Writing Excel Macros with VBA, 2nd Edition

Chapter 15. The Excel Object Model

The Excel object model is one of the most extensive object models in Microsoft’s arsenal, with almost 200 objects and over 5000 properties and methods. As we have mentioned, however, many of these objects and members are included solely for backward compatibility with earlier versions of Excel. When we ignore these objects and members, the object count drops to 140 and the member count is about 3000. This makes the Excel object model second in size only to the Word object model.

We will not discuss the objects and members that are included for backward compatibility only. However, since you should at least be aware of the existence of these objects, we will include them in our pictures of the model (appropriately marked) but not in the tables.

It is certainly not our intention in this book to cover all, or even most, of the objects and members of the Excel object model. Our goal is to acquaint you with the major portions of this model, so that you can easily learn more as needed.

It seems appropriate to begin by trying to present an overall view of the Excel object model.

A Perspective on the Excel Object Model

To put the Excel object model in some perspective, Table 15-1 gives some statistics on various Microsoft object models for Office 97 (the numbers are somewhat larger for later versions of Office).

Table 15-1. Some Object Model Statistics for Office 97

Application	Objects	Properties	Methods	Enums	Constants
Access 8	51	1596	532