the below code

Private Type Tcar

 seats As Integer

 ac As Boolean

 typ As String

 color As String

 manufacturer As String

 Dop As Date

 rc_no As String

End Type

Private Type Tbike

 seats As Integer

 typ As String

 color As String

 manufacturer As String

 Dop As Date

 rc_no As String

End Type

Private Type Tvehicle

 number_of_Vehicle As Integer

 bike As Tbike

 car As Tcar

End Type

Sub vehicleVarification()

 Dim myVehicles As Tvehicle

 

 myVehicles.number_of_Vehicle = 2

 myVehicles.bike.seats = 1

 myVehicles.bike.typ = "Racing"

 myVehicles.car.seats = "4"

 myVehicles.car.ac = True

 

 Debug.Print myVehicles.number_of_Vehicle

 Debug.Print myVehicles.bike.typ

 Debug.Print myVehicles.car.ac

End Sub

Here, we have defined three user defined data type. First is Tcar that contains some information related to cars. Second is bike, it also contains some information about bike.

The third UDT is Tvehicle. It contains one variable to store number of vehicles and two variables of Tcar and Tbike type.

Private Type Tvehicle

 number_of_Vehicle As Integer

 bike As Tbike

 car As Tcar

End Type

To access variables of Tcar and Tbike we can use Tvehicle data type. In the sub, we have defined only one variable of Tvehicle type as myVehicles. When we create this variable VBA creates variables of Tcar and Tbike too.

To initialize and access variables of Tcar and Tcar, we can use myVehicle variable. As you can see in the code.

 myVehicles.number_of_Vehicle = 2

 myVehicles.bike.seats = 1

 myVehicles.bike.typ = «Racing»

 myVehicles.car.seats = «4»

 myVehicles.car.ac = True

When we run the sub, this how result occurs.

This feature really increases the power of programming VBA exponentially. You can structure your data type like real world entities. You can create relationships between data types which can be useful in a big project.

So yeah guys, this is how you can create and use a user defined data type or structure in VBA. I hope I was able to explain it. If you have any questions regarding this article or any other VBA related questions, ask me in the comments section below. I’ll be really happy to hear from you.

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Probably you have heard something about PHP. If you have, then you know that it supports arrays (and lists and anything you like) and you may declare any type of data in these. In VBA, usually the case is a little different. If you have a list of integers, then you can have only integers in it, and if you have a list of doubles – only doubles.

Anyway, sometimes you may wish that VBA was a little bit like PHP, where you could have declared a list of various variables. Actually, this is possible 🙂

WIth a little work around. You should declare a Private Type, in which you may put strings, integers and anything. Let’s take a look at the example:

Imagine you have to organize a Formula1 Grand Prix. You declare the following private types:

Then you simply decide to assign values to these types and to let it run. In the following example I have “created” two “roads” with two cars per road. This is how it looks like:

This is the result in the immediate window:

It is actually cool, if you can use it. 🙂 Or at least, you can use it to show, that you can put various types of data in a List or array. Which is a good usage as well 😀