List all objects excel vba

The ListObjects property of the Worksheet object returns the ListObjects collection. The ListObjects collection contains all the list objects on a worksheet. The ListObject object is a member of the ListObjects collection. Each ListObject object represents a table (previously known as a list) in the worksheet.

An Excel table typically contains related data in a series of worksheet rows and columns that have been formatted as a table. By using the table features, you can then manage the data in the table rows and columns independently from the data in other rows and columns on the worksheet.

Here is how a table (list) looks like. It can be identified by a small blue arrow at the right-most bottom-most cell of the table.

Whenever you import data from a file (Excel / Text / XML / JSON) or from a database (SQL / Access), the imported data is always in the form of a table.

You can also convert the selected range in Excel to a table by using the Format as Table option. For that simply select your data range, in the home tab, go to “Format as Table” and select the desired formatting. You will asked to confirm the selected data range and whether your table has headers. Input the data and click on OK and a table will be created.

To convert a table back to normal range, use the convert to range option. For that, click anywhere on the table, the design tab will be visible. In the design tab, click on convert to range.

Now, that we know what is a table let us look at how to use VBA to modify these tables.

Example 1: Loop through all the tables (lists) in a worksheet

The code below creates a new ListObjects collection which represents all the tables in a worksheet and displays the name of each of the table in the collection. The code along with the comments is self-explanatory.

Sub excelLists()
    Dim dataSheet As Worksheet
    Dim tableList As ListObjects
    Dim table As ListObject

    Set dataSheet = Sheet1

    'create a new ListObjects collection which represents all the tables in Sheet1
    Set tableList = dataSheet.ListObjects

    'Loop through each table in the tableList ListObjects collection
    For Each table In tableList

        'Display the table name
        MsgBox table.Name

    Next table

End Sub

The name of the table can be seen in the design tab. Select any cell in the table and the design tab will be shown. The name of the selected table is seen in the left side of the tab. You can edit it from here. You can also see a list of all the tables in the workbook along with their names and ranges in the Name Manager (in the Formulas tab).
Example 2: Column operations on a table
In this example we will see few of the most common operations that you can perform on the table columns. Namely, looping through all the columns of a table and printing their names, inserting columns at the end or at a specified position, deleting a particular column and copying only the data from a particular column.
Sub ListCols()
    Dim dataSheet As Worksheet
    Dim table As ListObject
    Dim tblCols As ListColumns
    Dim tblCol As ListColumn
    Dim newCol As ListColumn

    Set dataSheet = Sheet1

    'Refer a table by it's name
    Set table = dataSheet.ListObjects("Table2")

    'Get all the columns of a table
    Set tblCols = table.ListColumns

    'Loop through all the columns of a table
    For Each tblCol In tblCols
        MsgBox tblCol.Name
    Next tblCol

    'Insert a column at the last position
    Set newCol = tblCols.Add
    newCol.Name = "Last"

    'Insert a column at the third position (after title)
    Set newCol = tblCols.Add(3)
    newCol.Name = "Third"

    'Delete the fifth column (i.e. DOB)
    table.ListColumns(5).Delete

    'Copy only the data in column 1 (excluding the header)
    'We are pasting it in the "Last" column for demo
    table.ListColumns(1).DataBodyRange.Copy (Cells(3, 9))

End Sub

Here is how the above table will look after executing the code

Example 3:  Row operations
In this example let us have a look at some of the row operations in a table. As with columns, you can loop through all the rows, add and delete rows, work with totals row and header row.
Sub excelLists()
    Dim dataSheet As Worksheet
    Dim table As ListObject
    Dim tblRows As ListRows
    Dim tblRow As ListRow
    Dim newRow As ListRow

    Set dataSheet = Sheet2
    Set table = dataSheet.ListObjects("Table5")

    'Get all the Rows of a table
    Set tblRows = table.ListRows

    'Loop through all the Rows of a table
    For Each tblRow In tblRows
        'Display the value in each row for column 1
        'The row index will always start at 1, irrespective of its
        'position on the worksheet
        MsgBox table.DataBodyRange(tblRow.Index, 1)
    Next tblRow

    'Insert a Row at the last position
    tblRows.Add

    'Insert a Row at the third position (excluding header row)
    Set newRow = tblRows.Add(3)

    'Delete the fifth Row (i.e. with ID 5148)
    table.ListRows(5).Delete

    'Display the totals row at the bottom
    table.ShowTotals = True

    'Change color of only the header row
    table.HeaderRowRange.Interior.Color = vbBlue

End Sub

This is how the original table will look like after executing the code



  


                       
  





Did you know you can convert this table into text using VBA? Read here to find out more.
See Also:
Excel VBA, Find and List All Files in a Directory and its Subdirectories
Guide to Dictionary Objects

Tables are one of the most powerful features of Excel.  Controlling them using VBA provides a way to automate that power, which generates a double benefit 🙂

Excel likes to store data within tables.  The basic structural rules, such as (a) headings must be unique (b) only one header row allowed, make tables compatible with more complex tools.  For example, Power Query, Power Pivot, and SharePoint lists all use tables as either a source or an output.  Therefore, it is clearly Microsoft’s intention that we use tables.

However, the biggest benefit to the everyday Excel user is much simpler; if we add new data to the bottom of a table, any formulas referencing the table will automatically expand to include the new data.

Whether you love tables as much as I do or not, this post will help you automate them with VBA.

Tables, as we know them today, first appeared in Excel 2007.  This was a replacement for the Lists functionality found in Excel 2003.  From a VBA perspective, the document object model (DOM) did not change with the upgraded functionality.  So, while we use the term ‘tables’ in Excel, they are still referred to as ListObjects within VBA.

Download the example file

I recommend you download the example file for this post.  Then you’ll be able to work along with examples and see the solution in action, plus the file will be useful for future reference.

Download the file: 0009 VBA tables and ListObjects.zip

Structure of a table

Before we get deep into any VBA code, it’s useful to understand how tables are structured.

Range & Data Body Range

The range is the whole area of the table.

The data body range only includes the rows of data, it excludes the header and totals.

Header and total rows

The header row range is the top row of the table containing the column headers.

The totals row range, if displayed, includes calculations at the bottom of the table.

List columns and list rows

The individual columns are known as list columns.

Each row is known as a list row.

The VBA code in this post details how to manage all these table objects.

Referencing the parts of a table

While you may be tempted to skip this section, I recommend you read it in full and work through the examples.  Understanding Excel’s document object model is the key to reading and writing VBA code.  Master this, and your ability to write your own VBA code will be much higher.

Many of the examples in this first section use the select method, this is to illustrate how to reference parts of the table.  In reality, you would rarely use the select method.

Select the entire table

The following macro will select the whole table, including the totals and header rows.

Sub SelectTable()

ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").Range.Select

End Sub

Select the data within a table

The DataBodyRange excludes the header and totals sections of the table.

Sub SelectTableData()

ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").DataBodyRange.Select

End Sub

Get a value from an individual cell within a table

The following macro retrieves the table value from row 2, column 4, and displays it in a message box.

Sub GetValueFromTable()

MsgBox ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").DataBodyRange(2, 4).value

End Sub

Select an entire column

The macro below shows how to select a column by its position, or by its name.

Sub SelectAnEntireColumn()

'Select column based on position
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListColumns(2).Range.Select

'Select column based on name
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListColumns("Category").Range.Select

End Sub

Select a column (data only)

This is similar to the macro above, but it uses the DataBodyRange to only select the data; it excludes the headers and totals.

Sub SelectColumnData()

'Select column data based on position
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListColumns(4).DataBodyRange.Select

'Select column data based on name
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListColumns("Category").DataBodyRange.Select

End Sub

Select a specific column header

This macro shows how to select the column header cell of the 5th column.

Sub SelectCellInHeader()

ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").HeaderRowRange(5).Select

End Sub

Select a specific column within the totals section

This example demonstrates how to select the cell in the totals row of the 3rd column.

Sub SelectCellInTotal()

ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").TotalsRowRange(3).Select

End Sub

Select an entire row of data

The macro below selects the 3rd row of data from the table.

NOTE – The header row is not included as a ListRow.  Therefore, ListRows(3) is the 3rd row within the DataBodyRange, and not the 3rd row from the top of the table.

Sub SelectRowOfData()

ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListRows(3).Range.Select

End Sub

Select the header row

The following macro selects the header section of the table.

Sub SelectHeaderSection()

ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").HeaderRowRange.Select

End Sub

Select the totals row

To select the totals row of the table, use the following code.

Sub SelectTotalsSection()

ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").TotalsRowRange.Select

End Sub

OK, now we know how to reference the parts of a table, it’s time to get into some more interesting examples.

Creating and converting tables

This section of macros focuses on creating and resizing tables.

Convert selection to a table

The macro below creates a table based on the currently selected region and names it as myTable.  The range is referenced as Selection.CurrentRegion, but this can be substituted for any range object.

If you’re working along with the example file, this macro will trigger an error, as a table called myTable already exists in the workbook.  A new table will still be created with a default name, but the VBA code will error at the renaming step.

Sub ConvertRangeToTable()

tableName As String
Dim tableRange As Range

Set tableName = "myTable"
Set tableRange = Selection.CurrentRegion
ActiveSheet.ListObjects.Add(SourceType:=xlSrcRange, _
    Source:=tableRange, _
    xlListObjectHasHeaders:=xlYes _
    ).Name = tableName

End Sub

Convert a table back to a range

This macro will convert a table back to a standard range.

Sub ConvertTableToRange()

ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").Unlist

End Sub

NOTE – Unfortunately, when converting a table to a standard range, the table formatting is not removed.  Therefore, the cells may still look like a table, even when they are not – that’s frustrating!!!

Resize the range of the table

To following macro resizes a table to cell A1 – J100.

Sub ResizeTableRange()

ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").Resize Range("$A$1:$J$100")

End Sub

Table styles

There are many table formatting options, the most common of which are shown below.

Change the table style

Change the style of a table to an existing pre-defined style.

Sub ChangeTableStyle()

ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").TableStyle = "TableStyleLight15"

End Sub

To apply different table styles, the easiest method is to use the macro recorder.  The recorded VBA code will include the name of any styles you select.

Get the table style name

Use the following macro to get the name of the style already applied to a table.

Sub GetTableStyleName()

MsgBox ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").TableStyle

End Sub

Apply a style to the first or last column

The first and last columns of a table can be formatted differently using the following macros.

Sub ColumnStyles()

'Apply special style to first column
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ShowTableStyleFirstColumn = True

'Apply special style to last column
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ShowTableStyleLastColumn = True

End Sub

Adding or removing stripes

By default, tables have banded rows, but there are other options for this, such as removing row banding or adding column banding.

Sub ChangeStripes()

'Apply column stripes
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ShowTableStyleColumnStripes = True

'Remove row stripes
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ShowTableStyleRowStripes = False

End Sub

Set the default table style

The following macro sets the default table style.

Sub SetDefaultTableStyle()

'Set default table style
ActiveWorkbook.DefaultTableStyle = "TableStyleMedium2"

End Sub

Looping through tables

The macros in this section loop through all the tables on the worksheet or workbook.

Loop through all tables on a worksheet

If we want to run a macro on every table of a worksheet, we must loop through the ListObjects collection.

Sub LoopThroughAllTablesWorksheet()

'Create variables to hold the worksheet and the table
Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim tbl As ListObject

Set ws = ActiveSheet
'Loop through each table in worksheet
For Each tbl In ws.ListObjects

    'Do something to the Table....

Next tbl

End Sub

In the code above, we have set the table to a variable, so we must refer to the table in the right way.  In the section labeled ‘Do something to the table…, insert the action to be undertaken on each table, using tbl to reference the table.

For example, the following will change the table style of every table.

tbl.TableStyle = "TableStyleLight15"

Loop through all tables in a workbook

Rather than looping through a single worksheet, as shown above, the macro below loops through every table on every worksheet.

Sub LoopThroughAllTablesWorkbook()

'Create variables to hold the worksheet and the table
Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim tbl As ListObject

'Loop through each worksheet
For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets

    'Loop through each table in worksheet
    For Each tbl In ws.ListObjects

        'Do something to the Table....

    Next tbl

Next ws

End Sub

As noted in the section above, we must refer to the table using its variable.  For example, the following will display the totals row for every table.

tbl.ShowTotals = True

Adding & removing rows and columns

The following macros add and remove rows, headers, and totals from a table.

Add columns into a table

The following macro adds a column to a table.

Sub AddColumnToTable()

'Add column at the end
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListColumns.Add

'Add column at position 2
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListColumns.Add Position:=2
End Sub

Add rows to the bottom of a table

The next macro will add a row to the bottom of a table

Sub AddRowsToTable()

'Add row at bottom
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListRows.Add

'Add row at the first row
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListRows.Add Position:=1
End Sub

Delete columns from a table

To delete a column, it is necessary to use either the column index number or the column header.

Sub DeleteColumnsFromTable()

'Delete column 2
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListColumns(2).Delete

'Delete a column by name
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListColumns("Feb").Delete
End Sub

Delete rows from a table

In the table structure, rows do not have names, and therefore can only be deleted by referring to the row number.

Sub DeleteRowsFromTable()

'Delete row 2
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListRows(2).Delete

'Delete multiple rows
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").Range.Rows("4:6").Delete
End Sub

Add total row to a table

The total row at the bottom of a table can be used for calculations.

Sub AddTotalRowToTable()

'Display total row with value in last column
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ShowTotals = True

'Change the total for the "Total Column" to an average
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListColumns("TotalColumn").TotalsCalculation = _
    xlTotalsCalculationAverage

'Totals can be added by position, rather than name
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListColumns(2).TotalsCalculation = _
    xlTotalsCalculationAverage
End Sub

Types of totals calculation

xlTotalsCalculationNone
xlTotalsCalculationAverage
xlTotalsCalculationCount
xlTotalsCalculationCountNums
xlTotalsCalculationMax
xlTotalsCalculationMin
xlTotalsCalculationSum
xlTotalsCalculationStdDev
xlTotalsCalculationVar

Table header visability

Table headers can be turned on or off.   The following will hide the headers.

Sub ChangeTableHeader()

ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ShowHeaders = False

End Sub

Remove auto filter

The auto filter can be hidden.  Please note, the table header must be visible for this code to work.

Sub RemoveAutoFilter()

ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ShowAutoFilterDropDown = False

End Sub

I have a separate post about controlling auto filter settings – check it out here.  Most of that post applies to tables too.

Other range techniques

Other existing VBA techniques for managing ranges can also be applied to tables.

Using the union operator

To select multiple ranges, we can use VBA’s union operator. Here is an example, it will select rows 4, 1, and 3.

Sub SelectMultipleRangesUnionOperator()

Union(ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListRows(4).Range, _
    ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListRows(1).Range, _
    ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListRows(3).Range).Select

End Sub

Assign values from a variant array to a table row

To assign values to an entire row from a variant array, use code similar to the following:

Sub AssignValueToTableFromArray()

'Assing values to array (for illustration)
Dim myArray As Variant
myArray = Range("A2:D2")

'Assign values in array to the table
ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListRows(2).Range.Value = myArray

End Sub

Reference parts of a table using the range object

Within VBA, a table can be referenced as if it were a standard range object.

Sub SelectTablePartsAsRange()

ActiveSheet.Range("myTable[Category]").Select

End Sub

Counting rows and columns

Often, it is useful to count the number of rows or columns.  This is a good method to reference rows or columns which have been added.

Counting rows

To count the number of rows within the table, use the following macro.

Sub CountNumberOfRows()

Msgbox ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListRows.Count

End Sub

Counting columns

The following macro will count the number of columns within the table.

Sub CountNumberOfColumns()

Msgbox ActiveSheet.ListObjects("myTable").ListColumns.Count

End Sub

Useful table techniques

The following are some other useful VBA codes for controlling tables.

Show the table data entry form

If a table starts at cell A1, there is a simple data entry form that can be displayed.

Sub ShowDataEntryForm()

'Only works if Table starts at Cell A1
ActiveSheet.ShowDataForm

End Sub

The following screenshot shows the data form for the example table.

Check if a table exists

The following macro checks if a table already exists within a workbook.  Change the tblName variable to adapt this to your requirements.

Sub CheckIfTableExists()

'Create variables to hold the worksheet and the table
Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim tbl As ListObject
Dim tblName As String
Dim tblExists As Boolean

tblName = "myTable"

'Loop through eac worksheet
For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets

    'Loop through each table in worksheet
    For Each tbl In ws.ListObjects

        If tbl.Name = tblName Then

            tblExists = True

        End If

    Next tbl

Next ws

If tblExists = True Then

    MsgBox "Table " & tblName & " exists."

Else

    MsgBox "Table " & tblName & " does not exists."

End If

End Sub

Find out if a table has been selected, if so which

The following macros find the name of the selected table.

Method 1

As you will see in the comments Jon Peltier had an easy approach to this, which has now become my preferred approach.

Sub SimulateActiveTable()

Dim ActiveTable As ListObject

On Error Resume Next
Set ActiveTable = ActiveCell.ListObject
On Error GoTo 0

'Confirm if a cell is in a Table
If ActiveTable Is Nothing Then
    MsgBox "Select table and try again"
Else
    MsgBox "The active cell is in a Table called: " & ActiveTable.Name
End If

End Sub

Method 2

This option, which was my original method, loops through each table on the worksheet and checks if they intersect with the active cell.

Sub SimulateActiveTable_Method2()

Dim ActiveTable As ListObject
Dim tbl As ListObject

'Loop through each table, check if table intersects with active cell
For Each tbl In ActiveSheet.ListObjects

    If Not Intersect(ActiveCell, tbl.Range) Is Nothing Then

        Set ActiveTable = tbl
        MsgBox "The active cell is in a Table called: " & ActiveTable.Name
    
    End If

Next tbl

'If no intersection then no tabl selected
If ActiveTable Is Nothing Then

    MsgBox "Select an Excel table and try again"

End If

End Sub

Conclusion

Wow!  That was a lot of code examples. 

There are over 30 VBA macros above, and even this does not cover everything, but hopefully covers 99% of your requirements. For your remaining requirements, you could try Microsoft’s VBA object reference library (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/Excel.ListObject)

The VBA ArrayList is a much better alternative to the built-in VBA Collection. It contains much richer functionality such as sorting, converting to an array, removing all items etc.

Check out the quick guide for an overview of what the ArrayList does. The rest of this post provides examples of how to use the ArrayList.

Quick Guide to the VBA ArrayList

Description

The ArrayList is similar to the VBA built-in Collection. It is not part of VBA, but it is in an external library which we can access easily. The ArrayList is the same one that is used in the language C#. As you would expect, the ArrayList has a built-in sort, array conversion and other functionality that you would expect in a modern programming language. For the purpose of this article, I will refer to it as the VBA ArrayList.

Download the Source Code

Declare and Create the VBA ArrayList

Like all external libraries we can create the ArrayList using early and late binding.

Late Binding

We use CreateObject to create the ArrayList using late binding:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub UsingArrayList()

    Dim coll As Object
    Set coll = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")

End Sub

Early Binding

Update 12-Nov-2019: Intellisense doesn’t currently work for the ArrayList.
Early binding allows use to use the Intellisense to see what is available to use. We must first add the type library as a reference and then select it from the reference list. We can use the following steps to do this:

1. Select Tools and then References from the menu.
2. Click on the Browse.
3. Find the file mscorlib.tlb and click Open. It should be in a folder like this C:WindowsMicrosoft.NETFrameworkv4.0.30319.
4. Scroll down the list and check mscorlib.dll.
5. Click Ok.

 
You can now use the following code to declare the ArrayList using early binding:

Dim coll As New ArrayList

VBA ArrayList Automation Error

You may encounter the VB Run-time Error ‘-2146232576 Automation Error’ when trying to get the ArrayList to work. Or sometimes your code has been working for a long time and then suddenly this error appears.

This is caused by not having the correct .Net Framework version installed. The correct version is 3.5. It doesn’t matter if you have a later version like 4.7, you must have 3.5 installed.

Adding Items to the VBA ArrayList

Adding items to the ArrayList is very similar to how we add them to the Collection. We use the Add method:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub AddingToList()

    Dim coll As Object
    Set coll = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
    
    ' Add items
    coll.Add "Apple" 
    coll.Add "Watermelon"
    coll.Add "Pear"
    coll.Add "Banana"
    
    ' Insert to first position
    coll.Insert 0, "Plum"

End Sub

Reading through an ArrayList

We read through the ArrayList similar to the VBA Collection except that we read from zero to Count-1 rather than from one to Count.

Note: We will use this PrintToImmediateWindow sub in the follow examples to show the contents of the array after the various operations.

' Print all items to the Immediate Window(Ctrl + G)
' Items must be basic data type e.g. Long, String, Double
' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub PrintToImmediateWindow(coll As Object)

    Dim i As Long
    For i = 0 To coll.Count - 1
        Debug.Print coll(i)
    Next i
    
End Sub

 
We can use the For Each loop with the VBA ArrayList just like we use it with a Collection:

' Print all items to the Immediate Window(Ctrl + G)
' Items much be basic data type e.g. Long, String, Double
' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub PrintToImmediateWindowEach(coll As Object)

    Dim item As Variant
    For Each item In coll
        Debug.Print item
    Next item
    
End Sub

You can download all the code examples at the top of this post.

Sorting

Sort will sort the VBA ArrayList in ascending order.

To sort in descending order simply use Reverse after Sort.

The following code shows an example of sorting in both ascending and descending order:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub Sorting()

    Dim coll As Object
    Set coll = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
    
    ' Add items
    coll.Add "Apple"
    coll.Add "Watermelon"
    coll.Add "Pear"
    coll.Add "Banana"
    coll.Add "Plum"
    
    ' Sort
    coll.Sort
    
    Debug.Print vbCrLf & "Sorted Ascending"
    ' Add this sub from "Reading through the items" section
    PrintToImmediateWindow coll
    
    ' Reverse sort
    coll.Reverse
    
    Debug.Print vbCrLf & "Sorted Descending"
    PrintToImmediateWindow coll
    
End Sub

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub PrintToImmediateWindow(coll As Object)

    Dim i As Long
    For i = 0 To coll.Count - 1
        Debug.Print coll(i)
    Next i
    
End Sub

Cloning the VBA ArrayList

We can create a copy of the ArrayList by using the Clone method. This creates a brand new copy of the ArrayList.

It’s not the same as assigning the variable which means both variables point to the same ArrayList e.g.

' Both variables point to the same ArrayList
Set coll2 = coll

We use Clone like this:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub Cloning()

    ' Create the ArrayList
    Dim coll1 As Object
    Set coll1 = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
    
    ' Add items
    coll1.Add "Apple"
    coll1.Add "Watermelon"
    coll1.Add "Pear"
    coll1.Add "Banana"
    coll1.Add "Plum"
    
    ' Creates a copy of the original ArrayList
    Dim coll2 As Object
    Set coll2 = coll1.Clone
    
    ' Remove all items from coll1
    coll1.Clear
    
    ' Add PrintToImmediateWindow sub from "Reading through the items" section
    Debug.Print vbCrLf & "coll1 Contents are:"
    PrintToImmediateWindow coll1
    
    Debug.Print vbCrLf & "coll2 Contents are:"
    PrintToImmediateWindow coll2

End Sub

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub PrintToImmediateWindow(coll As Object)

    Dim i As Long
    For i = 0 To coll.Count - 1
        Debug.Print coll(i)
    Next i
    
End Sub

Copying from an VBA ArrayList to an Array

We can copy from the ArrayList to an array in one line using the ToArray method:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub CopyToArray()

    ' Declare and Create ArrayList
    Dim coll As Object
    Set coll = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
    
    ' Add items
    coll.Add "Apple"
    coll.Add "Watermelon"
    coll.Add "Pear"
    coll.Add "Banana"
    coll.Add "Plum"
    
    ' Copy to array
    Dim arr As Variant
    arr = coll.ToArray
    
    ' Print the array
    Debug.Print vbCrLf & "Printing the array contents:"
    PrintArrayToImmediate arr
    
End Sub

' Prints the contents of a one dimensional array
' to the Immediate Window(Ctrl + G)
' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub PrintArrayToImmediate(arr As Variant)
    
    Dim i As Long
    For i = LBound(arr) To UBound(arr)
        Debug.Print arr(i)
    Next i
       
End Sub

 
You can download all the code examples at the top of this post.
 

Writing Directly to a Range

One of the biggest advantages of the ArrayList is that we can write the contents directly to a range.

The code below writes the contents to both a row and a column:

'  Writes the contents of an ArrayList to a worksheet range
' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub ClearArrayList()

    ' Declare and Create ArrayList
    Dim fruit As Object
    Set fruit = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
    
    ' Add items
    fruit.Add "Apple"
    fruit.Add "Watermelon"
    fruit.Add "Pear"
    fruit.Add "Banana"
    fruit.Add "Plum"
    fruit.Add "Peach"
    
       
    ' ' Clean existing data
    Sheet1.Cells.ClearContents
    
    ' Write to a row
    Sheet1.Range("C1").Resize(1, fruit.Count).Value = fruit.toArray
    
    ' Write to a column
    Sheet1.Range("A1").Resize(fruit.Count, 1).Value = WorksheetFunction.Transpose(fruit.toArray)
    
End Sub

Array to a VBA ArrayList(1D)

As we have seen, there is an in-built function ToArray which will copy from an ArrayList to an Array.

If we want to copy from an Array to an ArrayList we need to create our own function which I have done below. Because we read through the items one at a time, it may be a bit slow if we have a lot of data:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Function ArrayToArrayList(arr As Variant) As Object

    ' Check that array is One Dimensional
    On Error Resume Next
    Dim ret As Long
    ret = -1
    ret = UBound(arr, 2)
    On Error Goto 0
    If ret <> -1 Then
        Err.Raise vbObjectError + 513, "ArrayToArrayList" _
                , "The array can only have one 1 dimension"
    End If

    ' Create the ArrayList
    Dim coll As Object
    Set coll = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
    
    ' Add items to the ArrayList
    Dim i As Long
    For i = LBound(arr, 1) To UBound(arr, 1)
        coll.Add arr(i)
    Next i
    
    ' Return the new ArrayList
    Set ArrayToArrayList = coll
    
End Function

 
You can use it like this:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub ReadFromArray1D()
    
    Dim arr(1 To 3) As Variant
    
    arr(1) = "PeterJ"
    arr(2) = "Jack"
    arr(3) = "Jill"
    
    ' Create the ArrayList
    Dim coll As Object
    Set coll = ArrayToArrayList(arr)

    PrintToImmediateWindow coll
    
End Sub

Remove All Items from the ArrayList

We can remove all the items from an ArrayList by using the Clear function:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub ClearArrayList()

    ' Declare and Create ArrayList
    Dim coll As Object
    Set coll = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
    
    ' Add items
    coll.Add "Apple"
    coll.Add "Watermelon"
    coll.Add "Pear"
    coll.Add "Banana"
    coll.Add "Plum"
    
    Debug.Print vbCrLf & "The number of items is: " & coll.Count
    
    ' Remove all item
    coll.Clear
    
    Debug.Print "The number of items is: " & coll.Count
    
End Sub

 
You can download all the code examples at the top of this post.
 

What’s Next?

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Object Hierarchy | Collections | Properties and Methods

Learn more about the Workbook and Worksheet object in Excel VBA.

Object Hierarchy

In Excel VBA, an object can contain another object, and that object can contain another object, etc. In other words, Excel VBA programming involves working with an object hierarchy. This probably sounds quite confusing, but we will make it clear.

The mother of all objects is Excel itself. We call it the Application object. The application object contains other objects. For example, the Workbook object (Excel file). This can be any workbook you have created. The Workbook object contains other objects, such as the Worksheet object. The Worksheet object contains other objects, such as the Range object.

The Create a Macro chapter illustrates how to run code by clicking on a command button. We used the following code line:

Range(«A1»).Value = «Hello»

but what we really meant was:

Application.Workbooks(«create-a-macro»).Worksheets(1).Range(«A1»).Value = «Hello»

Note: the objects are connected with a dot. Fortunately, we do not have to add a code line this way. That is because we placed our command button in create-a-macro.xlsm, on the first worksheet. Be aware that if you want to change things on different worksheets, you have to include the Worksheet object. Read on.

Collections

You may have noticed that Workbooks and Worksheets are both plural. That is because they are collections. The Workbooks collection contains all the Workbook objects that are currently open. The Worksheets collection contains all the Worksheet objects in a workbook.

You can refer to a member of the collection, for example, a single Worksheet object, in three ways.

1. Using the worksheet name.

Worksheets(«Sales»).Range(«A1»).Value = «Hello»

2. Using the index number (1 is the first worksheet starting from the left).

Worksheets(1).Range(«A1»).Value = «Hello»

3. Using the CodeName.

Sheet1.Range(«A1»).Value = «Hello»

To see the CodeName of a worksheet, open the Visual Basic Editor. In the Project Explorer, the first name is the CodeName. The second name is the worksheet name (Sales).

Note: the CodeName remains the same if you change the worksheet name or the order of your worksheets so this is the safest way to reference a worksheet. Click View, Properties Window to change the CodeName of a worksheet. There is one disadvantage, you cannot use the CodeName if you reference a worksheet in a different workbook.

Properties and Methods

Now let’s take a look at some properties and methods of the Workbooks and Worksheets collection. Properties are something which an collection has (they describe the collection), while methods do something (they perform an action with an collection).

Place a command button on your worksheet and add the code lines:

1. The Add method of the Workbooks collection creates a new workbook.

Workbooks.Add

Note: the Add method of the Worksheets collection creates a new worksheet.

2. The Count property of the Worksheets collection counts the number of worksheets in a workbook.

MsgBox Worksheets.Count

Result when you click the command button on the sheet:

Note: the Count property of the Workbooks collection counts the number of active workbooks.