Excel VBA: How to obtain a reference to a Shape from the ChartObject

Question

I am trying to obtain a reference to a Shape in a Worksheet, corresponding to a ChartObject. I found no certain way of doing this. The

Answer 1

After losing hours in a similar issue, I found a couple of concepts related to referencing shapes in excel, but none satisfies me 100%. For accessing a shape you have 4 pure methods:

1. Shape.Name : Is FAST, but NOT RELIABLE. The name of the shape could be used to get a reference of a shape but provided you don't have duplicated names. Code: ActiveSheet.Shapes("Shape1")

2. Shape.ZOrderPosition : Very FAST, but NOT RELIABLE. The ZOrder of the shape could be used to get a reference of a shape, because is the same as the index of the shape in the shapes collection. But provided you don't have group of shapes that breaks previous rule (See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/19163848/2843348). Code: ActiveSheet.Shapes(ZOrderFromOneShape)

3. Set shpRef=Shape: FAST, RELIABLE, but NOT PERSISTENT. I try to use this always I can, specially when I create a new shape. Moreover, if I have to iterate on the new shapes later one I try to keep the object reference inside a collection. However not Persistent, that means if you stop and run you VBA code again to will loose all the references and collection. Code: Set shp = NewShape, or you can add it to a collection: coll.add NewShape for loop it later on.

4. Shape.ID : RELIABLE, PERSISTENT, but not directly supported! The ID of the shape is very reliable (don't change and cannot be duplicates IDs in a Sheet). However, there is no direct VBA function to get a shape back knowing its ID. The only way is to loop thorough all shapes until the ID match the ID you was looking for, but this can be very SLOW!.

Code:

Function FindShapeByID(ws as excel.worksheet, ID as long) as Excel.Shape
    dim i as long
    set FindShapeByID = nothing 'Not found...
    for i = 1 to ws.shapes.count
        if ws.shapes(i).ID = ID then
             set FindShapeByID = ws.shapes(i) 'Return the shape object
             exit function
        end if 
    next i
End Function

Note 1: If you want to access this function several times, you can improve it by using a cache of Shape IDs. That way you will make the loop only one time.
Note 2: If you move a shape from one sheet to other, the ID of the shape will change!

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By mixing and using above knowledge, I have concluded in two main approaches:

FIRST APPROACH

• FASTEST BUT VOLATILE: (same as point#3) Try to keep the reference in a object as longer you can. When I have to iterate trough a bunch of shapes later on, I save the references inside a collection and I avoid to use other secondary reference like the name, ZOrder or ID.

For example:

dim col as new Collection
dim shp as Excel.Shape
'' <- Insert the code here, where you create your shape or chart
col.add shp1
'' <- Make other stuffs
for each shp in col
    '' <- make something with the shape in this loop!
next shp

The problem of course is that the collection and reference are not permanent. You will loose them when you stop and restart the vba code!

SECOND APPROACH

• PERSISTENT: My solution is to save the name and the ID of the shape for later reference. Why? Having the name I can access the shape very fast most of the time. Just in case I found a duplicated name I make the slow loop searching the ID. How can I know if there is a name duplicated? Very simple, just check the ID of the first name search, and if they don't match you have to suppose is duplicated.

Here the code:

Function findShapeByNameAndID(ws As Excel.Worksheet, name As String, ID As Long) As Shape
    Dim sh As Excel.Shape
    Set findShapeByNameAndID = Nothing 'Means not found
    On Error GoTo fastexit
    Set sh = ws.Shapes(name)
    'Now check if the ID matches
    If sh.ID = ID Then
        'Found! This should be the usual case!
        Set findShapeByNameAndID = sh
    Else
        'Ups, not the right shape. We ha to make a loop!
        Dim i As Long
        For i = 1 To ws.Shapes.Count
            If ws.Shapes(i).ID = ID Then
                'Found! This should be the usual case!
                Set findShapeByNameAndID = ws.Shapes(i)
            End If
        Next i
    End If
fastexit:
    Set sh = Nothing
End Function

Hope this helps you!

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Note 1: Is you want to search shapes that maybe inside groups, then the function is more complicated.

Note 2: The ZOrder looks nice, but cannot find it useful. When I tried to take advantage of it, there was always a missing part...

Answer 2

@TimWilliams is almost right (in his comment). However, there are some situation where Tim's idea could get confusing results.

I think the following code will be more appropriate and correct.

Sub qTest()

    Dim cho As ChartObject
    Set cho = ActiveSheet.ChartObjects(1)

    Dim SH As Shape
    Set SH = cho.ShapeRange.Item(1)

    SH.Select 'here Shape will be selected..
    Debug.Print TypeName(SH) '...which we can check here
End Sub