Definitive Guide to Excel VBA

This book was originally published in Germany. Kudos to Apress for picking it up and translating it. The translation is the reason many have called this book cryptic. But make no mistake, this is a fantastic book that covers many things that others do not. This is a great addition to any Excel library.

This is a great book for the intermediate to advanced Excel VBA user. It covers many fine details missed by other Excel VBA texts. This does NOT make this text better than others that focus on basic skills for VBA Application programming. Beginners may get lost in the depth of the details but experienced users will be very happy with the depth of knowledge that makes the difference between a good application and a great application. Buy this book after you master the fundamentals. Highly recommended.

This book was my bible for VBA & Excel while creating an application for work. I thought about getting Walkenbach's "EXCEL 2000 Power Programming", but my dad owned that one so I figured I could always borrow it if needed - but I never did need it. I had not written a single line of Visual Basic or VBA prior to getting this book - I learned everything I needed here. (Although I had plenty of experience in C++/Java).A few comments - I liked his style of mostly providing textual descriptions of all the different Excel classes, methods, and properties. There's not a lot of code in the book - but I never missed it. He provided clear enough descriptions of how to use the Excel object model, that I didn't need a ton of printed code to reinforce (don't get me wrong, there IS code within the book + the sample CD, just not pages and pages reflecting an entire application he's building up, like you get in a cookbook). If you prefer to just cut & paste code from a book into your own app, then you might be better off with Walkenbach's book.The book was originally written in German and then translated to English, but I only remember one or two times where that became evident.I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

I won't say this book is "the only Excel VBA book you will need" -- there is no such kind of thing for programming books. However, I like to say it is one of the best and definitive guides to Excel VBA. The most important thing is that there are several advanced topics you won't find on the other popular Excel VBA books (such as Excel 2002 VBA programminer's Reference by Stephen Bullen, John Green et al. or Excel 2002 Power Programming with VBA by John Walkenback): for instance, recursion, details of random numbers generation, matrix functions, automatic data reporting, OLAP functionality and using Excel as ActiveX server. However, I also must say this book is definitely not for the beginners to learn VBA.

Compared to Walkenbach books (like Excel 2002 / 2000 power programming with VBA) and many others, this book is truly worth its title. Its clear and very well structurated plan means all information can be found easily and everything understood without pain. This is paramount since a book main and unique goal is to transmit information. Its design and layout, clear, eye-pleasing and professional, strengthens this crucial aspect. With Walkenbach, the reader has to collect elements throughout all chapters them combine them to get an idea of a particular topic!!! With this book, the reader knows what he'll find and where. For example, all error handling is included in one part while all functions are sorted by theme (math, date etc.) It's incredible that having a coherent and clear organization, which should be basic, is not in Walkenbach books!?Furthermore, this book reveals many important and little documented points tied to Excel VBA, ranging from range and cells to many critical points like external data access with true database programs, which are even not dealed in some self-proclamed 'expert' books, like Walkenbach's. Besides, it exhibits many trips and tricks that allow fast, clean programs and avoir many troubles by grouping all points linked to a particular problem.Third, the writting is not terse: with irony, and a great amount of objectivity, qualities which seem to evaporate in Walkenbach and others (which very often sound like a Microsoft ad), it clearly explains and demonstrates the limits and bugs of Excel VBA.Fourth, the companion CD Rom is truly useful, loaded with many pratical and real-life examples and solutions. Again, Walkenbach, after saying virtually every page the HE is the author, the creator and so forth, with its constant I-do-this mentality, provides a software wich is not usable since the reader has to send a coupon card!Finally, this is the book to have for truly mastering Excel VBA, without pain but with efficiency.