Newbie to VBA needs good book recommendations

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I’m a retired systems programmer and application programmer from way-back in IBM mainframe days.
Back then, Cobol and such were verb-oriented (Move X to Y, for example.)

In trying to teach myself VBA, I cant seem to get my head around object-orientation, which is a different
way of approaching things.

Can anyone recommend a good book or two for someone like myself, so that I can break through this
mental road-block?

Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

Thanks,
Dick

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Dick,

There are tons of books on VBA and most are specific to the program (Access, Excel, Word, etc.) that you want to use it with. The thing you have to remember is that VBA consists of 2 parts. Part 1 is the control structures, If-Then-Else, For x to y, For Each, While-Loop, etc. That is the same in all products. Part 2 is the Object Model, i.e. the objects you will be working with which is of course specific to each product, e.g. Paragraphs, Sentences, etc. in Word; Workbooks, Worksheets, Rows, Columns, Cells, etc in Excel; Tables, Queries, Forms, Reports, etc. in Access.

So if you have a product in mind I and others here can give you more useful advice on which books to get. For general knowledge I’d recommend, no slight intended in view of your background, VBA for Dummies. It’s on my book shelf and I’ve been programming apparently as long as you and I also had a problem initially getting my head around object orientation and still do from time to time.

In any case good luck in your journey. :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Thanks RG. I’m wanting to write VBA code in Excel (currently 2007.)

Dick

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Dick, I wonder if a site such as thiswould be helpful. I simply did a Google search of VBA in Excel.

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Ted:
Thanks. That looks to be just what I need.
Dick

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Dick,

Ok, here’s the Excel VBA stuff in my library:

[*]”Excel 2000 {of course you’ll get the latest}Power programming with VBA”, Walkenbach.
[*]”Writing Excel Macros”, Steven Roman – O’Reilly
[*]”Professional Excel Development”, Gullen, Bovey, Green – Addison Wesley
[*]”Special Edition Using Excel Visual Basic for Applications 2ed”, Webb – Que

You’ll probably want the latest versions of these but you can get used copies at substantial discount and things haven’t changed all that much, at least from a learning standpoint. Of course, there is always new stuff but It’s the basics you want in the beginning. :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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FWIW, once you get past the beginner stage, this is the best book on pure VBA that I have ever come across.

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FWIW, once you get past the beginner stage, this is the best book on pure VBA that I have ever come across.

Interesting that you bring up that book. I have the two volumes for Access 2000, Ken Getz co-authored them and they are also the best books on Access that I ever had access to. It also covers some VBA, of course, even automation.

It’s a shame that they never updated either set of books for Office versions later than 2000, even if most of the contents are still usable with the current Office version.

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They were updated for Office XP as best I recall, but not subsequently. Perhaps there simply weren’t enough changes to merit a rewrite.

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They were updated for Office XP as best I recall, but not subsequently. Perhaps there simply weren’t enough changes to merit a rewrite.

You are right, they did it for Access 2002.

Would be great to have them for Office 2010 or 2012. A few versions have gone by probably making the update worthy.

These are among the best technical books I ever bought.

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Couldn’t agree more. I think I probably learned more from those three books than from all my other books combined (possibly excluding PED, or Dan Appleman’s API guide).

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This may be an old book but it helps you make the transition. And you can get is used for less than $1 + shipping. What a deal.

Visual Basic for Cobol Programmers/Book and Disk

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Thanks! I just ordered a used copy for 50 cents, plus shipping.
It looks to be just what I need.

Dick

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I’m new around here but I myself, Like http://chandoo.org/wp/ He teaches all aspects of Excel.

Hope that helps ya, Allan

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Allan,

Welcome to the Lounge, and thanks for the link – that is a good site.

Gary

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Thanks Gary,
I really like Dilbert. I’ve done quite a bit of programming in VBA and VB6 but not .NET so I’m kinda lost in .NET. Structured programming baffles me.

:confused:

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Allen,

Let me also extend a welcome to the lounge. :cheers:

I’ve always been taught that structured programming is as simple as the concept on one way in one way out. In more technical terms no GOTOs! Although, with VBA that’s kinda hard if you’re going to do any error trapping, but at least keep it to that only! Now Object Oriented Programming that still gives me headaches when you get to classes, inheritance, and polymorphism :confused: :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Hey Dick,
If your interested in spending anywhere from INR 4,000 ($75.73 US), to INR 14,000 ($265.06) as of Jan, 09 2012 at Chadoo.org. http://chandoo.org/wp/vba-classes/
Just thought I’d put that out there.

Ciao, Allan

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Allan:
Thanks for your interest. I’m working my way through the 50 cent book that an earlier respondant
posted.
Best,
Dick

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np

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I have been programming for over 40 years so I have been where you are going. I started with some of the older mainframe languages including FORTRAN, COBOL, and PL/I. I have made the journey to PC’s starting with the IBM XT and have programmed in most of the languages. I have developed in VB6, and Powerbuilder, and now mostly use VB.NET. I have used VBA. I used it today to query SQL Server to populate an excel spreadsheet with the query results.

I have a couple of recommendations for you. First, you can not learn everything so focus on what you are trying to create. When you want to see how something is programmed, google is your best friend. Usually, if there is something that you want to do, someone else has already done it and posted it on the web. Books are OK but examples of working code are better. They will also give you an idea of what object oriented programming is about.

Good luck and you can never stop learning.

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I’m a retired systems programmer and application programmer from way-back in IBM mainframe days.
Back then, Cobol and such were verb-oriented (Move X to Y, for example.)

In trying to teach myself VBA, I cant seem to get my head around object-orientation, which is a different
way of approaching things.

Can anyone recommend a good book or two for someone like myself, so that I can break through this
mental road-block?

Gosh, a doppelgänger. I spent 30 years writing mainframe systems code, lived in the Pittsford area, and have the same mental block with respect to object oriented programming. It’s been terribly frustrating to think I once knew just about everything there was to know about the room-sized system I worked with, and now haven’t the foggiest idea how any of my gadgets work or how to write even a small Excel macro. Thank you for opening our closet door — I’ll be following a lot of the tips given here.

Mikey

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I have long had the same question as the original questioner – how can I learn about VBA after years of FORTRAN, RPG, BASIC, and COBOL programming. But then I wondered if it was really necessary or worth the effort, especially for short simple programs to accomplish a simple task. Maybe this is off topic, but is a site and language like FreeBASIC, ( http://www.freebasic.net/ ) sufficient to accomplish simple programming tasks, or would the effort spent to understand FreeBasic be better spent working (again) at VBA? Thanks for any comments, or should I start a new topic for this question?

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I usually tackle similar situations by purchasing a good reference book that you can use, not only at the moment you need it (now), but in the future. Having that is much better, in the long run.

The web can be a good thing to tackle specific problems, and sometimes what you need is just that, but I feel it doesn’t beat the comfort and comprehensiveness of a good book. That said, you can find some online resources for VBA. They seem more adequate than starting with FreeBasic. With your BASIC background, you will get the knack of VBA pretty quickly. Probably the harddest thing will be the concept of an object, but if you take a pragmatic approach (just decide that you need to create some “types of variables” and they will have properties and methods that you will use through a specific syntax), you will do fine.

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Can anyone recommend a good book or two for someone like myself, so that I can break through this
mental road-block?

Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

Thanks,
Dick

I’ve been looking for more than 50 years, this is the BEST one I’ve found.

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RussB:
No fair Tebowing a thread; but that is the best one I know.
Dick

et cum spiritum tuorum (

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