Calling Microsoft Excel Macro from FoxPro for Macintosh

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Macintosh, version 3.0b
• Microsoft FoxPro for Macintosh, versions 2.5b, 2.5c

SUMMARY

When you are developing an application in FoxPro for Macintosh, you may sometimes need to tap into the functionality of another application. This article demonstrates how to execute a macro written in Microsoft Excel version 4.0 for Macintosh and return a result.

MORE INFORMATION

To run a Microsoft Excel macro, three components are necessary: the Microsoft Excel macro, the AppleScript script, and the FoxPro Command window.

To create a simple Microsoft Excel macro that fills in the first 50 cells of the first column of a worksheet, do the following:

1. In Microsoft Excel, open a new worksheet.

2. Open a new macro sheet.

3. Beginning in cell A1 of the macro sheet, enter the following commands:

         =FOR("counter",1,50)
         =FORMULA(counter)
         =SELECT(,"R[1]C")
         =NEXT()
         =SELECT(,"R[-1]C")
         =RETURN(CELL("contents"))
   

   NOTE: The macro must return a value or the following error message will occurs:

         Microsoft Excel got an error:
         "RUN(\"FILLCOL!FILLCOL\")" doesn't
         understand the do script message.
   

4. Define the name FILLCOL for the macro. To define a name for a macro, select the first cell of the macro, in this case A1, and choose Define Name from the Formula menu. In the Define Name dialog box, type the name FILLCOL and select the Command option button at the bottom of the dialog box.

5. Save the macro sheet with the name FILLCOL.

1. Open the AppleScript Script Editor.

2. Enter the following code for the script:

         tell application "Macintosh HD:Excel:Microsoft Excel"
            make new document
            set retVal to Evaluate "RUN(\"FILLCOL!FILLCOL\")"
            return (retVal as string)
         end tell
   
   

3. Save the script with the name RunXLMacro and close it.

   RUNSCRIPT RunXLMacro TO ret
   WAIT WINDOW ret

REFERENCES

Microsoft Excel "Function Reference"