Is it possible to Evaluate a String which contains a valid Excel VB Constant's Name
to return that Constant's Value?
eg
Dim ConstantName as String
Dim ConstantValue as Long
ConstantName="xlValues"
ConstantValue= UnknownFunction(ConstantName)
'would set ConstantValue=-4163
Fun!
Option Explicit
Function getConstantValue(constStr As String) As Variant
Dim oMod As VBIDE.CodeModule
Dim i As Long, _
num As Long
Set oMod = ThisWorkbook.VBProject.VBComponents("Module1").CodeModule
For i = 1 To oMod.CountOfLines
If oMod.Lines(i, 1) = "Function tempGetConstValue() As Variant" Then
num = i + 1
Exit For
End If
Next i
oMod.InsertLines num, "tempGetConstValue = " & constStr
getConstantValue = Application.Run("tempGetConstValue")
oMod.DeleteLines num
End Function
Function tempGetConstValue() As Variant
End Function
All code must be in a module called Module1. That can be changed pretty simply by changing the text "Module1" in the routine.
You'll need to add a reference to Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications Extensibility x.x
There are a number of ways this could fail. Let me know if you have any problems with it :)
Instead of using constants, you could use a dictionary
Dim dict As Object
Sub InitialiseDict()
Set dict = CreateObject(Scripting.Dictionary)
dict("xlValues") = -4163
dict("const1") = value1
...
dict("constN") = valueN
End Sub
ConstValue = dict("xlValues")
Is using the string value necessary?
Dim anyConstant as Long
anyConstant = xlValues
msgbox anyConstant
Set anyConstant to any xl constant you please, they are all enumerated Long values.
The first solution offered is indeed much more fun however.