XL97: How to Fill ListBox Control with Multiple Ranges

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

This article contains an example that fills the list of a ListBox control on a UserForm with data from multiple cell ranges.

MORE INFORMATION

You cannot use the RowSource property to bind a ListBox control to a worksheet when you want the list to draw from multiple ranges. You must loop through the various ranges with a Visual Basic for Applications procedure and add the items to the list one at a time.

The following examples populate a ListBox control as it is loaded by using the Initialize event for the UserForm.

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Populating the ListBox Directly from Worksheet Cells

To populate the ListBox, follow these steps:

1. Close and save any open workbooks and then create a new workbook.

2. On Sheet1, enter the following values:

         A1: Planes        C1: Alpha
         A2: Trains        C2: Bravo
         A3: Automobiles   C3: Charlie
   
   

3. Start the Visual Basic Editor (press ALT+F11).

4. On the Insert menu, click UserForm.

5. Draw a ListBox control on the UserForm.

6. Double-click the UserForm to open the Code window for the UserForm.

7. In the module type the following code for the UserForm Initialize event:

         Private Sub UserForm_Intialize()
             Dim Lrange As Range
             Dim x As Variant
   
             'Set the range to loop through
             Set Lrange = Union(Sheet1.Range("A1:A3"), Sheet1.Range("C1:C3"))
   
             'Loops through the ranges
             For Each x In Lrange
   
                 'Adds an item to the list
                 Listbox1.AddItem x.Value
   
             Next x
   
         End Sub
   
   

8. Run the UserForm.

   The items in the ranges A1:A3 and C1:C3 on Sheet1 are added to the list in ListBox1.

9. Close the UserForm.

Using an Array to Populate the ListBox

It is also possible to assign the contents of a Visual Basic array as the list of a ListBox control. The following example reads the values from the worksheet into an array, and then assigns the array to the ListBox control as the list:

1. In the module, change the code for the UserForm Initialize event:

         Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
             Dim Lrange As Range
             Dim Larray() As Variant
             Dim x As Variant
             Dim ctr As Integer
   
             'Set the range to loop through
             Set Lrange = Union(Sheet1.Range("A1:A3"), Sheet1.Range("C1:C3"))
   
             'Loops through the ranges
             For Each x In Lrange
   
                 ReDim Preserve Larray(ctr)
   
                 'Add an item to the array
                 Larray(ctr) = x.Value
   
                 ctr = ctr + 1
   
             Next x
   
             'Assign the array to the listbox
             ListBox1.List = LArray
   
         End Sub
   
   

2. Run the UserForm.

   The items in the ranges A1:A3 and C1:C3 on Sheet1 are read into an array and are then assigned to the list of ListBox1.

3. Close the UserForm.

REFERENCES

For additional information about populating list boxes in earlier versions of Microsoft Excel, please see the following article here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q153603
   TITLE     : XL: Macro to Fill a List Box with Multiple Ranges