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Creating  VBA  Functions For MS Excel

 

12.1 The Needs to Create VBA Functions in MS-Excel

You can create  your own functions to supplement the  built-in functions in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, which are quite limited in some aspects. These user-defined  functions are also called  Visual Basic for Applications functions, or simply VBA functions. They are very useful and powerful if you know how to program them properly. One main reason we need to create user defined functions is to enable us to customize our spreadsheet environment for individual needs. For example, we might need a function that could calculate commissions payment based on the sales volume, which is quite difficult if not impossible by using the built-in functions alone. Lets look at the table below:

Table 12.1: Commissions Payment Table

 

Sales Volume($)

Commissons

<500

3%

<1000

6%

<2000

9%

<5000

12%

>5000

15%

12.2 Using Microsoft Excel Visual Basic  Editor

To create VBA functions in MS Excel, you can  click on tools,

select macro and then click on Visual Basic Editor as shown in Figure 12.1
 

  Figure 12.1: Inserting MS_Excel Visual Basic Editor

 

 

Upon clicking the Visual Basic Editor, the VB Editor windows will appear as shown in figure 12.2. To create a function, type in the function as illustrated in section 12.1 above After typing, save the  file and then return to the Excel windows.

Figure 12.2 : The VB Editor

 

 

 

In the Excel window, type in the titles Sales Volume and Commissions in any two cells. By referring to figure 12.3, key-in the Comm function at cell C4 and by referencing the value in cell B4, using the format Comm(B4). Any value appear in cell B4 will pass the value to the Comm function in cell C4. For the rest of the rows, just copy the formula by  dragging  the bottom right corner of cell C4 to the required cells, a nice and neat table that shows the commissions will automatically appear (as shown in figure 12.3). It can also be updated anytime

Figure 12.3: MS Excel Windows- Sales Volume