WD: How to Determine Which Items Are Selected in a List Box

ID: Q198967

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

This article explains how to retrieve selected items from a ListBox control that allows you to select multiple values.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider or the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about Microsoft Certified Solution Providers, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/mcsp/

For more information about the support options available from Microsoft, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/refguide/

In a UserForm, when you set the MultiSelect property to "1 - fmMultiSelectMulti" (without the quotation marks) for a ListBox control, you can choose any number of items from a list. For example, if a list contains Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie, you can select any, none, or all of the items.

To determine which items are selected, use the Selected property of the list box. The Selected property of a list box is an array of values in which each value is either True (if the item is selected) or False (if the item is not selected). For example, if the list contains 1, 2, 3, and 4, and 2 and 3 are selected, the Selected property is the following array:


   False, True, True, False

This is true because the first item (1) is not selected, the second and third items (2 and 3) are selected, and the fourth item (4) is not selected.

Sample Visual Basic Procedure

The following code uses two methods for using the selected data from the list box. The first method uses one selected item at a time, and the second method builds a list of all the selected items. These steps for creating a UserForm in the Visual Basic Editor assume that the user of the article has an understanding of Visual Basic for Applications, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Forms design and tools.

Start the Visual Basic Editor (ALT+F11).

If the Properties window is not visible, click Properties Window on the View menu (or press F4).

If the Project Explorer window is not visible, click Project Explorer on the View menu.

On the Insert menu, click UserForm.

Place a ListBox control on the UserForm.

Activate the Properties window (press F4).

Change the MultiSelect property to the following value:

1 - fmMultiSelectMulti

Place two CommandButton controls on the UserForm.

Double-click the UserForm to display the Code window for the UserForm.

Press Page Down, and then type the following code for the Userform initialize and the CommandButton Click event:


Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
'Creates and assigns the Array to the Listbox when the form loads.
   Dim mylist As Variant
   mylist = Array("Sun.", "Mon.", "Tue.", "Wed.", "Thu.", "Fri.", _
   "Sat.")
   ListBox1.List = mylist
End Sub

Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
'Displays individual selections one at a time.
   For x = 0 To ListBox1.ListCount - 1
      If ListBox1.Selected(x) = True Then
         MsgBox ListBox1.List(x)
      End If
   Next x
   Unload Me
End Sub

Private Sub CommandButton2_Click()
'Displays all the items in one message box
   Dim msg As String
   For x = 0 To ListBox1.ListCount - 1
      If ListBox1.Selected(x) = True Then
         msg = msg & ListBox1.List(x) & vbCrLf
      End If
   Next x
   MsgBox "You have selected  " & vbCrLf & msg
   Unload Me
   'Uncomment the following two line to insert the variable into a
   'document.
   'Documents.Add
   'Selection.TypeText  Text:= msg
End Sub

Run the UserForm.

Select one or more items in the list.

Click the command buttons to see the selection results.

When you click CommandButton1, each item you selected in the list box is displayed in a separate message box. When all the selected items are displayed in message boxes, the UserForm is automatically dismissed. When you click CommandButton2, a single message box appears listing the selected items on separate lines, which is the content of the string variable "Msg", which could be inserted into a document as text.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q173707 OFF97: How to Run Sample Code from Knowledge Base Articles

Additional query words: vba vb


Keywords          : kbdta 
Version           : WINDOWS:97
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: May 27, 1999