Excel found unreadable content - Data Validation

Question

I have some combo boxes that I populate on opening of the workbook - the source of the data comes from a database.

I populate my combo boxes using data validation wi

Answer 1

I've manipulated validation lists before in some of my Excel projects. When you set validation to Allow:List, you can set your data Source to be a workbook-level named range. In this example, I've defined a named range "listrange":

With Selection.Validation
    .Delete
    .Add Type:=xlValidateList, AlertStyle:=xlValidAlertStop, Operator:= _
        xlBetween, Formula1:="=listrange"
    .IgnoreBlank = True
    .InCellDropdown = True
    .ShowInput = True
    .ShowError = True
End With

You'll never get an error for that formula string being too long.

I put all my validation-referenced named ranges in one worksheet, and make it hidden. Then my code manipulates those named ranges, which in turn update the values available from the validation drop-down menus.

It can be tricky to dynamically update the size of the named ranges while they are being updated, but it's not too hard with VBA, particularly not if you're returning sets from a database, where you can get a record count. The alternative is to go the ActiveX control route, but I like the clean, native look and feel of the data validation drop-downs.