Difference between Visual Basic 6.0 and VBA

Question

What is the difference between the two. I always thought VBA is somewhat 'crippled' version of VB, but when a friend asked me the other day I had no idea what the actual differences are.

Also, when you use, for example, Excel, is that VB or VBA ?

Answer 1

For nearly all programming purposes, VBA and VB 6.0 are the same thing.

VBA cannot compile your program into an executable binary. You'll always need the host (a Word file and MS Word, for example) to contain and execute your project. You'll also not be able to create COM DLLs with VBA.

Apart from that, there is a difference in the IDE - the VB 6.0 IDE is more powerful in comparison. On the other hand, you have tight integration of the host application in VBA. Application-global objects (like "ActiveDocument") and events are available without declaration, so application-specific programming is straight-forward.

Still, nothing keeps you from firing up Word, loading the VBA IDE and solving a problem that has no relation to Word whatsoever. I'm not sure if there is anything that VB 6.0 can do (technically), and VBA cannot. I'm looking for a comparison sheet on the MSDN though.

Answer 2

VB is not a language. VB is a program that hosts VBA, just as Office hosts VBA. VB is a set of App objects, just like Word and Excel have, and a forms package, just like in Office.

So you can only write VBA code in VB.

PS this info is on the INFO tab on the VB question page for VB.

From VBA Info

VBA 6, was shipped in 1998 and includes a myriad of licensed hosts, among them: Office 2000 - 2010, AutoCAD, PI Processbook, and the stand-alone Visual Basic 6.0

Answer 3

Do you want compare VBA with VB-Classic (VB6..) or VB.NET?

VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) is a vb-classic-based script language embedded in Microsoft Office applications. I think it's language features are similar to those of VB5 (it just lacks some few builtin functions), but:

You have access to the office document you wrote the VBA-script for and so you can e.g.

• Write macros (=automated routines for little recurring tasks in your office-work)
• Define new functions for excel-cell-formula
• Process office data

Example: Set the value of an excel-cell

ActiveSheet.Cells("A1").Value = "Foo"

VBC and -.NET are no script languages. You use them to write standalone-applications with separate IDE's which you can't do with VBA (VBA-scripts just "exist" in Office)

VBA has nothing to do with VB.NET (they just have a similar syntax).