Programming Excel with VBA and .NET

Interact with Users

Visual Basic provides two simple ways to interact with users:

• Use InputBox to get text input.

• Use MsgBox to display short messages and get button-click responses.

I’ve already used InputBox and MsgBox a number of times in previous examples, but one more sample won’t hurt:

    Sub MsgBoxInputBox( )
        Dim str As String, val As VbMsgBoxResult
        ' InputBox gets simple text input.
        str = InputBox("Enter some text.", "Chapter 3", "Some text")
        ' Use If to test if a value was entered.
        If str <> "" Then
            ' You can combine style constants in MsgBox.
            val = MsgBox(str, vbQuestion + vbOKCancel, "Chapter 3")
            ' Return value indicates which button was clicked.
            If val = vbOK Then Debug.Print "OK" Else Debug.Print "Cancel"
        End If
    End Sub

The preceding code displays a simple dialog box to get text, then displays the text in another simple dialog box, as shown in Figure 3-1.

The MsgBox function can display many different styles and buttons, depending on the Button argument setting. All of the VbMsgBoxStyle settings are listed in Table 3-2.

Figure 3-1. InputBox and MsgBox functions display simple dialog boxes

Table 3-2. VbMsgBoxStyle settings

Setting	Description
Button
vbOKOnly	Displays OK button.
vbOKCancel	Displays OK, Cancel buttons.
vbAbortRetryIgnore	Displays Abort, Retry, Ignore buttons.
vbYesNoCancel	Displays Yes, No, Cancel buttons.
vbYesNo	Displays Yes, No buttons. ...