Error in finding last used cell in Excel with VBA
NOTE: I intend to make this a "one stop post" where you can use the Correct
way to find the last row. This will also cover the best practices to follow when finding the last row. And hence I will keep on updating it whenever I come across a new scenario/information.
Unreliable ways of finding the last row
Some of the most common ways of finding last row which are highly unreliable and hence should never be used.
- UsedRange
- xlDown
- CountA
UsedRange
should NEVER be used to find the last cell which has data. It is highly unreliable. Try this experiment.
Type something in cell A5
. Now when you calculate the last row with any of the methods given below, it will give you 5. Now color the cell A10
red. If you now use the any of the below code, you will still get 5. If you use Usedrange.Rows.Count
what do you get? It won't be 5.
Here is a scenario to show how UsedRange
works.
xlDown
is equally unreliable.
Consider this code
lastrow = Range("A1").End(xlDown).Row
What would happen if there was only one cell (A1
) which had data? You will end up reaching the last row in the worksheet! It's like selecting cell A1
and then pressing End key and then pressing Down Arrow key. This will also give you unreliable results if there are blank cells in a range.
CountA
is also unreliable because it will give you incorrect result if there are blank cells in between.
And hence one should avoid the use of UsedRange
, xlDown
and CountA
to find the last cell.
Find Last Row in a Column
To find the last Row in Col E use this
With Sheets("Sheet1")
LastRow = .Range("E" & .Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
End With
If you notice that we have a .
before Rows.Count
. We often chose to ignore that. See THIS question on the possible error that you may get. I always advise using .
before Rows.Count
and Columns.Count
. That question is a classic scenario where the code will fail because the Rows.Count
returns 65536
for Excel 2003 and earlier and 1048576
for Excel 2007 and later. Similarly Columns.Count
returns 256
and 16384
, respectively.
The above fact that Excel 2007+ has 1048576
rows also emphasizes on the fact that we should always declare the variable which will hold the row value as Long
instead of Integer
else you will get an Overflow
error.
Note that this approach will skip any hidden rows. Looking back at my screenshot above for column A, if row 8 were hidden, this approach would return 5
instead of 8
.
Find Last Row in a Sheet
To find the Effective
last row in the sheet, use this. Notice the use of Application.WorksheetFunction.CountA(.Cells)
. This is required because if there are no cells with data in the worksheet then .Find
will give you Run Time Error 91: Object Variable or With block variable not set
With Sheets("Sheet1")
If Application.WorksheetFunction.CountA(.Cells) <> 0 Then
lastrow = .Cells.Find(What:="*", _
After:=.Range("A1"), _
Lookat:=xlPart, _
LookIn:=xlFormulas, _
SearchOrder:=xlByRows, _
SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, _
MatchCase:=False).Row
Else
lastrow = 1
End If
End With
Find Last Row in a Table (ListObject)
The same principles apply, for example to get the last row in the third column of a table:
Sub FindLastRowInExcelTableColAandB()
Dim lastRow As Long
Dim ws As Worksheet, tbl as ListObject
Set ws = Sheets("Sheet1") 'Modify as needed
'Assuming the name of the table is "Table1", modify as needed
Set tbl = ws.ListObjects("Table1")
With tbl.ListColumns(3).Range
lastrow = .Find(What:="*", _
After:=.Cells(1), _
Lookat:=xlPart, _
LookIn:=xlFormulas, _
SearchOrder:=xlByRows, _
SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, _
MatchCase:=False).Row
End With
End Sub
Note: this answer was motivated by this comment. The purpose of UsedRange
is different from what is mentioned in the answer above.
As to the correct way of finding the last used cell, one has first to decide what is considered used, and then select a suitable method. I conceive at least three meanings:
Used = non-blank, i.e., having data.
Used = "... in use, meaning the section that contains data or formatting." As per official documentation, this is the criterion used by Excel at the time of saving. See also this official documentation. If one is not aware of this, the criterion may produce unexpected results, but it may also be intentionally exploited (less often, surely), e.g., to highlight or print specific regions, which may eventually have no data. And, of course, it is desirable as a criterion for the range to use when saving a workbook, lest losing part of one's work.
Used = "... in use, meaning the section that contains data or formatting" or conditional formatting. Same as 2., but also including cells that are the target for any Conditional Formatting rule.
How to find the last used cell depends on what you want (your criterion).
For criterion 1, I suggest reading this answer.
Note that UsedRange
is cited as unreliable. I think that is misleading (i.e., "unfair" to UsedRange
), as UsedRange
is simply not meant to report the last cell containing data. So it should not be used in this case, as indicated in that answer. See also this comment.
For criterion 2, UsedRange
is the most reliable option, as compared to other options also designed for this use. It even makes it unnecessary to save a workbook to make sure that the last cell is updated.
Ctrl+End will go to a wrong cell prior to saving
(“The last cell is not reset until you save the worksheet”, from
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa139976%28v=office.10%29.aspx.
It is an old reference, but in this respect valid).
For criterion 3, I do not know any built-in method.
Criterion 2 does not account for Conditional Formatting. One may have formatted cells, based on formulas, which are not detected by UsedRange
or Ctrl+End.
In the figure, the last cell is B3, since formatting was applied explicitly to it. Cells B6:D7 have a format derived from a Conditional Formatting rule, and this is not detected even by UsedRange
.
Accounting for this would require some VBA programming.
As to your specific question: What's the reason behind this?
Your code uses the first cell in your range E4:E48 as a trampoline, for jumping down with End(xlDown)
.
The "erroneous" output will obtain if there are no non-blank cells in your range other than perhaps the first. Then, you are leaping in the dark, i.e., down the worksheet (you should note the difference between blank and empty string!).
Note that:
If your range contains non-contiguous non-blank cells, then it will also give a wrong result.
If there is only one non-blank cell, but it is not the first one, your code will still give you the correct result.
I created this one-stop function for determining the last row, column and cell, be it for data, formatted (grouped/commented/hidden) cells or conditional formatting.
Sub LastCellMsg()
Dim strResult As String
Dim lngDataRow As Long
Dim lngDataCol As Long
Dim strDataCell As String
Dim strDataFormatRow As String
Dim lngDataFormatCol As Long
Dim strDataFormatCell As String
Dim oFormatCond As FormatCondition
Dim lngTempRow As Long
Dim lngTempCol As Long
Dim lngCFRow As Long
Dim lngCFCol As Long
Dim strCFCell As String
Dim lngOverallRow As Long
Dim lngOverallCol As Long
Dim strOverallCell As String
With ActiveSheet
If .ListObjects.Count > 0 Then
MsgBox "Cannot return reliable results, as there is at least one table in the worksheet."
Exit Sub
End If
strResult = "Workbook name: " & .Parent.Name & vbCrLf
strResult = strResult & "Sheet name: " & .Name & vbCrLf
'DATA:
'last data row
If Application.WorksheetFunction.CountA(.Cells) <> 0 Then
lngDataRow = .Cells.Find(What:="*", _
After:=.Range("A1"), _
Lookat:=xlPart, _
LookIn:=xlFormulas, _
SearchOrder:=xlByRows, _
SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, _
MatchCase:=False).Row
Else
lngDataRow = 1
End If
'strResult = strResult & "Last data row: " & lngDataRow & vbCrLf
'last data column
If Application.WorksheetFunction.CountA(.Cells) <> 0 Then
lngDataCol = .Cells.Find(What:="*", _
After:=.Range("A1"), _
Lookat:=xlPart, _
LookIn:=xlFormulas, _
SearchOrder:=xlByColumns, _
SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, _
MatchCase:=False).Column
Else
lngDataCol = 1
End If
'strResult = strResult & "Last data column: " & lngDataCol & vbCrLf
'last data cell
strDataCell = Replace(Cells(lngDataRow, lngDataCol).Address, "$", vbNullString)
strResult = strResult & "Last data cell: " & strDataCell & vbCrLf
'FORMATS:
'last data/formatted/grouped/commented/hidden row
strDataFormatRow = StrReverse(Split(StrReverse(.UsedRange.Address), "$")(0))
'strResult = strResult & "Last data/formatted row: " & strDataFormatRow & vbCrLf
'last data/formatted/grouped/commented/hidden column
lngDataFormatCol = Range(StrReverse(Split(StrReverse(.UsedRange.Address), "$")(1)) & "1").Column
'strResult = strResult & "Last data/formatted column: " & lngDataFormatCol & vbCrLf
'last data/formatted/grouped/commented/hidden cell
strDataFormatCell = Replace(Cells(strDataFormatRow, lngDataFormatCol).Address, "$", vbNullString)
strResult = strResult & "Last data/formatted cell: " & strDataFormatCell & vbCrLf
'CONDITIONAL FORMATS:
For Each oFormatCond In .Cells.FormatConditions
'last conditionally-formatted row
lngTempRow = CLng(StrReverse(Split(StrReverse(oFormatCond.AppliesTo.Address), "$")(0)))
If lngTempRow > lngCFRow Then lngCFRow = lngTempRow
'last conditionally-formatted column
lngTempCol = Range(StrReverse(Split(StrReverse(oFormatCond.AppliesTo.Address), "$")(1)) & "1").Column
If lngTempCol > lngCFCol Then lngCFCol = lngTempCol
Next
'no results are returned for Conditional Format if there is no such
If lngCFRow <> 0 Then
'strResult = strResult & "Last cond-formatted row: " & lngCFRow & vbCrLf
'strResult = strResult & "Last cond-formatted column: " & lngCFCol & vbCrLf
'last conditionally-formatted cell
strCFCell = Replace(Cells(lngCFRow, lngCFCol).Address, "$", vbNullString)
strResult = strResult & "Last cond-formatted cell: " & strCFCell & vbCrLf
End If
'OVERALL:
lngOverallRow = Application.WorksheetFunction.Max(lngDataRow, strDataFormatRow, lngCFRow)
'strResult = strResult & "Last overall row: " & lngOverallRow & vbCrLf
lngOverallCol = Application.WorksheetFunction.Max(lngDataCol, lngDataFormatCol, lngCFCol)
'strResult = strResult & "Last overall column: " & lngOverallCol & vbCrLf
strOverallCell = Replace(.Cells(lngOverallRow, lngOverallCol).Address, "$", vbNullString)
strResult = strResult & "Last overall cell: " & strOverallCell & vbCrLf
MsgBox strResult
Debug.Print strResult
End With
End Sub
Results look like this:
For more detailed results, some lines in the code can be uncommented:
One limitation exists - if there are tables in the sheet, results can become unreliable, so I decided to avoid running the code in this case:
If .ListObjects.Count > 0 Then
MsgBox "Cannot return reliable results, as there is at least one table in the worksheet."
Exit Sub
End If