ID: Q177991
The information in this article applies to:
This article discusses limitations in passing arrays to Microsoft Excel worksheets and macros using Automation. If these limitations are exceeded, you may receive run-time errors in your Automation code.
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Version of Passing Array to Passing Array to
Microsoft Excel Worksheet Range Macro (Procedure)
----------------------------------------------------------
5.0 A B,C
7.0 (Excel 95) D E,C,H
8.0 (Excel 97) F G,H
A:
The maximum number of elements in the array is approximately 6550. If you exceed this limit, you receive one or both of the following error messages:
Out of Memory
1005: Unable to set the Value property of the Range class
Run-time error '1004':
Transpose method of Application class failed
The maximum number of elements in the array is 4095. If you exceed this limit, you may receive the following error message:
Run-time error '1004':
Run method of Application class failed
C:
When defining the array parameter in the Excel macro, it must be defined as a Variant variable or you will receive the following error message when you attempt to run the macro using Automation:
Run-time error '1004':
Cannot find macro <macro name>
Public Sub AcceptArray(ByVal myarray As Variant)
' You can pass the parameter either ByVal or ByRef.
' To determine the number of elements in the array, use
' the UBound function.
End Sub
The maximum number of elements in the array is 5461. If you exceed this limit, you receive one of the following error messages:
Run-time error '1004':
Transpose method of Application class failed
- or -
Run-time error '1005':
Unable to set the Value property of the Range class
The maximum number of elements in the array is 5461. If you exceed this limit, you receive the following error message:
Run-time error '1004':
Run method of Application class failed
The maximum number of elements in the array is limited by available memory or the Excel worksheet maximum size (65536 rows X 256 columns). However, the maximum number of elements in the array that you can pass to Excel using the Excel Transpose function is 5461. If you exceed this limit, you receive the following error message:
Run-time error '13':
Type Mismatch
The maximum number of elements in the array is limited only by available memory. Also, you do not have to define the parameter as a Variant variable in the Excel macro. However, if you want to pass the array ByVal, you must define the parameter as a Variant variable as in the example in footnote C earlier in this article. You will get a run-time error 13, "Type Mismatch" error, if you do not define the variable as a Variant.
H:
When passing an argument ByRef to an out-of-process Automation server, such as Excel, marshalling of the data is done between the Automation controller (or client) and server since they run in separate processes. This means that when an array is passed to Excel using ByRef, a copy of the array is sent to the address space of Excel. After the Excel procedure runs, a copy of the array is passed back to the client. Although this does allow for passing arguments using ByRef to an out-of-process server, it is not very efficient. On the other hand, when using an in-process automation server (a dynamic-link library (DLL)) and you pass an argument ByRef, this is very efficient since no marshalling is done. The server is using the same array in memory as the client. This is possible since the server runs in the same address space as the client.
Because of marshalling with an out-of-process server such as Excel, it is more efficient to pass the array ByVal instead of ByRef. This way, only one copy is passed to Excel and Excel does not have to pass the copy back to the client. To pass an array ByVal to an Excel macro, you must define the parameter in the Excel macro as a Variant variable. See footnote C earlier in this article for an example.
The following sample Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications Sub procedures show how to pass arrays to Excel. The first two procedures show how to populate a range of cells on a worksheet by passing an array to a worksheet range. The third procedure shows how to pass an array to an Excel macro.
The following declarations are used with each example:
Option Explicit
Private xlApp As Object
Private xlBook As Object
Private xlSheet As Object
Public Sub OneDimension()
Const size = 5461
Dim myarray(1 To size) As Integer
Set xlApp = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
xlApp.Visible = True
Set xlBook = xlApp.Workbooks.Add
Set xlSheet = xlBook.Worksheets("Sheet1")
xlSheet.Cells(1, 1).Resize(size, 1).Value = _
xlApp.Application.Transpose(myarray)
End Sub
Public Sub TwoDimension()
Const size = 2730
Dim myarray(1 To size, 1 To 2) As Integer
' Number of elements = 2730 * 2 = 5460.
Set xlApp = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
xlApp.Visible = True
Set xlBook = xlApp.Workbooks.Add
Set xlSheet = xlBook.Worksheets("Sheet1")
xlSheet.Cells(1, 1).Resize(size, 2).Value = myarray
End Sub
Public Sub RunExcelMacro()
Const size = 5461
Dim myarray(1 To size) As Integer
Set xlApp = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
xlApp.Visible = True
Set xlBook = xlApp.Workbooks.Open("C:\MyBook.xls")
xlApp.Run "AcceptArray", myarray
End Sub
Option Explicit
Public Sub AcceptArray(ByVal myarray As Variant)
MsgBox "Size of first dimension: " & UBound(myarray, 1)
End Sub
For more information about arrays and Excel, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
ARTICLE-ID: Q75376
TITLE : XL: Maximum Array Size in Microsoft Excel
ARTICLE-ID: Q166342
TITLE : XL97: Maximum Array Size in Microsoft Excel 97
ARTICLE-ID: Q153307
TITLE : HOWTO: Call Microsoft Excel Macros that Take Parameters
ARTICLE-ID: Q153090
TITLE : How To Pass a Visual Basic Array to an Excel Worksheet
ARTICLE-ID: Q163435
TITLE : VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for
Applications
Keywords : kbAutomation KbVBA kbVBp kbExcel97
Version : WINDOWS:5.0,5.0c,7.0,7.0a,97
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbinfoLast Reviewed: May 18, 1999