plus EF and List<MyTable> bla bla ...

alright im probably being annoying so im gonna gtfo :P

but the idea is that something that used to take me an hour of coding ( not HARD just typing ) takes me 3 minutes to achieve using C#

I'm in deep. I'm trying to translate this to c#, but having trouble with translating the events.

mztools.com/articles/2012/MZ2012017.aspx

is that in relation to your last post on SO?

LOL. Yes.

I decided it was best to just build the COM Add-in, but I'm still learning C#.

I could do it in VB.Net, but I need to catch up to the times.

you will always be learning C#

;>

Hey Mug

yo bro

Hi

someone at the office asked me earlier today

"HOW MANY VARIABLES CAN YOU MAKE IN EXCEL VISUAL BASIC"....

Oh no.......

Did you teach that person how to loop?

I smell a need for looping.

@vba4all did you answer with the actual limitation?

@Mat'sMug There is one??

Okay....... that is seriously way too much work to wire up an event. I'm going to have to post this to CR when I'm done.

naugh... i pretty much said : " OH SORRY I HAVENT DONE ANY VBA IN AGES... IM NOT SURE ABOUT VBA'S LIMITATIONS"

Assuming they're the same as VB6, yes there are!

I think I've got it. Just need to wire it up to a command button to show it.... and then the real fun starts......

It's actually a nice exercise to translate code from a language you're kind of familiar with to one you're not.

@RubberDuck I usually register events, like, button1.Click += [tab][tab] done.

I'm pretty confident that I did it the hard way @Mat'sMug. Lol. It's real ugly right now. I'm going to have to clean it up a good bit.

ugh. I meant this one:

Dude... That is so far off from the MSDN tutorials it's ridiculous....

I'll take that as a "well that's much simpler, thanks Mug!" ;p

one down:

            var hasOptionExplicit = false;
            if (module.CodeModule.CountOfLines > 0 && module.CodeModule.CountOfDeclarationLines > 0)
            {
                hasOptionExplicit = module.CodeModule.Lines[1, module.CodeModule.CountOfDeclarationLines].Contains("Option Explicit");
            }
            module.CodeModule.AddFromString((hasOptionExplicit ? string.Empty : "Option Explicit\n") + TestModuleEmptyTemplate);
            module.Activate();

not the prettiest fix though

wow GitHub is smart!

> retailcoder referenced this issue from a commit 27 seconds ago

Lol. Yes. Much simpler @Mat'sMug and github is wicked smart.

Lol. Yes. Much simpler @Mat'sMug and github is wicked smart.

@RubberDuck the other issue is about to spawn a SO question

it's not because you're calling a function, it's because 2 all by itself is an Integer (which .net correctly receives as a short), and comparing it to a Long value of 2 (which .net correctly receives as an int) results in an inequality.

Right. I thought that's what was happening.

github.com/retailcoder/RetailCoderVBE/issues/…

@ticker whenever you're ready ;)

@ticker 3 minutes.. you beat @CaptainObvious by like 10 minutes!

@RubberDuck the actual code I've used:

        public void AreEqual(object value1, object value2, string message = null)
        {
            object convertedValue2 = null;
            if (value1.GetType() != value2.GetType())
            {
                try
                {
                    convertedValue2 = Convert.ChangeType(value2, value1.GetType());

                }
                catch (Exception exception)
                {
                    AssertHandler.OnAssertInconclusive(exception.Message);
                }
            }

Lol. Yeah @Mat'sMug. Posted a comment within seconds.

Pssst. You're catching exception.

This is a CR chat after all. =)

argh

lol

tltstdtts

too lazy to switch to desktop to star

@RubberDuck got one for you

'@TestMethod
Public Sub CompareBoolean()
    Assert.AreNotEqual CBool(1), 2
End Sub

vs

'@TestMethod
Public Sub CompareBoolean()
    Assert.AreNotEqual 2, CBool(1)
End Sub

one passes, the other fails.

solved-with-type-safety

....

thoughts?

not sure I like the fix

it gives value1 a different meaning than value2, and makes the order matter. Assert.AreEqual 300, CByte(30) and Assert.AreEqual CByte(30), 300 will produce very different results...

My opinion @Mat'sMug: Document that AreEqual will fail if not the same type and move on. It's not that inconvenient to write Assert.IsTrue( CByte(30) = 300)

My opinion @Mat'sMug: Document that AreEqual will fail if not the same type and move on. It's not that inconvenient to write Assert.IsTrue( CByte(30) = 300)

OR change the parameter names somehow to make it clear that the order matters. (And document the shit out of that too...)

public bool AreEqual(object expected, object actual)

Which is nice, because now you're explicitly saying "I expect this foo to be a bar when I get it back"

Yeah. I'll just document the type-safe nature of the AssertClass, and move on. I don't want all these side-effects and edge cases.

If I do a massive "Find/replace" on "As Integer" and replace it with "As Long" - does this have any potential to cause problems?

Ughh...... Not sure I would replace all.

I know I couldn't, because I've written too damn much meta code....

Do you make any API calls?

oh shit

yeah

Glad I asked first. bwahaha

Yeah. I would make sure to test changes to the Win API. They might need integers still.

Let me know though... I should probably update my SO answer if so.

I was thinking about this though, if VBA automatically converts behind the scenes Integer to Long - does it do this on declaration? or instantiate?

It's all about how it gets stored @enderland. It happens very close to the metal.

Hmmm. So if an API call expects a 16bit integer, how does that actually work I wonder

@RubberDuck oh funny, I just realized that question was from yesterday

I'm pretty sure it's not even talking about in memory

I think it's just referring to the fact that registers are 32 bits

I use CopyMem for a bunch of things and I've never run into a case where I needed to treat an Integer as 4 bytes

Is there a way to check how much memory space it actually takes up @Blackhawk?

yes :P

I literally just posted an answer doing so

I would be very curious what that returns on different versions of Office

Well, you can check the Lenb()

Or you could create a Type

Public Type Test

a As Integer

b As Integer

End Type

and just check the VarPtr()s

c As Integer

@Blackhawk won't that check the string length? not the variable length?

Create some local variables in a function and use the VarPtr to read the memory "around" an integer to see if the other integers are right up next to it

LenB = byte length

you can use LenB on any variable type

including Types

Like this?

Private Sub test()
    Dim i As Integer: i = 10
    Dim l As Long: l = 10

    Debug.Print "i : " & LenB(i)
    Debug.Print "l : " & LenB(l)

End Sub

Should work

ye

2 bytes is 16 bits...

yes

So VBA still stores Integers as 16-bits (unlike modern sane languages :P)

My guess is that the article is referring to how, to get a 16-bit value into a 32-bit register, some masking has to be performed

Except they actually use the word "Type"

or some such

which is hugely misleading if that's the case

@RubberDuck hehe I just added something similar into my answer there

Pretty sure Integers are not auto converted..

displays 2

Where's Spolsky when you need him.....

@Blackhawk do you mind if I include this in my answer there?

@enderland Go for it!

Public Sub Test()
    Dim a As Integer
    Dim b As Integer
    Debug.Print VarPtr(b) - VarPtr(a)
End Sub

Here's a fun one

turns out, function local variables are stored in reverse order

(pushed onto the stack in reverse order?)

@Blackhawk Interesting nugget. =)

thanks @Blackhawk, all the examples are in the answer i have there stackoverflow.com/a/26760080/1048539

@Blackhawk how do you figure?

that prints consecutive memory addresses:

Yes, it does, because you're printing them in reverse order

If VBA stored them in the same order as you declared them, j would have a smaller address than i

Oh wait... the stack grows downward

wait, I just realized I declared them backwards

heh

enderland fails

It looks like: 1. The stack grows downward (successive things pushed on the stack get smaller memory addresses) 2. VBA pushes local variables onto the stack in the order you declare them 3. Therefore, the first local variable has the largest address and the last the smallest

Private Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "Kernel32.dll" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" (ByVal Destination As Long, ByVal Source As Long, ByVal Length As Integer)

Public Sub Test()
    Dim a As Integer
    Dim b As Integer
    Dim c As Integer

    a = 1
    b = 2
    c = 3

    Dim arr(0 To 5) As Byte

    CopyMemory VarPtr(arr(0)), VarPtr(b) - 2, 6&
End Sub

There's the last one I can think of

loading b and the 2 bytes before and after it shows that the three Integers are right next to each other, two bytes each

(inspecting arr in the watch window)

What is this sorcery? ;) lol hi @Blackhawk!

:D hai!

@Mat'sMug there's always sorcery to be found when @Blackhawk's around.

Okay. Seriously....... what is that sorcery?

Someday I will learn all about that CopyMemory stuff.........

It's good stuff!

Is VarPtr a builtin to VBA? Also do I need to be familiar with the windows kernel to know how to make these alias?

VarPtr is built-in to VBA

You can look up the Win32 APIs on msdn and make the declarations from that

Here is the CopyMemory page on msdn. You can see that the actual dll entry point is called RtlMoveMemory, and if you scroll down to the bottom, you can see that the dll is Kernel32. The function returns void, so in VBA it's declared as a Sub. The arguments are both void pointers, so as long as you pass an address, it doesn't matter how you do it.

Private Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "Kernel32.dll" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" (ByRef Destination As Any, ByRef Source As Any, ByVal Length As Integer)

Defining it that way, VBA will pass the address of whatever variables you use for Source or Destination

That's effing magical.

With the exception that strings and arrays wouldn't be handled correctly

why?

are they not in neighboring memory like in C?

VarPtr(arr) wouldn't get you the address of an array

Arrays and Strings aren't actually stored directly in memory like most languages.

it gets you the address of the SAFEARRAY structure that describes the array

To get the actual address of the data in the array, you could do VarPtr(arr(0))

Variants complicate the issue even more, since they are a 16-byte data structure that describes what it contains

VBA uses BSTR structures to store strings. Here is a better explanation of what that looks like in memory.

Okay..... this one has me stumped. It seems that the form error bubbles directly to the top, which in a way makes sense I guess. But does anyone know why?

@Mat'sMug Not it. I checked mine.

Good thought though.

If you put error handling in the button (on the MainForm), that catches the error in AddClientForm.Initialize

It appears that .Show won't bubble up errors

or something...

I don't get it, but I think I have a workaround. Not one I like, but a workaround regardless.

I noticed most of you work with databases for a living using tools like LINQ.

data data data

did I even mention I am super jealous?

Oh what @ptwales?

Direct access to database.

Oh! Yeah. It's nice to just pop open SSMS and write a query.

Hearing yall talk about writing some LINQ code to get data while I'm plowing through the HTML code finding the element I want to click.

But to be honest, I don't like SQL all that much. I really prefer to build programs.

Yeah. That's crap.

I could so do this man.

software-solutions-online.com

Who the hell is that.

I bet he is on here already or will be soon.

I don't know. Don't much care.

It's the idea of it. someday being able to work for myself and just myself.

$20 an hour for writing VBA

I wonder how much business (s)he gets.

Idk, but it's honestly an all right rate. Probably a side gig.

$20/hr for software dev consulting is pretty low if you know what you are doing

That's why I'm thinking it's a side gig.

Hmmmmmm I could do that.

I think I might be under contract preventing me from doing side jobs

or maybe that was Epic...

LOL. This person has lost their mind.

odesk.com/o/jobs/job/_~01e69cb9ba3803bca3

> Est. Budget: $7.00

link blocked...

That's okay, here's all you need to know.

> Looking for someone to help us with editing excel 2010 VBA macros. We’ve made some vba macros for daily inventory updates for our business. We need someone who is knowledgeable in excel vba macros and can help us make our codes better. Offering $7.00 for 2 hours session Similar task may be offered again if it works out well Depending on the situation, we may ask you to create a whole macro. More tasks may become available.

We may ask you to create a whole macro.

lol

For $3.50 an hour...........

Are they marketing to India?

Not even a Chinese citizen would take that.

And it's a whole macro. That means they want 300 lines of code......

bhabhabhbahbhahahahahhahaha

We should counter offer for $30/hour

HR people like it when you smack them in the face

I don't like HR people.

And it's contract. Are they out of their minds?

I think they're really aliens come to take over the world.

Problem with stuff like that is that you might get someone who does it from a low cost of labor country and it is basically free, or you might get someone completely clueless

"Seeking Programmers Fluent in SQL, C#, Ajax and ASP.NET"

@enderland then they get shit code.

BUT ITS CHEAP!!!!1

The ones that scare me are the "need help updating this access database I built 10 years ago".

I'm fairly sure that actual developers in India don't get paid $3.50 an hour.

Est. Less than 1 month, less than 10 hours a week.

"I Built"

Yeah.

oh dont even get me started on outsourcing dev work

It's like, sure. I'll do it, but you don't get to see the code until it's done and it's going to cost you 2 to 3x that price.

I'm currently trying to figure out how to get people with no idea about VBA/databases to support my current project

"Purchase a solution"

You mean you aren't the support @enderland?

I should make a list of phrases I have hear that I hate in the field.

@RubberDuck I'm seriously torn between thinking that it will actually be less overall work for me to just say "I will support any breakfixes" vs trying to get people without any idea of the process or technology up to speed on actually being able to support it without talking to me through the process

Top of the list is "See Below, Please advise". The only content in the latest email of a long email train.

"sure, my advice is you are an idiot" doesn't work huh

@ptwales I actually just scolded one of the managers (not mine) the other day about doing that.

> In the future, please provide me with this kind of information up front. Saying "see below" leaves me grasping at straws and inevitably makes me look like an idiot.

I would be scolding everyone if I did it. "see below" means you are too lazy to tell me what the problem is and "please advise" means you are too lazy or stupid what you are asking for.

So for the next 15 minutes I am transported back to elementary school for a game of Myst.

I loved hated that game.

Same. You needed to read the entire library to know how to do anything. I can respect liking that but reading a book on a 640x480 is a no go for 10 year old me.

did stars result in rep?

I don't remember having 1,596

If only stars resulted in rep. =)

just badges

I don't have 1,596. What is that number.

Is that my net rep?

Yeah. Net rep for all SE sites I think.

These new feed items are annoying but usefull.

If only there was an actually-worth-reading tag

just filter on that

Be liberal with upvotes and downvotes.

Reward those who want to understand and punish those who just want their work done.

Guys, it's up to you. I can shut the ticker off.

Or change the search.

For example, I've considered not allowing any items tagged macro......

This is the search it uses right now.

http://stackoverflow.com/feeds/tag?tagnames=vba&sort=newest

not allowing macro is a good call.

or whatever the formatting for tags are.

[tag:macro]

Okay. Give me one minute. Should I add the lang specific tags too? We probably aren't seeing all the vba related questions.

Okay... one thing at a time I guess. I don't think I can do (vba or excel-vba) and NOT macros.........

@RubberDuck well, that ticker got me more SO rep in a week than in the past ...year.

Lol. Right?

@Mat'sMug if it seems like we're not seeing better questions or feels like we're missing stuff feel free to change it.

sure :)