VBA NEW - is it usefull now?

[Guzman]

Hello,

my name is Guzman, and I'm new at programming. I have no prior knwoledge in programming, have really no clue, but I was always interested in it.

I thought that VBA could be a good start as I use Excel a lot, but recently I was wondering and reading about if it is a "soon to be dead language".

So, my questions are:

1) If I'm new at programming, and being interested in MACROS at Excel, is it useful now to learn this language or there is a better alternative to create Macros at Excel?

2) What does it mean when people say that Microsoft is not going to give support to VBA in the future? That If I use VBA today, maybe a future excel version is not going to "load" the macro?

3) Do you consider that there is a better starting point at programming?

Sorry for my english !!
Thanks a lot.

 

[Luke M]

Hi Guzman,

Short answer, I think it would be quite valuable to learn VBA.

Reasons:
If we look at Windows XP, this had a life from 2003 till 2014. Some places still have this in use. This demonstrates that jsut because Microsoft comes out with something new, users don't always upgrade.

VBA has very similar languange/structure to regular Visual Basic. Excel is nice to learn in in that is has the Record Macro feature letting you quickly learn about different terms or how to do things. It's also got over 20 years to documentation and help online through forums like this.

If you're going to learn macros for XL, VBA is the language to know.

If you want to try some samples of different languages (for free), this is a website I used awhile back to get a taste of some:
http://www.codecademy.com/

Funny enough, if you do a Google search for "microsoft vba support ends" you can see some rumors about this have gone as far back as 2007. Clearly, they haven't come true yet.
The latest version I have, office 2010 still supports VBA, so I fully expect that Microsoft will continue to support. There was speculation awhile ago of abandoning it to go with NET, but it has since been abandoned it appears.

 

[Guzman]

Hello !! Thanks for the fast reply

I understand your points.

But, is there any other way to program MACROS in Excel ? Other language? (more modern?)

Thanks.

 

[Luke M]

No. All macros in XL are written using VBA. I suppose you could use an external program, with it's own language, to try and manipulate XL...but if you're working in XL, you'll be using VBA.

 

[Guzman]

Thanks Luke !!!
I'll try VBA so

 

[NARAYANK991]

Hi ,

To add to what ever Luke has mentioned , I would like to add that since you are new to VBA , you will essentially be investing a lot of time to learn VBA.

You say that you use Excel a lot , but you do not say whether your usage of Excel really needs you to know VBA ; what I mean is that knowing VBA is obviously a good thing , but then so is knowing a lot of other things , one of which is Power Pivot.

Though the user base of Excel is huge , the number of people who are proficient in Excel is quite small , and Power Pivot being relatively new , the number of proficient Power Pivot users may be extremely small.

Thus , if you are starting something new , it would be advantageous to go in for Power Pivot , which is the future. VBA has enough experts , and getting a VBA expert is far cheaper than getting a Power Pivot expert ! Thus , in the near future , if you or your organization goes in for Power Pivot , getting people who are proficient in it is going to be a problem. VBA coders are available for even $10 an hour !

Narayan

 

[Guzman]

Hello!

First of all, I work as a financial advisor at my own office. So, for now, nobody is going to "ask" me to do something with VBA. It is just for me, for the sake of learning.

I know some VBA capabilites and I think that would be nice to incorporate them in my work, as I use excel a lot.
I already make use of "almost everything" that Excel offers, and what I don't know, I tipically google it. I'm good at self learning.

I do work with Pivot table, but not with Power Pivot.

Thanks a lot.