Excel.Application Object .Quit leaves EXCEL.EXE running

Question

I\'m working within MS Access 2013 on Windows 10 and I\'m simply trying to write a Sub that opens an Excel file on disk, changes the column formatting and some columns, save

Answer 1

Declare and use a specific Workbook object - as you do for Worksheet and Range, like this:

    Dim xls     As Excel.Application
    Dim wkb     As Excel.Workbook
    Dim wks     As Excel.Worksheet
    Dim rng     As Range
    
    Set xls = New Excel.Application
    Set wkb = xls.Workbooks.Open("c:\test\workbook1.xlsx")
    Set wks = wkb.Worksheets(1)
    Set rng = wks.Range(<something>)
    
    ' Do stuff.
    wks.Name = "My New Name"
    With rng
         ' Do more.
    End With

    wkb.Close True
    
    Set rng = Nothing
    Set wks = Nothing
    Set wkb = Nothing
    
    xls.Quit
    
    Set xls = Nothing

Also, don't use Select, that's for visible use only. Define ranges instead.

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Cinetyk's EDIT:

Using @Gustav 's indications, the code that does what I wanted and solves the problem is:

Sub changeXLcolumnFormatting()

Dim XL As Excel.Application
Dim sht As Excel.Worksheet
Dim wkb As Excel.Workbook
Dim rng As Range

Set XL = New Excel.Application
XL.Visible = False
XL.DisplayAlerts = False

Set wkb = XL.Workbooks.Open("C:\Users\640344\Desktop\rawDataTest.XLSX")
Set sht = wkb.Worksheets(1)

Dim i As Integer, j As Integer

field_names = Split("datasistema|Data de Registo|Data Registo CMVM", "|")
end_of_table = sht.UsedRange.Columns.Count

For j = 0 To UBound(field_names)
    For i = 1 To end_of_table
        Set rng = sht.Cells(1, i)
        If InStr(rng.Text, field_names(j)) > 0 Then
            sht.Columns(i).NumberFormat = "yyyy-mm-dd  HH:MM:ss"
        End If
    Next i
Next j

wkb.Close (True)
Set rng = Nothing
Set sht = Nothing

XL.Quit
Set XL = Nothing

End Sub

Answer 2

Here is a fancy way to solve that problem - using with new Excel.Application:

Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

Public Sub TestMe()

    Dim wkb     As Object
    Dim wks     As Object

    With New Excel.Application

        Set wkb = .Workbooks.Open("C:\Users\vityata\Desktop\myTest.xlsx")
        Set wks = wkb.Worksheets(1)

        wkb.Close True

        Set wks = Nothing
        Set wkb = Nothing
        .Quit

    End With

End Sub

In C# this is a standard with Using, in VBA very few people use it - I have never seen it production code.

---

Cinetyk's EDIT:

Using Vityata's indications, the code that works as I intended is:

Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

Public Sub changeXLcolumnFormattingV2()

Dim sht As Object
Dim wkb As Object

With New Excel.Application
    .Visible = False
    .DisplayAlerts = False

    Set wkb = .Workbooks.Open("C:\Users\640344\Desktop\rawDataTESTING.XLSX")
    Set wks = wkb.Worksheets(1)

    field_names = Split("datasistema|Data de Registo|Data Registo CMVM", "|")
    end_of_table = wks.UsedRange.Columns.Count

    For j = 0 To UBound(field_names)
        For i = 1 To end_of_table
            Set rng = wks.Cells(1, i)
            If InStr(rng.Text, field_names(j)) > 0 Then
                wks.Columns(i).NumberFormat = "yyyy-mm-dd  HH:MM:ss"
            End If
        Next i
    Next j

    wkb.Close True

    Set wks = Nothing
    Set wkb = Nothing
    .Quit

End With

End Sub