XL: Determining the Number of Dimensions in an Array Variable

• Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition
• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 5.0, 5.0c
• Microsoft Excel for Macintosh, versions 5.0, 5.0a

SUMMARY

There is no built-in function to return the number of dimensions in an array variable in Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications. The easiest way to do this is by looping through the dimensions and using an error handler to return the number of dimensions.

MORE INFORMATION

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Sample Visual Basic Procedure

This routine tests the array named Xarray by testing the LBound of each dimension. Using a For...Next loop, the routine cycles through the number of possible array dimensions, up to 60000, until an error is generated. Then the error handler takes the counter step that the loop failed on, subtracts one (because the previous one was the last one without an error), and displays the result in a message box.

   Sub NumberOfDimensions()

      'Dimensions Xarray as an array.
      Dim Xarray(1 to 10, 5 to 20, 256 to 300, 8, -5 to 0)

      'Sets up the error handler.
      On Error GoTo FinalDimension

      'Visual Basic for Applications arrays can have up to 60000
      'dimensions; this allows for that.
      For DimNum = 1 to 60000

         'It is necessary to do something with the LBound to force it
         'to generate an error.
         ErrorCheck = LBound(Xarray, DimNum)

      Next DimNum

      Exit Sub

      ' The error routine.
   FinalDimension:

      MsgBox "The array has " & DimNum - 1 & " dimensions"

   End Sub

REFERENCES

For additional information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q163435
   TITLE     : VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for
               Applications