Forum Discussion

Brass Contributor

Oct 13, 2022

Solved

TOCOL excel function, but as a UDF in VBA

TOCOL excel function, but as a UDF in VBA ToCol is a function that takes a range and makes it all into one column, similarly toRow also exists. So Excel has the TOCOL function! Yay! It's exactl...

excel

Formulas and Functions

Macros and VBA

HansVogelaar

Oct 13, 2022

Sandeeep

How about

Function TOCOLUMNS(SearchRange As Range)
    Dim v As Variant
    Dim c As Variant
    Dim d As Object
    Dim i As Long
    Dim j As Long
    Dim t As Variant
    Set d = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
    v = SearchRange.Value
    For Each c In v
        If c <> "" Then
            d(c) = 1
        End If
    Next c
    v = d.Keys
    For i = LBound(v) To UBound(v) - 1
        For j = i + 1 To UBound(v)
            If v(i) > v(j) Then
                t = v(i)
                v(i) = v(j)
                v(j) = t
            End If
        Next j
    Next i
    TOCOLUMNS = Application.Transpose(v)
End Function

HansVogelaar

MVP

Oct 13, 2022

Sandeeep

How about

Function TOCOLUMNS(SearchRange As Range)
    Dim v As Variant
    Dim c As Variant
    Dim d As Object
    Dim i As Long
    Dim j As Long
    Dim t As Variant
    Set d = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
    v = SearchRange.Value
    For Each c In v
        If c <> "" Then
            d(c) = 1
        End If
    Next c
    v = d.Keys
    For i = LBound(v) To UBound(v) - 1
        For j = i + 1 To UBound(v)
            If v(i) > v(j) Then
                t = v(i)
                v(i) = v(j)
                v(j) = t
            End If
        Next j
    Next i
    TOCOLUMNS = Application.Transpose(v)
End Function

Sandeeep

Brass Contributor

Oct 21, 2022

Thanks HansVogelaar

This code takes a range and turns it into a single column and adds Unique values.

This is amazing, and what I needed.

I tried editing the code, to make another function.

Where, it just turns everything into a single column, even if its a duplicate.

A simple Range into columns Function.

I tried my best, but couldn't figure it out.

My biggest struggle was the variables. As they were just single letters, I got massively confused and couldn't figure out what variable did what, and how they were used.

If you are free, could you maybe use longer variable names, and add comments? It'll help me learn and make any changes if ever needed.

Btw HansVogelaar

Completely unrelated to this Thread, but I see you help everyone and are super active too.

Could you maybe help me out with my other question?

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel/vba-optimization-help-for-large-string-manipulation-related-to/m-p/3658577

HansVogelaar

MVP

Oct 21, 2022

Sandeeep

And here is my previous code, with lots of comments added.

Function TOCOLUMNS(SearchRange As Range)
    Dim v As Variant  ' Multi-purpose array
    Dim c As Variant  ' Element of array (corresponds to cell)
    Dim d As Object   ' Scripting.Dictionary object
    Dim i As Long     ' Loop index for bubble sort
    Dim j As Long     ' Idem
    Dim t As Variant  ' Placeholder for sort
    ' Create a Dictionary object
    Set d = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
    ' Store values of SearchRange in a two-dimensional array
    v = SearchRange.Value
    ' Loop through the array elements (cells)
    For Each c In v
        ' Only use non-blank values
        If c <> "" Then
            ' Set the dictionary entry with key c to 1
            ' If that entry doesn't exist yet, it will be created
            ' If it already existed, nothing will change
            ' This way, we collect the unique values
            d(c) = 1
        End If
    Next c
    ' Set v to the array of keys of the dictionary
    ' The array contains the unique values
    v = d.Keys
    ' Use the simple bubble sort algorithm to sort the array
    For i = LBound(v) To UBound(v) - 1
        For j = i + 1 To UBound(v)
            ' If an element is larger than a later element...
            If v(i) > v(j) Then
                ' ... then swap the elements
                t = v(i)
                v(i) = v(j)
                v(j) = t
            End If
        Next j
    Next i
    ' v is now an array laid out in a row
    ' Return the array transposed to a column
    TOCOLUMNS = Application.Transpose(v)
End Function

HansVogelaar

MVP

Oct 21, 2022

Sandeeep

If you simply want to rearrange all non-empty cells in a range to a single column, here is a corrected version of your original function:

Function TOCOLUMNS(SearchRange)
    Dim i As Long
    Dim Col_Values_Array() As Variant
    Dim cell As Range

    ' Loop through the cells of the range
    For Each cell In SearchRange
        ' Only use non-empty cells
        If cell.Value <> "" Then
            ' Increase count
            i = i + 1
            ' Expand array without overwriting the existing values
            ReDim Preserve Col_Values_Array(1 To i)
            ' Add the new value
            Col_Values_Array(i) = cell
        End If
    Next
    ' Return the array transposed from row to column
    TOCOLUMNS = Application.Transpose(Col_Values_Array)
End Function