Consider the following example: Lets say you want to make a function "JoinIfs
" that works just like SUMIFS
except instead of adding the values in the SumRange
, it concatenates the values in "JoinRange
". Is there a way to nest the ParamArray
as it seems to be done in SUMIFS
?
SUMIFS(sum_range, criteria_range1, criteria1, [criteria_range2, criteria2], ...)
I imagine the declaration should look something like this:
Function JoinIfs(JoinRange As Variant, _
Delim As String, _
IncludeNull As Boolean, _
ParamArray CritArray(CriteriaRange As Variant, Criteria As Variant)) As String
But nothing I try seems to compile and there might not be a way to nest ParamArrays. But the existence of functions like SUMIFS
and COUNTIFS
seems to suggest there might be a way to nest the ParamArrays.
This question duplicates AlexR's question Excel UDF with ParamArray constraint like SUMIFS. But that was posted a few years ago with no response so either the question didn't get enough attention or it was misunderstood.
Edit for clarification: This question is specifically about nesting ParamArrays. I'm not trying to find alternative methods of achieving the outcome of the example above. Imagine nesting ParamArrays on a completely different fictional function like "AverageIfs
"
As per the documentation for the Function
statement and Sub
statement, a Function
or Sub
can only contain 1 ParamArray
, and it must be the last argument.
However, you can pass an Array
as an Argument to a ParamArray
. Furthermore, you can then check how many elements are in the ParamArray
, and throw an error if it isn't an even number. For example, this demonstration takes a list of Arrays, and which element in that array to take, and outputs another array with the results:
Sub DemonstrateParamArray()
Dim TestArray As Variant
TestArray = HasParamArray(Array("First", "Second"), 0)
MsgBox TestArray(0)
Dim AnotherArray As Variant
AnotherArray = Array("Hello", "World")
TestArray = HasParamArray(AnotherArray, 0, AnotherArray, 1)
MsgBox Join(TestArray, " ")
End Sub
Function HasParamArray(ParamArray ArgList() As Variant) As Variant
Dim ArgumentCount As Long, WhichPair As Long, Output() As Variant, WhatElement As Long
ArgumentCount = 1 + UBound(ArgList) - LBound(ArgList)
'Only allow Even Numbers!
If ArgumentCount Mod 2 = 1 Then
Err.Raise 450 '"Wrong number of arguments or invalid property assignment"
Exit Function
End If
ReDim Output(0 To Int(ArgumentCount / 1) - 1)
For WhichPair = LBound(ArgList) To ArgumentCount + LBound(ArgList) - 1 Step 2
WhatElement = ArgumentCount(WhichPair + 1)
Output(Int(WhichPair / 2)) = ArgumentCount(WhichPair)(WhatElement)
Next WhichPair
HasParameterArray = Output
End Function
(A list of built-in error codes for Err.Raise
can be found here)