Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Stepping Through a Non-Contiguous Range of Cells.

Stepping Through a Non-Contiguous Range of Cells

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 26, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Stephe needs to develop a macro that will perform an operation based on the cells that a user selects before running the macro. She knows how to do this if the user selects a range of cells, but she doesn't know how to step through the cells in a selection if the user selects a non-contiguous range of cells.

When it comes to VBA, there is very little difference between a contiguous selection and a non-contiguous selection. Excel lets you access each of them the same. Consider the following code snippet:

Dim c As Range

For Each c In Selection
    ' do something here
    MsgBox c.Address & vbTab & c.Value
Next c

In this case the cells in the selected range are stepped through, one at a time, using the For ... Next loop. Inside the loop the c variable represents an individual cell and can be used in references, as shown.

If, for some reason, you want to access each contiguous area within the selection, you can do so by specifically addressing the Areas group, as shown in this snippet:

Dim a As Range
Dim c As Range

For Each a In Selection.Areas
    'Now each a refers to a contiguous range
    'Do something here with areas, if desired
    For Each c In a.Cells
        'Now each c refers to a cell in the area
        'Do something here
        MsgBox c.Address & vbTab & c.Value
    Next c
Next a

You should also note that if the range you want to access (contiguous or non-contiguous) has been named in Excel, you can also access just the cells in the named range. Simply replace the word "Selection" in each of these examples with name of the range, in this manner:

Dim c As Range

For Each c In Range("MyNamedRange")
    ' do something here
    MsgBox c.Address & vbTab & c.Value
Next c

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8701) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Stepping Through a Non-Contiguous Range of Cells.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Controlling the Plotting of Empty Cells

When creating a chart from information that contains empty cells, you can direct Excel how it should proceed. This tip ...

Discover More

Losing All Formatting in a Document

Have you ever made a formatting change to a couple of characters or to a paragraph, only to see those changes affect text ...

Discover More

Saving Personalized Copies of a Document

Need a series of documents that include an individual's name or a company name? Here's a handy little macro that will ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Item Not Available in Library

When sharing workbooks with others, you may find that the macros in those workbooks may not work as you expect. This tip ...

Discover More

Deriving the Worksheet Name

Excel doesn't provide an easy way to grab the worksheet name for use within a worksheet. Here are some ideas on ways you ...

Discover More

Saving Changes when Closing

If your macro closes workbooks, you'll want to make sure that it will save any changes you made to the workbook. Here's ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is five more than 0?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.