Excel VBA - Finding the beginning and end of colou

Question

I am trying to create a code in Excel VBA, to locate the beginning (Cell Address) and the end (Cell Address) of coloured rows in a table. The table is a timeline(Horizontal axis- Dates, Vertical axis - General Text). The coloured rows all do not start in the first column, but start in different columns. Any help?

Answer 1

How's this?

Sub findColoredRows()
Dim startCol As Integer, endCol As Integer, o As Integer
Dim ws            As Worksheet
Dim i As Integer, k As Integer
Dim startRow As Long, endRow As Long
Dim cellColor As String, noColor As String
Dim cel           As Range

noColor = -4142              ' this is the color index of NO coloring

k = 3

Set ws = ActiveSheet
With ws
    startRow = .Cells(1, 3).End(xlDown).Row
    startCol = .Cells(1, 3).Column
    Do While startRow > 100  ' I assume your table starts before row 100.  So, if there's no data before row 100, check next column
        k = k + 1
        startRow = .Cells(1, k).End(xlDown).Row
        startCol = k
    Loop

    'Now, we have our starting row - get end row.
    endRow = .Cells(startRow, k).End(xlDown).Row

    endCol = .Cells(startRow, startCol).End(xlToRight).Column
    Debug.Print "Start row: " & startRow & ", start column: " & startCol

    ' How many non colored cells is there in our range?
    Dim noColorCells As Integer
    For Each cel In .Range(.Cells(startRow, startCol), .Cells(endRow, endCol))
        If cel.Interior.ColorIndex = noColor Then
            noColorCells = noColorCells + 1
        End If
    Next cel
    Debug.Print "There are " & noColorCells & " non colored cells."

    .Cells(startRow - 1, endCol + 2).Value = "Start Date"
    .Cells(startRow - 1, endCol + 3).Value = "End Date"

    'reDim the array to fit the colored cells
    ReDim tDates(1 To noColorCells + 1)
    i = 1                    'index starts at 1, so set this to 1

    For k = startRow To endRow
        For o = startCol To endCol
            If .Cells(k, o).Interior.ColorIndex = noColor And .Cells(k, endCol + 2) = "" Then
                .Cells(k, endCol + 2).Value = .Cells(k, o).Value
            ElseIf .Cells(k, o).Interior.ColorIndex = noColor And .Cells(k, endCol + 2) Then
                i = i + i
                .Cells(k, endCol + 3).Value = .Cells(k, o).Value
            End If
            ' i = i + 1
        Next o

        i = i + 1
    Next k

End With

MsgBox ("Done!")

End Sub

This sub will find the addresses of any colored cells. If you can explain more what you mean by "locate the beginning and the end of coloured rows in a table." I can tweak this. Can you post an image of a sample table maybe?

Edit: Per discussion below, try this in case there's not always data in the table, but you want the columns of the colored cells:

Sub findColoredBGCells()
Dim startRow As Integer, endRow As Integer, i As Integer, k As Integer, startCol As Integer, endCol As Integer
Dim cellColor As String, noColor As String
Dim ws As Worksheet

Set ws = ActiveSheet
noColor = -4142

With ws
    'Get the starting row
    startRow = .Cells(1, 1).End(xlDown).Row
    endRow = .Cells(startRow, 1).End(xlDown).Row

    ' Since we know where the names start and end (less ONE for the "Names" part), let's count how many names we have
    Dim noNames As Integer
    noNames = endRow - startRow
    If Not IsEmpty(.Cells(1, 1)) Then ' Get the first used column with data
        startCol = 1
    ElseIf IsEmpty(.Cells(1, 1)) Then
        startCol = .Cells(1, 1).End(xlToRight).Column
    End If

    endCol = .Cells(1, startCol).End(xlToRight).Column

    'Now we have our range, let's use it to loop for blank cells, and add those to an array
    Dim coloredCells() As Variant
    ReDim coloredCells(1 To noNames, 2)
    Dim rng As Range, cel As Range
    Set rng = .Range(.Cells(startRow, startCol), .Cells(endRow, endCol))
    'rng.Select

    'Now, count how many cells are not blank background
    Dim cnt As Integer, celRow As Integer, lastCelRow As Integer
    i = 1

    lastCelRow = 2
    For Each cel In rng
        cel.Select
        celRow = cel.Row
        If cel.Row <> lastCelRow Then 'This is so we can change the first dimension in the array
            k = k + 1
            coloredCells(k, 0) = .Cells(cel.Row, 1).Value
            i = 1
           ' i = i + 1
        End If

        If cel.Interior.ColorIndex <> noColor Then
            cnt = cnt + 1
            If i > 2 Then i = 2 'Since it's only two dimensions we need, only go up to '1'
           ' ReDim Preserve coloredCells(noNames, i) 'resize the array to hold the new column
            coloredCells(k, i) = .Cells(1, cel.Column).Value
            i = i + 1
        End If
        lastCelRow = celRow
    Next cel

For k = 1 To UBound(coloredCells)
        Debug.Print coloredCells(k, 0) & " Start Date: " & coloredCells(k, 1) & ", end date: " & coloredCells(k, 2) & "."
        .Cells(2 + k, 2).Value = coloredCells(k, 1)
        .Cells(2 + k, 3).Value = coloredCells(k, 2)
Next k

End With

MsgBox ("Done!")

End Sub