Calling Microsoft Excel Macro from FoxPro for Macintosh

ID: Q118779

2.50b 2.50c 3.00b MACINTOSH kbinterop

The information in this article applies to:

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.

To create the AppleScript, do the following:

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.

In the FoxPro Command window, execute the following commands:

   RUNSCRIPT RunXLMacro TO ret
   WAIT WINDOW ret

The macro is executed synchronously. This means that control is not returned to the user until after the macro has completed execution. If the FoxPro desktop and Command windows are not maximized, you should see the macro execute in the background, filling in the first fifty cells of a new worksheet with the numbers 1 through 50. If you can't see the macro executing, switch to Microsoft Excel once control returns to FoxPro and look at the new worksheet.

REFERENCES

Microsoft Excel "Function Reference"

Additional reference words: vFoxMac 3.00b FoxMac 2.50b 2.50c Ascript Apple Script Scripting KBCategory: kbinterop KBSubcategory:

Keywords          : kbcode kbinterop
Version           : 2.50b 2.50c 3.00b
Platform          : MACINTOSH