How to Launch an Excel macro from command line (Without Worksheet_Open Event)?

Question

Is it possible to launch an Excel Macro from command line?

I don\'t want to use the Worksheet_Open event and just open the Excel File.

I need to

Answer 1

If you would prefer to code in C# use this template

void Main()
{
    var oExcelApp = (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application)System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject("Excel.Application");
    try{
        //oExcelApp.Visible = true;
        var WB = oExcelApp.ActiveWorkbook;
        var WS = (Worksheet)WB.ActiveSheet;
        ((string)((Range)WS.Cells[1,1]).Value).Dump("Cell Value");
        oExcelApp.Run("test").Dump("macro");
    }
    finally{
        if(oExcelApp != null)
            System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(oExcelApp);
        oExcelApp = null;
   }
}

Answer 2

I finally created a VB Script and launched it from the command line:

Option Explicit

    LaunchMacro

    Sub LaunchMacro() 
      Dim xl
      Dim xlBook      
      Dim sCurPath

      sCurPath = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject").GetAbsolutePathName(".")
      Set xl = CreateObject("Excel.application")
      Set xlBook = xl.Workbooks.Open(sCurPath & "\MyWorkBook.xlsm", 0, True)        
      xl.Application.Visible = True
      xl.Application.run "MyWorkBook.xlsm!MyModule.MyMacro"
      xl.DisplayAlerts = False      
      xlBook.saved = True
      xl.activewindow.close
      xl.Quit

      Set xlBook = Nothing
      Set xl = Nothing

    End Sub 

Answer 3

AutoIt also offers great COM support and has a lot of built-in Excel-controlling functions. You can compile the script to an .EXE and then run it from the command line.

Answer 4

Use the Windows PowerShell, it has excellent COM interop support.

I have the workbook c:\TestBeep.xlsm with a macro called "Test". This is my transcript:

PS C:\> $app = New-Object -comobject Excel.Application
PS C:\> $wb = $app.Workbooks.Open("c:\TestBeep.xlsm")
PS C:\> $wb.Name
TestBeep.xlsm
PS C:\> $app.Run("Test")
PS C:\> $app.Quit()

Optionally you can add in $app.Visible = $True to make the window visible.

Answer 5

Thank you! Mehdi your answer worked for me too with a small adjustment. The line xl.Application.Visible = True was leaving open a zombie/phantom EXCEL.EXE process using up memory (found it through Windows Task Manager). Using xl.Application.Visible = False instead seems to eliminate the zombie.