How can I run VBA code each time a cell gets its value changed by a formula?
The code you used does not work because the cell changing is not the cell with the formula but the cell... being changed :)
Here is what you should add to the worksheet's module:
(Updated: The line "Set rDependents = Target.Dependents" will raise an Error if there are no dependents. This update takes care of this.)
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
Dim rDependents As Range
On Error Resume Next
Set rDependents = Target.Dependents
If Err.Number > 0 Then
Exit Sub
End If
' If the cell with the formula is "F160", for example...
If Not Application.Intersect(rDependents, Range("F160")) Is Nothing Then
Call abc
End If
End Sub
Private Sub abc()
MsgBox """abc()"" is running now"
End Sub
You can expand this if there are many dependent cells by setting up an array of cell addresses in question. Then you would test for each address in the array (you can use any looping structure for this) and run a desired subroutine corresponding to the changed cell (use SELECT CASE...) for this.
Here is another way using classes. The class can store cell Initial value and cell address. On calculate event it will compare the address current value with the stored initial value. Example below is made to listen to one cell only ("A2"), but you can initiate listening to more cells in the module or change the class to work with wider ranges.
Class module called "Class1":
Public WithEvents MySheet As Worksheet
Public MyRange As Range
Public MyIniVal As Variant
Public Sub Initialize_MySheet(Sh As Worksheet, Ran As Range)
Set MySheet = Sh
Set MyRange = Ran
MyIniVal = Ran.Value
End Sub
Private Sub MySheet_Calculate()
If MyRange.Value <> MyIniVal Then
Debug.Print MyRange.Address & " was changed from " & MyIniVal & " to " & MyRange.Value
StartClass
End If
End Sub
Initialize the class in normall module.
Dim MyClass As Class1
Sub StartClass()
Set MyClass = Nothing
Set MyClass = New Class1
MyClass.Initialize_MySheet ActiveSheet, Range("A2")
End Sub
If I have a formula in cell A1 (e.g. = B1 * C1) and I want to run some VBA code each time A1 changes due to updates to either cell B1 or C1 then I can use the following:
Private Sub Worksheet_Calculate()
Dim target As Range
Set target = Range("A1")
If Not Intersect(target, Range("A1")) Is Nothing Then
//Run my VBA code
End If
End Sub
Update
As far as I know the problem with Worksheet_Calculate
is that it fires for all cells containing formulae on the spreadsheet and you cannot determine which cell has been re-calculated (i.e. Worksheet_Calculate
does not provide a Target
object)
To get around this, if you have a bunch of formulas in column A and you want to identify which one has updated and add a comment to that specific cell then I think the following code will achieve that:
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
Dim updatedCell As Range
Set updatedCell = Range(Target.Dependents.Address)
If Not Intersect(updatedCell, Range("A:A")) Is Nothing Then
updatedCell.AddComment ("My Comments")
End If
End Sub
To explain, for a formula to update, one of the input cells into that formula must change e.g. if formula in A1
is =B1 * C1
then either B1
or C1
must change to update A1.
We can use the Worksheet_Change
event to detect a cell change on the s/sheet and then use Excel's auditing functionality to trace the dependents e.g. cell A1 is dependent on both B1
and C1
and, in this instance, the code Target.Dependents.Address
would return $A$1
for any change to B1
or C1
.
Given this, all we now need to do is to check if the dependent address is in column A (using Intersect
). If it is in Column A we can then add comments to the appropriate cell.
Note that this only works for adding comments once only into a cell. If you want to continue to overwrite comments in the same cell you would need to modify the code to check for the existance of comments first and then delete as required.