Using SUM() in VBA

13
votes

If I have a set of cells in a worksheet that I want to add up, I can use the formula:

=SUM(Sheet1!A1:A10)

To do this in a sub, I would use:

Sub example1()
    Dim r As Range, v As Variant

    Set r = Sheets("Sheet1").Range("A1:A10")
    v = Application.WorksheetFunction.Sum(r)
End Sub

If, however, I want to add up a single cell across many worksheets, I use the formula:

=SUM(Sheet1:Sheet38!B2)

In VBA this line fails miserably, as explained in Specify an Excel range across sheets in VBA:

Sub dural()
    v = Application.WorksheetFunction.Sum("Sheet1:Sheet3!B2")
End Sub

I have two workarounds. I can the the sum by programming a loop:

Sub example2()
    Dim i As Long
    Dim v As Variant

    v = 0
    For i = 1 To 38
        v = v + Sheets(i).Range("B2")
    Next i
End Sub

or by using Evaluate():

v = Evaluate("Sum(Sheet1:Sheet3!B2)")

Is it possible to use Application.WorksheetFunction.Sum() for this calculation, or should I stick the loop?

4
excelworksheet-functionvba
Why not evaluate? – findwindow
I haven't done any of this in a long time, so I won't add this as an answer until you can try it, but shouldn't you need to also use: Set r = Sheets("Sheet1").Range("Sheet1:Sheet3!B2") and then do Sum on r? Or similar... whatever you need to do to create a range from the sheets. You're probably better off using one of your other approaches though. – gmiley
@findwindow I do use Evaluate() and it works fine....but if I have to calculate based on a dynamic range (same on all sheets), there is an extra step making the string I must supply to Evaluate() – Gary's Student
You can also create two hidden blank sheets "START" and "FINISH" and bookend the sheets you want. Then v = Evaluate("Sum(START:FINISH!B2)") – Scott Craner
And as you know, but I will put here for future viewers, you can replace the B2 part with a dynamic range reference. For example say you have the range you want set as a variable rng it would be v = Evaluate("Sum(START:FINISH!" & rng.Address(1,1) & ")") – Scott Craner

4 Answers

6
votes

I believe the issue with the worksheetfunction.sum is that it needs arguments to evaluate not string. WorksheetFunction.Sum("Sheet1!A1:A3") fails as well. However, this succeeds

Application.WorksheetFunction.Sum(Sheet1.Range("A1"), Sheet2.Range("A1"))

The Ranges could be whatever you like.

1
votes

You need to use the loop to perform the calculation across all of the sheets, it's the most efficient way by the looks of things. As mentioned above you can type each range separately instead.

Might be worth converting the range your adding up to a double (or single, integer, etc) because sometimes VBA reads numbers as text.

v = v + Cdbl(Sheets(i).Range("B2"))

The reason why you're having issues with Application.WorksheetFunction.Sum("Sheet1:Sheet3!B2") is because if you type that formula into Excel, the range 'Sheet1:Sheet3!B2' won't be recognised by excel.

enter image description here

To use a Application.WorksheetFunction it has to work in excel outside of VBA.

Hope that helps.

1
votes
 Sub SumWorksheets()
    Dim ws As Worksheet
    Dim v As Variant
    For Each ws In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
'    If ws.Name <> ThisWorkbook.ActiveSheet.Name Then ' (Sum other sheets only)
    If ws.Name <> "" Then
    Application.DisplayAlerts = False
    v = v + ws.Range("B2")
    Application.DisplayAlerts = True
    End If
    Next ws
    MsgBox v
    End Sub
1
votes

I was able to get it to work just by the line:

Cells(x,y) = WorksheetFunction.sum(range(a,b:a,d))