VB and VBA

[nigelandrewfoster]

Hi

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question but am I right in saying that Visual Basic enable you to access the entire object model of Excel and Access? In other words, that you can do everything in VB that you can do with VBA and a lot more besides? Are there downsides to this approach? Any thoughts would be appreciated including directed me to the correct part of the forum if I've got it wrong! I'm looking to develop applications that make use of Office functionality and develop add-ins but not sure the best approach going forward.

Thanks again for your time.

 

[Sektor]

As a short answer - yes, you can manipulate Access from Excel and vice versa. VBA is VB for applications with its own IDE and restrictions (rather full-blown VB). However, when concerns Office application, VBA lets you manipulate one Office product from another. Moreover, VBA is not limited by Office products. There was a time when Autodesk implemented VBA in its own products (AutoCAD, for instance).

 

[nigelandrewfoster]

Thanks very much for getting back to me. So I could use VB to manipulate the Office object model instead of using VBA? Is there any advantage in me staying with VBA then?

 

[Sektor]

Of course, in VB (VB6, I think you mean) you can use Excel and Access (and Outlook, and PowerPoint, and Word). In other words, you can use any objects as soon as they appear in References.

 

[nigelandrewfoster]

Great. Thanks for your time.