Microsoft Excel
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Ron de Bruin
Excel Automation

Microsoft MVP Program

Import and Export VBA code

Important message to visitors of this page

Ron de Bruin decided to remove all Windows Excel content from his website for personal reasons. If you want to know why, head over to rondebruin.nl.

Luckily, Ron was kind enough to allow me to publish all of his Excel content here.

Most of these pages are slightly outdated and may contain links that don 't work. Please inform me if you find such an error and I'll try to fix it.

Kind regards

Jan Karel Pieterse


Copy the code in a Standard module of your workbook, if you just started with VBA see this page.
Where do I paste the code that I find on the internet

On this page you find some basic VBA code to Import and Export VBA code in Excel for Windows.
You can use it to import modules/userforms to other Excel files or to update the code in other Excel files.
Note: This example not Export/Import the code in sheet modules and from the Thisworkbook module.

Tip: Check out also the two links in the "More Information" part of this page.

The Export macro will export every module(.bas),class module(.cls) and userfom(.frm, .frx) from the ActiveWorkbook to a folder named "VBAProjectFiles" in your Documents folder.
Note: never rename these files manual because the name of the file is not the module name that you
see after you import the code into another Excel workbook.

If you open for example a module file (.bas) in Notepad you see this line of metadata at the top
Attribute VB_Name = "TheNameYouWant"
This is the name that the Module have when you import it into another workbook.

If you edit the name of a module in the properties of the module it will update this line nicely. So if you see names that are not correct after your Export check out this metadata line first. If this line is missing it will use the default Module1, Module2, .......

 

How does it work ?

1: Open the file with the code from this page
2: Open/Activate the file with the modules you want to export
3: Run the ExportModules macro
4: Note: If you look in the VBAProjectFiles folder you see the files now
5: Open/Activate the workbook where you want to add the modules to
6: Run the ImportModules macro (It delete all existing modules/userforms from this Workbook first)
7: Done

 

The VBA code

Copy every macro and function below into a Standard module of a new workbook and save this Import-Export file as xls or xlsm.

In the VBE Editor set a reference to "Microsoft Visual Basic For Applications Extensibility 5.3" and to "Microsoft Scripting Runtime" and then save the file.

You also need to enable programmatic access to the VBA Project in Excel. In Excel 2003 and earlier, go the Tools>Macros>Security(in Excel), click on the Trusted Publishers tab and check the Trust access to the Visual Basic Project setting. In Excel 2007-2013, click the Developer tab and then click the Macro Security item. In that dialog, choose Macro Settings and check the Trust access to the VBA project object model. You can also try the shortcut ALT tms to go to this dialog.

Public Sub ExportModules()
    Dim bExport As Boolean
    Dim wkbSource As Excel.Workbook
    Dim szSourceWorkbook As String
    Dim szExportPath As String
    Dim szFileName As String
    Dim cmpComponent As VBIDE.VBComponent

    ''' The code modules will be exported in a folder named.
    ''' VBAProjectFiles in the Documents folder.
    ''' The code below create this folder if it not exist
    ''' or delete all files in the folder if it exist.
    If FolderWithVBAProjectFiles = "Error" Then
        MsgBox "Export Folder not exist"
        Exit Sub
    End If
    
    On Error Resume Next
        Kill FolderWithVBAProjectFiles & "\*.*"
    On Error GoTo 0

    ''' NOTE: This workbook must be open in Excel.
    szSourceWorkbook = ActiveWorkbook.Name
    Set wkbSource = Application.Workbooks(szSourceWorkbook)
    
    If wkbSource.VBProject.Protection = 1 Then
    MsgBox "The VBA in this workbook is protected," & _
        "not possible to export the code"
    Exit Sub
    End If
    
    szExportPath = FolderWithVBAProjectFiles & "\"
    
    For Each cmpComponent In wkbSource.VBProject.VBComponents
        
        bExport = True
        szFileName = cmpComponent.Name

        ''' Concatenate the correct filename for export.
        Select Case cmpComponent.Type
            Case vbext_ct_ClassModule
                szFileName = szFileName & ".cls"
            Case vbext_ct_MSForm
                szFileName = szFileName & ".frm"
            Case vbext_ct_StdModule
                szFileName = szFileName & ".bas"
            Case vbext_ct_Document
                ''' This is a worksheet or workbook object.
                ''' Don't try to export.
                bExport = False
        End Select
        
        If bExport Then
            ''' Export the component to a text file.
            cmpComponent.Export szExportPath & szFileName
            
        ''' remove it from the project if you want
        '''wkbSource.VBProject.VBComponents.Remove cmpComponent
        
        End If
   
    Next cmpComponent

    MsgBox "Export is ready"
End Sub


Public Sub ImportModules()
    Dim wkbTarget As Excel.Workbook
    Dim objFSO As Scripting.FileSystemObject
    Dim objFile As Scripting.File
    Dim szTargetWorkbook As String
    Dim szImportPath As String
    Dim szFileName As String
    Dim cmpComponents As VBIDE.VBComponents

    If ActiveWorkbook.Name = ThisWorkbook.Name Then
        MsgBox "Select another destination workbook" & _
        "Not possible to import in this workbook "
        Exit Sub
    End If

    'Get the path to the folder with modules
    If FolderWithVBAProjectFiles = "Error" Then
        MsgBox "Import Folder not exist"
        Exit Sub
    End If

    ''' NOTE: This workbook must be open in Excel.
    szTargetWorkbook = ActiveWorkbook.Name
    Set wkbTarget = Application.Workbooks(szTargetWorkbook)
    
    If wkbTarget.VBProject.Protection = 1 Then
    MsgBox "The VBA in this workbook is protected," & _
        "not possible to Import the code"
    Exit Sub
    End If

    ''' NOTE: Path where the code modules are located.
    szImportPath = FolderWithVBAProjectFiles & "\"
        
    Set objFSO = New Scripting.FileSystemObject
    If objFSO.GetFolder(szImportPath).Files.Count = 0 Then
       MsgBox "There are no files to import"
       Exit Sub
    End If

    'Delete all modules/Userforms from the ActiveWorkbook
    Call DeleteVBAModulesAndUserForms

    Set cmpComponents = wkbTarget.VBProject.VBComponents
    
    ''' Import all the code modules in the specified path
    ''' to the ActiveWorkbook.
    For Each objFile In objFSO.GetFolder(szImportPath).Files
    
        If (objFSO.GetExtensionName(objFile.Name) = "cls") Or _
            (objFSO.GetExtensionName(objFile.Name) = "frm") Or _
            (objFSO.GetExtensionName(objFile.Name) = "bas") Then
            cmpComponents.Import objFile.Path
        End If
        
    Next objFile
    
    MsgBox "Import is ready"
End Sub

Function FolderWithVBAProjectFiles() As String
    Dim WshShell As Object
    Dim FSO As Object
    Dim SpecialPath As String

    Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
    Set FSO = CreateObject("scripting.filesystemobject")

    SpecialPath = WshShell.SpecialFolders("MyDocuments")

    If Right(SpecialPath, 1) <> "\" Then
        SpecialPath = SpecialPath & "\"
    End If
    
    If FSO.FolderExists(SpecialPath & "VBAProjectFiles") = False Then
        On Error Resume Next
        MkDir SpecialPath & "VBAProjectFiles"
        On Error GoTo 0
    End If
    
    If FSO.FolderExists(SpecialPath & "VBAProjectFiles") = True Then
        FolderWithVBAProjectFiles = SpecialPath & "VBAProjectFiles"
    Else
        FolderWithVBAProjectFiles = "Error"
    End If
    
End Function

Function DeleteVBAModulesAndUserForms()
        Dim VBProj As VBIDE.VBProject
        Dim VBComp As VBIDE.VBComponent
        
        Set VBProj = ActiveWorkbook.VBProject
        
        For Each VBComp In VBProj.VBComponents
            If VBComp.Type = vbext_ct_Document Then
                'Thisworkbook or worksheet module
                'We do nothing
            Else
                VBProj.VBComponents.Remove VBComp
            End If
        Next VBComp
End Function

 

More information

Check out also Chip Pearson's site about the VBE Editor
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/vbe.aspx

Rob Bovey's CodeCleaner
http://www.appspro.com/Utilities/CodeCleaner.htm
Note: also options to import and Export code modules in this add-in