Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Pulling Cell Names into VBA.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 10, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365
If you have used Excel for any length of time, you undoubtedly know that you can define names in your worksheets that refer to various cells and ranges of cells. You can even define names that refer to constants and to formulas. (The naming abilities of Excel are really quite handy.)
As you are developing macros, you may wonder if there is a way to retrieve a list of defined names within a worksheet. This is actually quite easy, if you remember that the defined names are maintained in the Names collection, which belongs to the Workbook object. With this in mind, you can use the following code to put together a variable array that consists of all the names in a workbook:
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here:
Dim NamesList()
Dim NumNames As Integer
Dim x As Integer
NumNames = ActiveWorkbook.Names.Count
ReDim NamesList(1 To NumNames)
For x = 1 To NumNames
NamesList(x) = ActiveWorkbook.Names(x).Name
Next x
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (5676) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Pulling Cell Names into VBA.
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2021-04-23 10:33:43
J. Woolley
You might be interested in this freely available array function in My Excel Toolbox:
ListNames([Scope], [SkipHidden], [SkipHeader])
ListNames is most useful as a dynamic array in newer versions of Excel. You can also use it like this in older versions of Excel that do not support dynamic arrays:
SpillArray(ListNames([Scope], [SkipHidden], [SkipHeader]))
SpillArray will determine and populate the spill range for its array expression argument, simulating a dynamic array.
See https://sites.google.com/view/MyExcelToolbox/
2020-06-18 10:29:16
J. Woolley
@Philip
ReDim must be used at the procedure level (Sub, Function, or Property). Try a Collection instead. See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/language/reference/user-interface-help/collection-object
or https://wellsr.com/vba/2018/excel/the-vba-collection-object/
For example:
Dim C As Collection ' Public at module level
Sub testGlobalA()
Set C = New Collection
For n = 0 To 9
C.Add (n * 3)
Next n
testGlobalB
End Sub
Sub testGlobalB()
For Each n In C
Debug.Print n
Next n
End Sub
2020-06-17 02:55:54
Philip
Can I "redim" a Public array variable somehow ? I need to pull data into public arrays, but the length of the arrays will vary depending on when the code runs ... when declaring a Public array variable (e.g. Public arrFieldNames() as String), and then in a different sub I am re-dimming them, they seem to lose there "Public" status and go "out of context" once the sub ends ...
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