VBA Interview Questions and Answers with Examples, macro codes – Download Free PDF File. The 100 most common basic and advanced VBA interview questions and answers are included for both new and experienced VBA developers. There are new, important, logical, technical, programming, easy, hard, simple, and tough questions and answers from MS Excel VBA, Access VBA, PowerPoint VBA, MS Outlook VBA, and Word VBA. There are also tests and quizzes.
100+ VBA Interview Questions and Answers Explained with proper examples by topic. FAQs are useful for all Excel VBA users to refer Excel VBA quickly. Here are answers to more than 100 frequently asked questions about VBA, along with examples from real life that we have used.
VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) is an important skill for many roles involving Microsoft Office products like Excel. As a developer using VBA, you’ll likely have to interview for jobs at some point. This article covers some of the most common VBA developer interview questions and example answers to help you ace your next interview.
What is VBA and Why is it Useful?
VBA stands for Visual Basic for Applications. It is an implementation of Microsoft’s Visual Basic programming language designed specifically for use with Microsoft Office applications like Excel, Access, PowerPoint and Word.
Using VBA, developers can create custom solutions, automate repetitive tasks, develop user-defined functions, customize the Office application’s interface and behavior, and more. This allows businesses to enhance productivity, save time, reduce errors, and customize Office applications to suit their specific needs.
Below are some examples of how VBA is commonly used:
- Automating financial reports, data analysis and dashboards in Excel
- Creating custom forms, queries and reports in Access
- Developing custom slide decks and presentations in PowerPoint
- Automating document creation and mail merges in Word
VBA Developer Interview Questions and Answers
Here are some of the most common VBA developer interview questions along with sample responses
General VBA Questions
Q: What type of language is VBA?
VBA is an object-oriented programming language based on Microsoft’s Visual Basic language. Being object-oriented means VBA is built around objects like workbooks, worksheets, charts, etc. This allows developers to manipulate these objects and automate processes.
Q: Can you explain the object hierarchy in Excel?
The main objects in Excel’s VBA object hierarchy are:
- Application – Represents the entire Excel application
- Workbook – Represents an open Excel workbook file
- Worksheet – Represents an individual worksheet within a workbook
- Range – Represents a cell range within a worksheet
- Chart – Represents a chart object in a worksheet
So the hierarchy is: Application -> Workbook -> Worksheet -> Range/Chart
Lower level objects are nested within higher level ones. Like Worksheet is contained within Workbook.
Q What is a VBA module and how is code organized in VBA?
A VBA module is a container for VBA code. There are a few types of modules:
- Standard modules – General purpose, can contain subs, functions, variables, etc.
- Class modules – Used to create classes and objects
- Form modules – Used to store code for a userform UI
In the Visual Basic Editor, code is organized into modules. You can add or remove modules as needed. Good practice is to group related subs/functions within the same standard module.
VBA Coding Questions
Q: Name some VBA data types.
Some common VBA data types include:
- Integer – For whole numbers
- Long – For larger whole numbers
- Single – For fractional numbers/decimals
- Double – For larger decimals
- String – For text
- Boolean – For True/False values
- Date – For dates
- Variant – A special type that can hold any kind of value
Q: How do you access the editor screen in VBA?
To open the VBA editor, first enable the Developer tab if it’s not already visible. Then click the Visual Basic button to launch the editor.
You can also use the keyboard shortcut Alt+F11 to launch the editor.
Q: What are arrays and how are they used in VBA?
Arrays are variables that can store multiple values of the same data type. For example, you could define an integer array variable to hold a list of numbers.
Arrays are useful when you need to store and work with multiple related values or data points as a group. Some common uses of arrays in VBA include:
- Storing a list of values to populate a worksheet range
- Temporarily holding values during a looping operation
- Returning multiple values from a VBA function
Q: How can you increase the size of an array?
To increase or resize an array in VBA, you use the ReDim statement like:
ReDim Preserve ArrayName(NewSize)ReDim Preserve will resize the array and preserve any existing values in it.
You can also specify multiple dimensions for a 2D or 3D array.
Advanced VBA Questions
Q: How do you improve the performance of VBA code?
Some ways to optimize VBA code for better performance include:
- Minimize interactions with the Excel interface like selection, activation, etc. These are slow.
- Disable screen updating and automatic calculation during bulk operations
- Declare variables appropriately with proper data types
- Avoid unnecessary dot notation references to objects
- Use arrays instead of looping through cells
- Utilize native Excel functions over VBA when possible
Q: What error handling techniques do you use in VBA?
Key VBA error handling techniques:
- On Error Goto – Redirect code execution when an error occurs
- On Error Resume Next – Ignore errors and continue code execution
- Error handling subroutines – Separate subs to gracefully handle specific errors
- Error trapping – Test for anticipated errors before they happen
Proper error handling makes VBA applications more robust and user-friendly.
Q: How can VBA code interact with other Office applications?
VBA supports inter-application automation through the use of object libraries. For example, in an Excel VBA project you can reference the Word or PowerPoint object libraries to programmatically manipulate those applications from Excel using VBA code.
VBA code can also access functionality outside the Office suite by utilizing APIs like the Windows API, Internet APIs, etc.
These VBA interview questions and sample responses should help you prepare for an upcoming job interview. Be ready to talk through examples of VBA projects you have worked on. VBA programming ability and experience automating Office applications is valued in many office jobs and IT roles. With some preparation, you can confidently ace the VBA interview questions that come your way.
Read More Advanced VBA Interview Questions and Answers
We have covered most frequently asked Excel VBA Interview Questions and Answers, divided into different sections. Take your own time to understand the questions and answers. Please ask us if you have any further questions. Please let us know your interview experience and share your experience. Please let us know if you want to add any questions, which we have missed here.
To get Workbook_Open() Event in Excel, please find the following steps. 1. Go To VBA Editor. 2. Click on ‘ThisWorkbook’ from the Project Explorer. 3. Now, you can see two drop down lists in the right side. 4. Select ‘Workbook’ from the first drop down list and then choose ‘Open’ from the second drop down list. 5. Now, you can see the following code.
6. You can add the code in-between the above lines to run a macro. 7. Save and close the workbook 8. Now, reopen the workbook to test the macro. Example:
In the above example, the macro will run automatically when we are opening workbook. Now, it will display message like “Workbook has Opened Successfully. ”.
We can also set up a procedure called Auto_Open() in any code module. This will be run when the macro file is opened.
To get Workbook_Open() Event in Excel, please find the following steps. 1. Go To VBA Editior. 2. Click on ‘ThisWorkbook’ from the Project Explorer. 3. Now, you can see two drop down lists in the right side of the VBA Editor window. 4. Select ‘Workbook’ from the first drop down list and then choose ‘Open’ from the second drop down list. 5. Now, you can see the following code.
6. You can add the code in-between the above lines to run a macro. 7. Save and close the workbook 8. Now, reopen the workbook to test the macro. Example:
In the above example, the macro will show the UserForm(Named ‘MyForm’) automatically when we open Workbook. Note: Before running above macro add UserForm and then assign the name of the UserForm to ‘MyForm’.
Add Module: Step 1: Go To Insert menu in the VBA Editor window. Step 2: Click on ‘Module’ to add to the Project. Now you can see added Module in the Project Explorer. Default module name will be ‘Module1’. You can change the module name with using properties.
Add Class Module: Step 1: Go To Insert menu in the VBA Editor window. Step 2: Click on ‘Class Module’ to add to the Project. Now you can see added Class Module in the Project Explorer. Default Class module name will be ‘Class1’. You can change the class module name with using properties.
Explanation: In the above example, I have created and assigned to Active Workbook to ‘Wb’ objet. And then I have used it in the next statement(MsgBox Wb. Sheets(1). Name) to display first worksheet name.
We can create and define size of an array variable in the following way. Dim ArrayName (IndexNumber) As Datatype Example: Dim aValue(2) As Integer “aValue” is the name of an array, and “2” is the size of the array.
We can declare the variable in the following way. Dim VariableName as Datatype
Example: Dim iCnt as Integer
Where iCnt represents VariableName and Integer represents Datatype.
When we are working with variables, it is important to understand the Scope of a Variable. The Scope describes the accessibility or life time or visibility of a variable. There are four types of scope: procedure-level scope, module-level scope, project-level scope, and global-level scope. Click on the link for more information.
Dim lastRow As Long lastRow = ActiveSheet.Cells.SpecialCells(xlLastCell).Row For more information please find the following link.
Dim lastColumn As Long lastColumn = ActiveSheet.Cells.SpecialCells(xlLastCell).Column For more information please find the following link.
You have to set back screen updating as True Before ending of the procedure:
You have to set enable display alerts before ending of the procedure:
You can find a specific file exist or not in the following two ways. 1. Using FileSystemObject: Here is the example to check file exist or not using ‘FileSystemObject’.
2. Using Dir Function: Here is the example to check file exist or not using ‘Dir’ function.
For more information please find the following link.
Please find the following link for more information on saving workbook using Excel VBA.
Please find the following link for more information on changeing the existing file name.
Please note that we need to make sure that the file already exists in the given location before we delete it. In the above example we are using statement:’ FSO. FileExists(sFile)’ to check for the file. Please find the following link for more information on deleting a file in a specified location.
Please find the following link for more information on copying a file from one location to another location.
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Top 5 mostly asked VBA interview Questions in 2023. Crack VBA Interview.
FAQ
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