Understanding Object Parents

Category: General VBA | [Item URL]

When working in VBA, it's important to understand the object model for the application you're using. More specifically, a good knowledge of how various objects relate to each other can often simplify your coding.

Excel's object model is a hierarchy - objects are contained in other objects. At the top of the hierarchy is the application objects (Excel itself). Excel contains other objects, and these objects contain other objects, and so on. The following depicts how a Range objects fits into this scheme.

Application Object (Excel)
    Workbook Object
        Worksheet Object
            Range Object

In the lingo of object-oriented programming, a Range object's parent is the Worksheet object that contains it. A Worksheet object's parent is the Workbook that contains the worksheet. And, a Workbook object's parent is the Application object.

The SheetName Function

How can this information be put to use? Examine the VBA function below. This function, which can be used in a worksheet formula, accepts a single argument (a range) and returns the name of the worksheet that contains the range. It uses the Parent property of the Range object. The Parent property returns an object -- the object that contains the range object.

Function SheetName(ref) As String
    SheetName = ref.Parent.Name
End Function

The WorkbookName Function

The next function, WorkbookName, returns the name of the workbook. Notice that is uses the Parent property twice - the first Parent property returns a Worksheet object; the second Parent property returns a Workbook object.

Function WorkbookName(ref) As String
    WorkbookName = ref.Parent.Parent.Name
End Function

The AppName Function

The function below carries this to the next logical level, accessing the Parent property three times. This function returns the name of the Application object.

Function AppName(ref) As String
   AppName = ref.Parent.Parent.Parent.Name
End Function

Learning More

I've come to the conclusion that a thorough understanding of Excel's object model is absolutely essential for anyone who needs to write non-trivial Excel macros. Study the online help, study VBA code that others have written, and explore the Object Browser. No doubt about it, things can be very confusing - but eventually the pieces fall into place.

And there's an excellent side benefit: Once you figure out how objects work, you'll be able to apply your knowledge very easily to other applications that support VBA. All you need to do is spend some time getting acquainted with the apps's object model.