I am running VBA 6.5 from Excel 2003.

I have a line like Foo = Range(Cells(1, 1), Cells(1, 2))

If Foo is declared with Dim Foo As Variant, the line runs without error.
If Foo is declared with Dim Foo As Range, I get "Run-time error '91';

Object variable or With block variable not set".

I can fix the assignment by prefixing it with Set to read
Set Foo = Range(Cells(1, 1), Cells(1, 2))

Why does a variant not need Set and a compatible object needs set?

I don't imagine anyone outside Microsoft can give the reason for such
errors not being detected at compilation time. ;)

[I am in the middle of eliminating Variant, where possible in a fairly
large file. I have already applied early binding where possible]
--
Walter Briscoe