Using a UDF in Excel to update the worksheet

Question

Not really a question, but posting this for comments because I don\'t recall seeing this approach before. I was responding to a comment on a previous answer, and tried some

Answer 1

I know this is an old thread, and I am not sure if any of you have already discovered this, but I found that not only can you add, delete, or modify shapes from a UDF, you can also add Querytables. I am building an addin at work that uses this concept to return SQL data given a range of values, in place of the Ctrl+Shift+Enter method of array functions, because many of the my end-users are not excel savvy enough to understand their use,

NOTE: The code below is 100% in the testing phase and there is a lot of room for improvement, but it does illustrate the concept. Also it is a decent bit of code, but I didn't want to leave anything to question.

Option Explicit

Public Function GetPNAverages(ByRef RangeSource As Range) As Variant

 Dim arrySheet As Variant
 Dim lngRowCount As Long, i As Long
 Dim strSQL As String
 Dim rngOut As Range
 Dim objQryTbl As QueryTable
 Dim dictSQLData As Dictionary
 Dim RcrdsetReturned As ADODB.Recordset, RcrdsetOut As ADODB.Recordset
 Dim Conn As ADODB.Connection

    Application.ScreenUpdating = False

    If RangeSource.Columns.Count > 1 Then
        MsgBox "The input Range cannot be more than" _
        & " a single column.", vbCritical + vbOKOnly, "Error:" _
        & " Invalid Range Dimensions"
        Exit Function
    End If

    lngRowCount = RangeSource.Rows.Count

    If RngHasData(Application.Caller.Address, lngRowCount) Then Exit Function

    arrySheet = RangeSource

        strSQL = ArryToDelimStr(arrySheet, lngRowCount)

        If Not GetRecordSet(strSQL, "JDE.GetPNAveragesTEST", _
                            "@STR_PN", RcrdsetReturned, Conn) Then GoTo StopExecution

        Call BuildDictionary(dictSQLData, RcrdsetReturned, lngRowCount)

        Call LeftOuterJoin(dictSQLData, arrySheet, RcrdsetOut, lngRowCount)

        GetPNAverages = dictSQLData.Item(RangeSource.Cells(1, 1).Value2) 'first value

    If lngRowCount > 1 Then
        'Place query table below first cell
        Set rngOut = Range(Application.Caller.Address).Offset(1, 0)

        'add query table to the range
        Set objQryTbl = ActiveWorkbook.ActiveSheet.QueryTables.Add(RcrdsetOut, rngOut)
        With objQryTbl
            .FieldNames = False
            .RefreshStyle = xlOverwriteCells
            .BackgroundQuery = False
            .AdjustColumnWidth = False
            .PreserveColumnInfo = True
            .PreserveFormatting = True
            .Refresh
        End With

        'deletes any query table from _
        ots destination range to avoid _
        having external connections
        rngOut.QueryTable.Delete
    End If

StopExecution:
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
    Application.EnableEvents = True
    If Not Conn Is Nothing Then: If Conn.State > 0 Then Conn.Close
    If Not RcrdsetReturned Is Nothing Then: If RcrdsetReturned.State > 0 Then RcrdsetReturned.Close
    If Not RcrdsetOut Is Nothing Then: If RcrdsetOut.State > 0 Then RcrdsetOut.Close
    Set Conn = Nothing
    Set RcrdsetReturned = Nothing
    Set RcrdsetOut = Nothing

End Function

Private Function GetRecordSet(ByRef strDelimIn As String, ByVal strStoredProcName As String, _
                              ByVal strStrdProcParam As String, ByRef RcrdsetIn As ADODB.Recordset, _
                              ByRef ConnIn As ADODB.Connection) As Boolean

 Dim Cmnd As ADODB.Command
 Const strConn = "Provider=VersionOfSQL;User ID=************;Password=************;" & _ 
                 "Data Source=ServerName;Initial Catalog=DataBaseName"

  On Error GoTo ErrQueryingData
  Set ConnIn = New ADODB.Connection
      ConnIn.CursorLocation = adUseClient   'this is key for query table to work
      ConnIn.Open strConn

    Set Cmnd = New ADODB.Command
        With Cmnd
            .CommandType = adCmdStoredProc
            .CommandText = strStoredProcName
            .CommandTimeout = 300
            .ActiveConnection = ConnIn
        End With

        Set RcrdsetIn = New ADODB.Recordset
            Cmnd.Parameters(strStrdProcParam).Value = strDelimIn
            RcrdsetIn.CursorType = adOpenKeyset
            RcrdsetIn.LockType = adLockReadOnly
            Set RcrdsetIn = Cmnd.Execute

        If RcrdsetIn.EOF Or RcrdsetIn.BOF Then GoTo ErrQueryingData Else GetRecordSet = True

        Set Cmnd = Nothing
        Exit Function

ErrQueryingData:
    If Not ConnIn Is Nothing Then: If ConnIn.State > 0 Then ConnIn.Close
    If Not RcrdsetIn Is Nothing Then: If RcrdsetIn.State > 0 Then RcrdsetIn.Close
    Set ConnIn = Nothing
    Set RcrdsetIn = Nothing
    Set Cmnd = Nothing

    'Sometimes the error numer <> > 0 hence the else statement
    If Err.Number > 0 Then
        MsgBox "Error Number: " & Err.Number & "- " & Err.Description & _
               " , occured while attempting to exectute the query.", _
               vbCritical, "Error: " & Err.Number
    Else
        MsgBox "An error occured while attempting to execute the query. " & _
               "Try typing the formula again. If the issue persits" & _
               "please contact (Developer Name).", vbCritical, _
               "Error: Could Not Query Data"
    End If

End Function

Private Sub BuildDictionary(ByRef dictToReturn As Dictionary, ByRef RcrdsetIn As ADODB.Recordset, _
                            ByVal lngRowCountIn As Long)

    'building a second recordset because I only want one field from the
    'recordset returned by 'GetRecordSet', and I cannot subset it
    'using any properties of the query table that I know of

    Set dictToReturn = New Dictionary
        dictToReturn.CompareMode = BinaryCompare

        With RcrdsetIn
            If lngRowCountIn > 1 Then

                .MoveFirst

                Do While Not RcrdsetIn.EOF
                    'Populate dictionary with key=LookUpValues; Item=ReturnValues
                    If Not dictToReturn.Exists(.Fields(0).Value) Then
                        dictToReturn(.Fields(0).Value) = .Fields(1).Value
                    End If

                    .MoveNext
                Loop

            Else 'only 1 value
                dictToReturn(.Fields(0).Value) = .Fields(1).Value
            End If
        End With

End Sub

Private Sub LeftOuterJoin(ByRef dictIn As Dictionary, ByRef arryInPut As Variant, _
                          ByRef RcrdsetToReturn As ADODB.Recordset, ByVal lngRowCountIn As Long)

 Dim i As Long
 Dim varKey As Variant

    If lngRowCountIn = 1 Then Exit Sub

    Set RcrdsetToReturn = New ADODB.Recordset

        With RcrdsetToReturn
            .Fields.Append "Field1", adVariant, 10, adFldMayBeNull
            .CursorType = adOpenKeyset
            .LockType = adLockBatchOptimistic
            .CursorLocation = adUseClient
            .Open

            If Not .BOF Then .MoveNext

            'LBound(arryInPut, 1) + 1 skip first value of array
            For i = LBound(arryInPut, 1) + 1 To UBound(arryInPut, 1)
                .AddNew

                varKey = arryInPut(i, 1)

                    If dictIn.Exists(varKey) Then
                        .Fields(0).Value = dictIn.Item(varKey)
                    Else
                        .Fields(0).Value = "DNE"
                    End If

                varKey = Empty

                .Update
                .MoveNext
            Next i
        End With

End Sub

Private Function ArryToDelimStr(ByRef arryFromRngIn As Variant, ByVal lngRowCountIn As Long) As String

 Dim arryOutPut() As Variant
 Dim i As Long
 Const strDelim As String = "|"

        If lngRowCountIn = 1 Then
            ArryToDelimStr = arryFromRngIn
            Exit Function
        End If

        'Note: 1-based to match the worksheet array
        ReDim arryOutPut(1 To lngRowCountIn)

            For i = LBound(arryFromRngIn, 1) To lngRowCountIn
                arryOutPut(i) = arryFromRngIn(i, 1)
            Next i

        ArryToDelimStr = Join(arryOutPut, strDelim)

End Function

Public Function RngHasData(ByVal strCallAddress As String, ByVal lngRowCountIn As Long) As Boolean

 Dim strRangeBegin As String, strRangeOut As String, _
     strCheckUserInput As String
 Dim lngRangeBegin As Long, lngRangeEnd As Long

    strRangeBegin = StripNumbers(strCallAddress)
    lngRangeBegin = StripText(strCallAddress)
    lngRangeEnd = lngRangeBegin + lngRowCountIn

    strRangeOut = strCallAddress & ":" & strRangeBegin & CStr(lngRangeEnd)

        If Application.CountA(ActiveSheet.Range(strRangeOut)) > 1 Then

        strCheckUserInput = MsgBox("There is data in range " & strRangeOut & " are you sure" & _
                                    "that you want to overwrite it?", vbInformation _
                                    + vbYesNo, "Alert: Data In This Range")

            If strCheckUserInput = vbNo Then RngHasData = True
        End If

End Function

Private Function StripText(ByRef strIn As String) As Long
    With CreateObject("vbscript.regexp")
        .Global = True
        .Pattern = "[^\d]+"
        StripText = CLng(.Replace(strIn, vbNullString))
    End With
End Function


Private Function StripNumbers(strIn As String) As String
    With CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
        .Global = True
        .Pattern = "\d+"
        StripNumbers = .Replace(strIn, "")
    End With
End Function

Table Valued Function that Parses delimited String into Table variable:

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.fn_Get_REGDelimStringToTable (@STR_IN NVARCHAR(MAX))
RETURNS @TableOut TABLE(ReturnedCol NVARCHAR(4000))
AS
    BEGIN 
            DECLARE @XML xml = N'' 
            INSERT INTO @TableOut(ReturnedCol)
            SELECT RTRIM(LTRIM(T.c.value('.', 'NVARCHAR(4000)')))
            FROM @xml.nodes('//r') T(c)
    RETURN
    END
GO

Stored Procedured Used:

CREATE PROCEDURE [JDE].[GetPNAveragesTEST] ( @STR_PN NVARCHAR(MAX)
                                        ) AS 
BEGIN

         SELECT  TT.ReturnedCol
                ,IsNull(Cast(pnm.AVERAGE_COST As nvarchar(35)), 'DNE') as AVERAGE_COST
         FROM dbo.fn_Get_MAXDelimStringToTable(@STR_PN) TT
         Left Join PN_Interchangeable pni ON TT.ReturnedCol=pni.PN_Interchangeable
         Left Join PN_MASTER pnm On pni.MPN=pnm.MPN

END;