Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@martinctc
Last active March 5, 2024 15:44
Show Gist options
  • Star 5 You must be signed in to star a gist
  • Fork 1 You must be signed in to fork a gist
  • Save martinctc/7e7eda2bdb536863e838630bd6927df9 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save martinctc/7e7eda2bdb536863e838630bd6927df9 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Split data into multiple worksheet based on column variables - edited from online sources
Sub parse_data()
Dim lr As Long
Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim vcol, i As Integer
Dim icol As Long
Dim myarr As Variant
Dim title As String
Dim titlerow As Integer
'This macro splits data into multiple worksheets based on the variables on a column found in Excel.
'An InputBox asks you which columns you'd like to filter by, and it just creates these worksheets.
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
vcol = Application.InputBox(prompt:="Which column would you like to filter by?", title:="Filter column", Default:="3", Type:=1)
Set ws = ActiveSheet
lr = ws.Cells(ws.Rows.Count, vcol).End(xlUp).Row
title = "A1"
titlerow = ws.Range(title).Cells(1).Row
icol = ws.Columns.Count
ws.Cells(1, icol) = "Unique"
For i = 2 To lr
On Error Resume Next
If ws.Cells(i, vcol) <> "" And Application.WorksheetFunction.Match(ws.Cells(i, vcol), ws.Columns(icol), 0) = 0 Then
ws.Cells(ws.Rows.Count, icol).End(xlUp).Offset(1) = ws.Cells(i, vcol)
End If
Next
myarr = Application.WorksheetFunction.Transpose(ws.Columns(icol).SpecialCells(xlCellTypeConstants))
ws.Columns(icol).Clear
For i = 2 To UBound(myarr)
ws.Range(title).AutoFilter field:=vcol, Criteria1:=myarr(i) & ""
If Not Evaluate("=ISREF('" & myarr(i) & "'!A1)") Then
Sheets.Add(after:=Worksheets(Worksheets.Count)).Name = myarr(i) & ""
Else
Sheets(myarr(i) & "").Move after:=Worksheets(Worksheets.Count)
End If
ws.Range("A" & titlerow & ":A" & lr).EntireRow.Copy Sheets(myarr(i) & "").Range("A1")
'Sheets(myarr(i) & "").Columns.AutoFit
Next
ws.AutoFilterMode = False
ws.Activate
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
@TikvahTerminator
Copy link

Hi, not a programmer ...
EXCEPT that it's returning blank worksheets for any strings that contain special characters.....

Is there a way to change this VBA code so that it works with special characters? Or will we have to find & replace each special character before running the macro each time?

@LGEponine

I was running into a similar issue whilst doing inventory of my Docker Images. Upon looking into it I noticed the issue is related to line 32

Sheets.Add(after:=Worksheets(Worksheets.Count)).Name = myarr(i) & ""

Explaination

For context, i've never worked with VB before looking at this, so forgive any misnomers and mistakes 🙏😅

Typically, Excel will display an error if a user attempts to name a sheet with invalid characters:
Excel_Name_Error

When this same action is attempted in VB, we see the following:

Name without special characters
Excel_Name_Error_Example1

Name WITH special characters
Excel_Name_Error_Example2

However, on line 22 we can see On Error Resume Next. This tells Excel to ignore any errors and continue with the script. The reason this is included is due to Application.WorksheetFunction.Match being used on line 23, as this function throws an error if it does not find a valid match to the provided string.

Excel_Name_Error_MatchError
Image source

Unfortunately, the result of this is that the naming error is also ignored.

You'll notice in the screenshot that 'Sheet 5' appears. This is the name of the WorkSheet the Add function created. Because the name property set via the Sheets.Add.Name command on line 32 is not valid, Excel does not update the name. You can see this in your own screenshot.

115285502-8c95a500-a113-11eb-96a7-8c353e251ac1

Notice how 'Gladwell - Outliers' and 'Zimmerman - Metamorphosis' are correctly named, but everything else is named 'Sheet XX' (where XX is the sequential number). This means that our sheets names are not being updated correctly; which is what results in them remaining blank, as on line 36 you'll see:

ws.Range("A" & titlerow & ":A" & lr).EntireRow.Copy Sheets(myarr(i) & "").Range("A1")

which specifically references a sheet with the name from the myarr array, which doesn't exist. So the data is never copied.

Solution

As suggested by David Zemens on Stack Overflow; replace line 23 with:

If ws.Cells(i, vcol) <> "" And IsError(Application.Match(ws.Cells(i, vcol), ws.Columns(icol), 0)) Then

and remove line 22.

This results in the script displaying the correct error for naming issues (This one was due to the name being too long)
Excel_Name_Error_Example3


I hope this helps someone else, as this script was a godsend for the task I needed to do!

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment