Hi I am very interested in VBA and would like to learn. Does anybody has any idea? Please advise or someone can teach me in person, I will very appreciate. Just make an offer. Thanks. I am in LA.
Best to start with one of those “Learn VBA is 24 hours” style books. For those who are puzzled, it stands for Visual Basic for Applications 
and is the programming language used in MS Excel, Word and other similar tools.
Get the VBA for dummies book. It is a good start. Don’t waste your money on any courses. Everything you need to know is available online and the best way to learn is by doing, so if you currently work with spreadsheets, think about how you can automate all or part of them.
Just do it. Think of a program that you would like to write and then implement it. Of course, you will have to look for stuff online as you go. In general, learning-by-doing is a pretty good approach.
maratikus Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Just do it. Think of a program that you would > like to write and then implement it. Of course, > you will have to look for stuff online as you go. > In general, learning-by-doing is a pretty good > approach. Agreed - I’ve taken the classes and all they really have you do is the exercises in the book. Most current book, or one that uses the version of software you’ll be using, would be best.
The fastest way to learn is by doing. You don’t even need a book. Learn how to record simple macros. Since you know what that macro does, rip apart the recorded VBA code. Use the internal code library and Google to learn any piece of code you don’t understand.
It helps if you know another programming language. If not, VBA is still not too bad. I still recommend getting a book though. Self-taught people tend to get stuck in bad habits.
Hello Mister Walrus Wrote: > Self-taught people tend to get stuck in bad habits. That’s true. But I think it would be more helpful to read about conceptual aspects of programming (such as object-oriented programming) rather than specific languages.
I agree that a course or well-done book can be helpful for the first steps in a new language. It can be maddening to be stuck for 30 minutes or an hour thinking that you just can’t master the language, when in fact there’s just some misplaced semicolon because the syntax is just a bit different in a way that isn’t quite apparent yet. You are busy thinking that you want to be reading in yahoo data and building an optimization algorithm, and yet you’re stuck struggling to get “Hello World!” to come out on a screen in the right color.
phBOOM Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The fastest way to learn is by doing. You don’t > even need a book. > > Learn how to record simple macros. Since you know > what that macro does, rip apart the recorded VBA > code. Use the internal code library and Google to > learn any piece of code you don’t understand. This is how I learned. Granted, I was comp sci for my first two years of undergrad. Basically as it has been said, just record the macro, open the code under “edit macro” and go in and start editing stuff and seeing what happends. It’s a fairly straight forward language.
the best way to learn VBA is to record macros and then look at the code. press ALT + F11 to bring up VB editor
TwoGuns Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Get the VBA for dummies book. It is a good start. > Don’t waste your money on any courses. Everything > you need to know is available online and the best > way to learn is by doing, so if you currently work > with spreadsheets, think about how you can > automate all or part of them. I have this on my kindle. I recommend it. It’s cheap and well written (at least to where I am in book). I’m learning VBA too.
timotimo Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > the best way to learn VBA is to record macros and > then look at the code. > > press ALT + F11 to bring up VB editor this is how i learned vba, combined with the help file (F1)
VBA is outdated. Learn C# or f# in combination with R or matlab.
DIY; Chad speaks fluent VBA and was actually his first language.
VBA outdated? I don’t think so. When the finance community stops using Excel, then VBA will be outdated. Sure, C# and other general-purpose languages can do more, but it’s like using an Uzi to kill cockroaches for a lot of stuff one needs to do in excel.
I just picked up the VBA for Dummies book. I have yet to open it but the reviews on Amazon are good. I found Walkenbach’s other book, VBA Power Programming (title is something like that), too confusing for a newbie. I know what Alt+F11 does, and I’ve altered some code/macros before, but I still consider myself a beginner.