VBA Blogs: Going Through the Visual Basics – Part 15
7 December 2018
We thought we’d run an elementary series going through the rudiments of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) as a springboard for newer users. This blog takes a WHILE to get going...
In a programming, a control structure determines the order in which statements are executed. The iteration control structure is used for repetitively executing a block of code multiple times.
The iteration structure executes a sequence of statements repeatedly if a condition holds true. One such type is WHILE.
The WHILE…WEND loop executes a series of statements as long as a given condition is True. The syntax is very simple:
While condition
[statements]
Wend
The condition must result in a Boolean value of True or False. WHILE tests the condition and if it is True then proceeds to execute the statements inside the loop.
Sub WhileWend()
Dim counter As Integer
counter = 0
While counter < 5
counter = counter + 1
Debug.Print counter
Wend
End Sub
While loops are preferred when the number of iterations is unknown. For example, modelling how many days it takes to reach sales a target, or running through a worksheet column until it reaches an empty cell.
Notice how the condition is tested first – this means that the code will not run at all if the condition is not met. WHILE…WEND is a remnant from BASIC where VBA originated from. These are not as powerful as DO…LOOP (covered soon).
