Handle Error 9 when there is an Empty Array

Question

I am writing a script that will loop through an Excel spreadsheet and find if there are duplicates of selected cells. If there are duplicates then the function will return

Answer 1

Chip Pearson gave the answer years ago and it still works. Here's the function I've had in my library for almost four years.

Public Function IsArrayEmpty(arr As Variant) As Boolean
    Dim lb As Long
    Dim ub As Long

    Err.Clear
    On Error Resume Next

    If IsArray(arr) = False Then
        ' we weren't passed an array, return True
        IsArrayEmpty = True
    End If

    ' Attempt to get the UBound of the array. If the array is
    ' unallocated, an error will occur.
    ub = UBound(arr, 1)
    If (Err.Number <> 0) Then
        IsArrayEmpty = True
    Else
        ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
        ' On rare occasion, under circumstances I
        ' cannot reliably replicate, Err.Number
        ' will be 0 for an unallocated, empty array.
        ' On these occasions, LBound is 0 and
        ' UBound is -1.
        ' To accommodate the weird behavior, test to
        ' see if LB > UB. If so, the array is not
        ' allocated.
        ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
        Err.Clear
        lb = LBound(arr)
        If lb > ub Then
            IsArrayEmpty = True
        Else
            IsArrayEmpty = False
        End If
    End If

    Err.Clear
End Function

Basically, it checks to make sure you passed an array, then it attempts to find the upper bound (which will throw an error if the array is empty), and finally it compares the lower bound to the upper bound to make sure the array really isn't empty.