Range Collection

Article
06/14/2014

This content is no longer actively maintained. It is provided as is, for anyone who may still be using these technologies, with no warranties or claims of accuracy with regard to the most recent product version or service release.

Range

Represents a cell, a row, a column, a selection of cells containing one or more contiguous blocks of cells, or a 3-D range.

Using the Range Collection

The following properties and methods for returning a Range object are described in this section:

Range property
Cells property
Range and Cells
Offset property
Union method

Range Property

Use Range(arg), where arg names the range, to return a Range object that represents a single cell or a range of cells. The following example places the value of cell A1 in cell A5.

  Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("A5").Value = _
    Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("A1").Value

The following example fills the range A1:H8 with random numbers by setting the formula for each cell in the range. When it’s used without an object qualifier (an object to the left of the period), the Range property returns a range on the active sheet. If the active sheet isn’t a worksheet, the method fails. Use the Activate method to activate a worksheet before you use the Range property without an explicit object qualifier.

  Worksheets("Sheet1").Activate
Range("A1:H8").Formula = "=Rand()"    'Range is on the active sheet

The following example clears the contents of the range named Criteria.

  Worksheets(1).Range("Criteria").ClearContents

If you use a text argument for the range address, you must specify the address in A1-style notation (you cannot use R1C1-style notation).

Cells Property

Use Cells(row, column) where row is the row index and column is the column index, to return a single cell. The following example sets the value of cell A1 to 24.

  Worksheets(1).Cells(1, 1).Value = 24

The following example sets the formula for cell A2.

  ActiveSheet.Cells(2, 1).Formula = "=Sum(B1:B5)"

Although you can also use Range("A1") to return cell A1, there may be times when the Cells property is more convenient because you can use a variable for the row or column. The following example creates column and row headings on Sheet1. Notice that after the worksheet has been activated, the Cells property can be used without an explicit sheet declaration (it returns a cell on the active sheet).

  Sub SetUpTable()
Worksheets("Sheet1").Activate
For TheYear = 1 To 5
    Cells(1, TheYear + 1).Value = 1990 + TheYear
Next TheYear
For TheQuarter = 1 To 4
    Cells(TheQuarter + 1, 1).Value = "Q" & TheQuarter
Next TheQuarter
End Sub

Although you could use Visual Basic string functions to alter A1-style references, it's much easier (and much better programming practice) to use the Cells(1, 1) notation.

Use expression.Cells(row, column) , where expression is an expression that returns a Range object, and row and column are relative to the upper-left corner of the range, to return part of a range. The following example sets the formula for cell C5.

  Worksheets(1).Range("C5:C10").Cells(1, 1).Formula = "=Rand()"

Range and Cells

Use Range(cell1, cell2), where cell1 and cell2 are Range objects that specify the start and end cells, to return a Range object. The following example sets the border line style for cells A1:J10.

  With Worksheets(1)
    .Range(.Cells(1, 1), _
        .Cells(10, 10)).Borders.LineStyle = xlThick
End With

Notice the period in front of each occurrence of the Cells property. The period is required if the result of the preceding With statement is to be applied to the Cells property — in this case, to indicate that the cells are on worksheet one (without the period, the Cells property would return cells on the active sheet).

Offset Property

Use Offset(row, column), where row and column are the row and column offsets, to return a range at a specified offset to another range. The following example selects the cell three rows down from and one column to the right of the cell in the upper-left corner of the current selection. You cannot select a cell that isn’t on the active sheet, so you must first activate the worksheet.

  Worksheets("Sheet1").Activate
  'Can't select unless the sheet is active
Selection.Offset(3, 1).Range("A1").Select

Union Method

Use Union(range1, range2, ...) to return multiple-area ranges — that is, ranges composed of two or more contiguous blocks of cells. The following example creates an object defined as the union of ranges A1:B2 and C3:D4, and then selects the defined range.

  Dim r1 As Range, r2 As Range, myMultiAreaRange As Range
Worksheets("sheet1").Activate
Set r1 = Range("A1:B2")
Set r2 = Range("C3:D4")
Set myMultiAreaRange = Union(r1, r2)
myMultiAreaRange.Select

If you work with selections that contain more than one area, the Areas property is very useful. It divides a multiple-area selection into individual Range objects and then returns the objects as a collection. You can use the Count property on the returned collection to check for a selection that contains more than one area, as shown in the following example.

  Sub NoMultiAreaSelection()
    NumberOfSelectedAreas = Selection.Areas.Count
    If NumberOfSelectedAreas > 1 Then
        MsgBox "You cannot carry out this command " & _
            "on multi-area selections"
    End If
End Sub

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