How to Use the VBA Immediate Window in Excel?

Last Updated : 16 Oct, 2022

The immediate window is similar to the console in Chrome, where we could execute the javascript. The immediate window allows us to execute macro code very fast and efficiently. Once, you learned it, you will always be found using it. Your immediate window can answer an infinite number of questions, like setting a cell value, changing the sheet of the name, counting the number of sheets, finding the active cell of the current worksheet, etc. In this article, we will learn different ways to use the immediate Windows in excel.

Opening Immediate Window

By default, the immediate window does not appear in the visual basic editor, but, could be activated by following these steps:

Step 1: Go to the developer tab, under the Code section. Click on Visual Basic(Alt + F11).

Step 2: VBA editor is opened. Click on View, in the menu bar. Select Immediate Window.

Step 3: The Immediate window(Ctrl + G), is opened in the VBA editor.

Different Ways to Use Immediate Window

There can be a huge number of cases where you could use immediate windows which can make your work faster and easy. An immediate window can run a macro, set variable values, debug, ask different questions using (?), and many more.

Using (?) Question Operator

There are multiple uses of the (?) question operator, like finding the active cell of the sheet, counting the number of sheets in a worksheet, etc. All the functions available in VBA can be used, in the immediate window. Some of the most used functions are explained below.

Use of Comparison Operators

Comparison operators like <, >, = can be used in the immediate window, to check whether one variable is greater, less, or equal to another variable or not. For example, to check whether 5 is greater than 4, write ?5>4 in your immediate window, and the answer will be a boolean either true or false.

Finding the Name of the Sheet

The name of any sheet can be found in a workbook, using Sheet{number}.Name function. For example, to find the name of the second sheet, the function used is Sheet2.Name.

Find the Cell Value

Using the Immediate window, one can find the value of any cell in a worksheet, using Range("Cell_Name").Value. For example, 23 is the value of cell A1, so we can find the value of cell A1 by using the function Range("a1").Value.

Count the Number of Sheets in a Workbook

The immediate window can be used to find the number of sheets in the workbook. This can be achieved by using function sheets.Count. For example, if we have only one sheet, then the output in the immediate window will be 1.

Find the Value of Active Cell

Despite writing a big macro, to find the active cell value, you can simply run the function ActiveCell.Value in the immediate window and the value of that cell is printed. For example, 23 is the currently active cell value, type ActiveCell.Value in the immediate window, and 23 is printed in the window itself.

Changing the Name of a Sheet in the Workbook

The immediate window can be used to set a value, according to the function used. There is no need of writing a sub-procedure, for it. For example, you are given a worksheet name, "Sheet1", and our task is to rename it "geeksforgeeks". Following are the steps:

Step 1: Open your immediate window, in VBA Editor. You can see that name of the sheet is "Sheet1".

Step 2: Use function, Sheet1.Name = "geeksforgeeks", and set the name of the sheet as "geeksforgeeks".

Step 3: Run your macro. You can observe that name of the sheet is changed to "geeksforgeeks".

Set Cell Value

The range function is used to access a cell in the VBA, this function can also be used in the immediate window, and the value of the cell can be set accordingly. For example, if you want to set the value of cell A1, to 23, then we could use Range("cell_name").Value function. Following are the steps:

Step 1: Open your VBA macro, immediate window. Type Range("A1").Value = 23, function to assign the value to cell "A1".

Step 2: Press Enter, to Run it. 23, appears in the cell, "A1".

Debugging the Code

Debugging is a very important skill for every developer, and an immediate window makes it easy. The most important thing in debugging is to have print statements, in your code, so that you can know where your code breaks. VBA has a function, called Debug.Print(string/variable), which prints the required result in the immediate window itself, and there is no need of switching tabs and printing the content in the worksheet. For example, if you want to print 23 in your code, then use Debug.Print() function. Following are the steps:

Step 1: Open your VBA macro, and create a sub-procedure name geeksforgeeks().

Step 2: Type Debug.Print(23), in the sub-procedure, and run your macro.

Step 3: The number 23 is printed, in the immediate window.

Run Macro

There can be situations when your macro might not run from the run button. One of the possible situations is when you have arguments in the sub-procedure, then you cannot run your macro, using the run button. But, an immediate window resolves this issue. For example, write a sub-procedure that changes the active cell color to blue. The function used to achieve this is ActiveCell.Interior.Cell = color, where color is the argument of the sub-procedure colorChangeGeeks(color). Following are the steps:

Step 1: The given program changes the color of the active cell in the worksheet, the sub-procedure also takes an argument named "color".