VBA Public Array : how to ?

Question

Hi folks ! So today's problem is getting me mad because that should be easy and i can not find the answer :

How to declare a public array in VBA ? I'm using an array with the letters A, B, C,... because i'm working with Excel cells, and i don't want to declare it in every function i create, right ? I've tried to look on the web first and i read that you have to declare it in a different module, so that's what i've done :

Public colHeader As String
colHeader = Array("A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "I", "J", "K", "L")

But Visual Basic doesn't like it...

So what shall i do ?

Thank's a lot :)

Edit : the problem is more about asigning values to the array than to declare it

Answer 1

Try this:

Dim colHeader(12)
colHeader = ("A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "I", "J", "K", "L")

Unfortunately the code found online was VB.NET not VBA.

Answer 2

Declare array as global across subs in a application:

Public GlobalArray(10) as String
GlobalArray = Array('A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F', 'G', 'H', 'I', 'J', 'K', 'L')

Sub DisplayArray()
    Dim i As Integer

    For i = 0 to Unbound(GlobalArray, 1)
        MsgBox GlobalArray(i)

    Next i
End Sub

Method 2: Pass an array to sub. Use ParamArray.

Sub DisplayArray(Name As String, ParamArray Arr() As Variant)
    Dim i As Integer

    For i = 0 To UBound(Arr())
        MsgBox Name & ": " & Arr(i)
    Next i
End Sub

ParamArray must be the last parameter.

Answer 3

You are using the wrong type. The Array(...) function returns a Variant, not a String.

Thus, in the Declaration section of your module (it does not need to be a different module!), you define

Public colHeader As Variant

and somewhere at the beginning of your program code (for example, in the Workbook_Open event) you initialize it with

colHeader = Array("A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "I", "J", "K", "L")

Another (simple) alternative would be to create a function that returns the array, e.g. something like

Public Function GetHeaders() As Variant
    GetHeaders = Array("A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "I", "J", "K", "L")
End Function

This has the advantage that you do not need to initialize the global variable and the drawback that the array is created again on every function call.