If you were only retrieving the value for a few names, didn't going through the
workbook names collection work for you?


Brian Murphy wrote:

Here's what I've arrived at using the "famous" workaround mentioned by Bob Phillips. It goes for deleting and undeleting just a Name instead of a Worksheet. Could use some error checking to make it more robust. I don't think Hidden sheets will cause problems. Protected sheets might be another matter. Seems to do the job in limited testing so far.

It's a far cry from just a simple syntax fix I was hoping for. I wonder how Jan Karel handled this.

Brian

Option Compare Text

Function myWorkbook_Names(thename$) As Variant
'created this routine to work around "first sheet" problem 5/7/2004
Dim nme$, refersto$
Set myWorkbook_Names = Nothing
If IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename) = False Then
'exit and return Nothing
ElseIf InStr(ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename).Name, "!") = 0 Then
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
Else
'even though there's a book level name somewhere, Workbook.Names isn't returning it
With ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
nme = .Name
refersto = .refersto
.Delete
End With
'now ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename) should return the correct book level name
Set myWorkbook_Names = ActiveWorkbook.Names(thename)
'put back the deleted sheet level name
ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=nme, refersto:=refersto
End If
End Function

Function IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel(thename$) As Boolean
Dim o
For Each o In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If o.Name = thename Then
IsNameDefinedAsBookLevel = True
Exit For
End If
Next
End Function

"Dave Peterson" wrote in message ...
Ahhh. I get it and remember a post from Jan Karel Pieterse (IIRC) about the
same problem.

I think his solution was to look for a worksheet level name first. If he found
one, the move to a different sheet.

But maybe you could just add a dummy worksheet as the first one. Delete it when
you're done.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range
Dim dummyWks As Worksheet

Set dummyWks = Worksheets.Add(befo=Worksheets(1))

For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
If wks.Name = dummyWks.Name Then
'do nothing
Else
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " & wks.Name & " refers to: " & _

ActiveWorkbook.Names("somename").RefersToRange.Par ent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
testRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"
End If

Next wks

Application.DisplayAlerts = False
dummyWks.Delete
Application.DisplayAlerts = True

End Sub

Befo
wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1!$D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: sheetlevel1
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: sheetlevel1
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2!$D$5:$H$15
-------------


After:

wkbk level from: sheetlevel1 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel1!$D$5:$H$15
-------------
wkbk level from: Wkbk_level refers to: Wkbk_level
Not a sheet level name in: Wkbk_level
-------------
wkbk level from: sheetlevel2 refers to: Wkbk_level
Sheet level also in: [book1]sheetlevel2!$D$5:$H$15
-------------

==============

I think Jan Karel (et al) have to be much more careful. The workbook's
structure could be protected and that would eliminate the ability to add a
sheet.

This might not be a factor for you.


=====
And depending on what you're doing, maybe you can go through the names
collection:

Option Explicit
Sub testme02b()
Dim myName As Name
Dim myStr As String
Dim myRng As Range

myStr = "somename"

Set myRng = Nothing
For Each myName In ActiveWorkbook.Names
If LCase(myName.Name) = LCase(myStr) Then
'use this one!
Set myRng = myName.RefersToRange
Exit For
End If
Next myName

If myRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "No Global name: " & myStr
Else
Debug.Print myRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

End Sub

This consistently gave me:
[book1]Wkbk_level!$E$8:$I$20

No matter the order of the sheets.

(Yeah, I missed that bottom part in your original post. Sorry.)







Brian Murphy wrote:

Hello Dave,

Thanks very much for the reply.

The output you showed from your macro tells me that the first sheet in the tab order is Sheet2, and this is the sheet which contains the booklevel instance of the Name. This situation won't exhibit the problem.

Use your mouse to change the sheet order. Have the first sheet contain a sheet level instance. I did this, and with your macro got the following:

3 sheets in the file
Sheet order is: Book_level, Sheet_level_1, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Book_level
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1!$A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Book_level
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2!$A$1
-------------

Sheet order changed to: Sheet_level_1, Book_level, Sheet_Level_2

wkbk level from: Sheet_level_1 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_1!$A$1
-------------
wkbk level from: Book_level refers to: Sheet_level_1
Not a sheet level name in: Book_level
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet_level_2 refers to: Sheet_level_1
Sheet level also in: [Book1]Sheet_level_2!$A$1
-------------

Darn it! Now the book level name is wrong no matter which sheet is active.

The NameManager utility seems to get it right. The j-walk namelist utility, for just one example, does not. That's why I posted to the group in hopes of learning the right way to do this.

This odd behavior becomes a real problem when trying to do something like delete a book level name. The delete method will delete the wrong object, even when it's fully qualified.

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas

"Dave Peterson" wrote in message ...
Are you sure?

I'm using xl2002 and couldn't duplicate that.

Option Explicit
Sub testme02()

Dim wks As Worksheet
Dim testRng As Range


For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
wks.Activate
Debug.Print "wkbk level from: " & wks.Name & " refers to: " & _
ActiveWorkbook.Names("somename").RefersToRange.Par ent.Name

Set testRng = Nothing
On Error Resume Next
Set testRng = wks.Names("somename").RefersToRange
On Error GoTo 0

If testRng Is Nothing Then
Debug.Print "Not a sheet level name in: " & wks.Name
Else
Debug.Print "Sheet level also in: " & _
testRng.Address(external:=True)
End If

Debug.Print "-------------"

Next wks

End Sub

I got this back:

wkbk level from: Sheet2 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet2
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet6 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet6
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet5 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet5
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet4 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet4
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet3 refers to: Sheet2
Not a sheet level name in: Sheet3
-------------
wkbk level from: Sheet1 refers to: Sheet2
Sheet level also in: [book1.xls]Sheet1!$B$9:$D$18
-------------

It worked the same way with or without the wks.activate.

The best utility that I've ever seen for working with names is Jan Karel
Pieterse's (with Charles Williams and Matthew Henson) Name Manager.

You can find it at:
NameManager.Zip from http://www.bmsltd.ie/mvp

You get lots of options and can see differences very easily. It's well worth
the download.

You can localize and globalize names using this, too.




Brian Murphy wrote:

I'm having trouble finding a fail safe syntax to return a Name object that refers to a cell range.

set obj = ActiveWorkbook.Names(somename)

Here "somename" is a book level name that refers to a range of cells.

The statement above returns a range object for the cells.

Well, sometimes, but not all the time.

If the first sheet in the workbook also contains a sheet level name called "somename", then the above statement returns those cells instead.

So, I'm hoping there is some sort of statement syntax that will work regardless of whether the first sheet has a like named sheet level name.

Thanks,

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas

--

Dave Peterson


--

Dave Peterson


--

Dave Peterson