FIX: GeoFacts Sample Causes Type Mismatch Error with Excel 97

ID: Q178166

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual Basic Professional and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 5.0
Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

The GeoFacts.vbp sample project that ships with Visual Basic 5.0 fails with the following run-time error when run on a machine that has Excel 97 for Windows installed:

Run-time error '13':
Type mismatch

This error does not occur on a machine that has Excel 95 for Windows installed.

CAUSE

The Type Mismatch error occurs on the following line of code:


   Set shtWorld = GetObject("world.xls")

The GetObject function, when passing a workbook file argument, returns a Worksheet object when using Excel 95 but returns a Workbook object when using Excel 97. The Type Mismatch error occurs because the shtWorld variable is declared as Excel.Worksheet, which is not compatible with a Workbook object.

RESOLUTION

To make the project compatible with Excel 97 for Windows, you must change the following line of code (located in the General Declarations section of Module1):


   Public shtWorld As Excel.Worksheet

to:


   Public shtWorld As Excel.Workbook

-or-


   Public shtWorld As Object

NOTE: Declaring the variable as Object allows the project to run with both Excel 95 and Excel 97.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This bug has been fixed in Visual Basic 6.0.

MORE INFORMATION

The GeoFacts.vbp sample project was designed for Excel 95. However, you can write your automation code so that it is compatible with both Microsoft Excel 95 and Microsoft Excel 97. See the REFERENCES section below for more information.

REFERENCES

For more information regarding how to make automation code compatible with multiple versions of Excel please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q143461 XL97: CreateObject and GetObject Work Differently

Q178167 GeoFacts Sample Causes Automation Error on NT

Additional query words: Excel

Keywords : kbAutomation kbVBp kbVBp500bug kbVBp600fix kbGrpVB kbExcel97
Version : WINDOWS:5.0; :
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbbug