I have a User Form in Excel in which questions are indexed in a Listbox control. Clicking on an item in the Listbox calls a Change event which populates other controls' values according to which item has been selected.
The user may change values within the text boxes. Upon changing them, a "Saved" flag gets set to False for that question. The user may then save the question into memory; or navigate away from the question.
If the user navigates away without saving (by means of clicking a different item in the Listbox), I want to present them with a warning - giving the option to either abandon their unsaved changes; or to remain with the current selection, and revert the Listbox selection which they just clicked.
If "Abandon changes" is selected, it works fine. However it runs into trouble when I try to revert the Listbox selection. I use an "EventsOn" Boolean to handle when the Change procedure should proceed, to avoid it calling itself. This seems to work, at the correct point in the code. However after EventsOn is reinstated, and after Exit Sub, it seems that the Change event is called again.
I do not know why the event is firing again. This results in the user being presented with the option a second time.
A lot of the following code has been stripped out because it relates to details of other form controls; loading/saving data from a database; and handling classes and dictionaries. However I have retained the relevant logic of the form controls:
Option Explicit
Dim NumberOfQuestions As Long
Dim EventsOn As Boolean
Dim SelectedListIndex As Long, CurrentQuestion As Long, QuestionSaved As Variant
Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
' Stripped out lots of code here. Basically opens a recordset and loads values
ReDim QuestionSaved(1 To NumberOfQuestions) As Boolean
'
For X = 1 To NumberOfQuestions
lbox_QuestionList.AddItem "Question " & X ' Populate the listbox with items
QuestionSaved(X) = True ' Flag the initial state as saved, for each question
If Not X = rst.RecordCount Then rst.MoveNext
Next X
'
' Select the first question by default. Note that the Listbox ListIndex starts at 0, whereas the questions start at 1
SelectedListIndex = 0
CurrentQuestion = 1
EventsOn = True
lbox_QuestionList.ListIndex = SelectedListIndex
End Sub
Private Sub lbox_QuestionList_Change()
' Ensure this event does NOT keep firing in a loop, when changed programmatically
If Not EventsOn Then Exit Sub
'
If Not QuestionSaved(CurrentQuestion) Then
If MsgBox(Prompt:="Abandon changes to current question?", Title:="Current question not saved", Buttons:=vbYesNo + vbDefaultButton2) = vbYes Then
' Abandon changes = Yes
' Mark as saved
QuestionSaved(CurrentQuestion) = True
' Then proceed to change as normal
' (If the user comes back to this question, it will be re-loaded from memory in its original form)
' This works okay
Else
' Abandon changes = No
EventsOn = False ' So this sub is not called again
' REVERT the ListBox selection. Do this by recalling the current question number, and applying it to the ListIndex
SelectedListIndex = CurrentQuestion - 1 ' Remember that the index will be minus 1, due to indexing starting at 0
lbox_QuestionList.ListIndex = SelectedListIndex
EventsOn = True
Exit Sub ' This should be the end of it. But somehow, it's not...
End If
End If
' Proceed with loading a new question according to the new selected ListIndex
SelectedListIndex = lbox_QuestionList.ListIndex ' Recognise the current selection
' ListIndex starts at zero, so we need to add 1
CurrentQuestion = SelectedListIndex + 1
ShowQuestion CurrentQuestion
End Sub
Private Sub ShowQuestion(QuestionNumber As Long)
' Stripped out code for brevity. Basically loads details from a dictionary of classes, and populates into textboxes
End Sub
Private Sub cb_Save_Click()
' Stipped out code. Takes values of current text boxes and saves them into a class in a dictionary
' Mark the current question as saved:
QuestionSaved(CurrentQuestion) = True
End Sub
''''''''''' Event handlers ''''''''''''''
Private Sub tb_Question_Change()
DoChange
End Sub
' Several other form controls have similar events: all calling "DoChange" as below
Private Sub DoChange()
If Not EventsOn Then Exit Sub
QuestionSaved(CurrentQuestion) = False ' Flag the current question as NOT saved, if any changes are made to form values
End Sub
Naturally, I have searched for this problem - but there are no answers so far which have assisted me:
The logic of my code seems sound. The mystery is why the Change event is being called a second time, even after Exit Sub.
(curses to OP for getting this problem in my brain!)
In my testing, I used the following UserForm:
The code below uses the ListBox1_AfterUpdate
event, and I believe it may work for you.
Option Explicit
Private Const TOTAL_QUESTIONS As Long = 3
Private qSaved As Variant
Private selectedDuringTextboxChange As Long
Private eventsInProgress As Long
Private Sub ListBox1_AfterUpdate()
Debug.Print "listbox clicked, item " & (ListItemSelected() + 1) & " selected"
If eventsInProgress > 0 Then
Debug.Print " ... event in progress, exiting"
eventsInProgress = eventsInProgress - 1
Exit Sub
End If
If Not qSaved(selectedDuringTextboxChange) Then
Dim answer As VbMsgBoxResult
answer = MsgBox("Abandon changes?", vbYesNo + vbDefaultButton2)
If answer = vbYes Then
Debug.Print "yes, abandon the changes"
qSaved(selectedDuringTextboxChange) = True
Else
Debug.Print "nope, keep the changes"
'--- return to the previously selected list item
eventsInProgress = eventsInProgress + 1
UnselectAll
ListBox1.Selected(selectedDuringTextboxChange - 1) = True
ListBox1.ListIndex = selectedDuringTextboxChange - 1
End If
End If
End Sub
Private Sub QuitButton_Click()
Me.Hide
End Sub
Private Sub SaveButton_Click()
qSaved(ListBox1.ListIndex + 1) = True
End Sub
Private Sub TextBox1_Change()
selectedDuringTextboxChange = ListBox1.ListIndex + 1
qSaved(selectedDuringTextboxChange) = False
Debug.Print "changed text for question " & selectedDuringTextboxChange
End Sub
Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
ReDim qSaved(1 To TOTAL_QUESTIONS)
selectedDuringTextboxChange = 1
With ListBox1
Dim i As Long
For i = 1 To TOTAL_QUESTIONS
.AddItem "Question " & i
qSaved(i) = True
Next i
.Selected(0) = True
End With
eventsInProgress = False
End Sub
Private Sub UnselectAll()
eventsInProgress = eventsInProgress + 1
With ListBox1
Dim i As Long
For i = 0 To .ListCount - 1
.Selected(i) = False
Next i
End With
eventsInProgress = eventsInProgress - 1
End Sub
Private Function ListItemSelected() As Long
ListItemSelected = -1
With ListBox1
Dim i As Long
For i = 0 To .ListCount - 1
If .Selected(i) Then
ListItemSelected = i
End If
Next i
End With
End Function
Private Sub WhichListItem_Click()
With ListBox1
Dim i As Long
For i = 0 To .ListCount - 1
Debug.Print "listbox item(" & i & ") = " & .Selected(i)
Next i
End With
Debug.Print "eventsInProgress = " & eventsInProgress
End Sub