what you can do with vba
finance is about manipulating huge amounts of data and vba is endemic to the financial services sector it s likely running within applications you use each day if you work in finance even if you re not aware of it some jobs in the sector require prior knowledge of vba and others don t you can many online forums provide vba code that allows you to simply copy and paste the code for your personal use be cautious when using someone else s code especially if you re unfamiliar with the source the individual or the logic of the code important vba termsa module is where excel stores the vba code information regarding the modules within a spreadsheet can be found in project explorer one of the sections of the visual basic editor all modules can be saved within a modules folder modules are sometimes referred to as standard modules most code is used to manipulate objects in vba objects are items such as workbooks worksheets cells cell ranges or cell fonts objects are often selected or referred to as part of the code when you re coding in vba the code can use the activecell language to manipulate the object currently selected in the spreadsheet you can also create a process that executes when a bar chart is edited the procedure is the part of a computer program that performs a specific task it s the block of code that starts with a declaration and finishes with an end declaration there are two types of procedures in vba sub procedures form an action in excel and begin with the text sub function procedures carry out calculations and return a value a statement is an instruction that can be broken into two types first a declaration statement is used to state something such as defining a constant or a variable value second executable statements designate code that specifies what a certain action is variables are storage locations for defined items they hold specific values that may change as vba scripts are performed the variable firstname may not contain any value but it can be assigned the firstname variable and given the value jo after the user inputs their name variables in coding can be different depending on the situation similar to how variable costs can change over time logical operators are the functions that allow for greater analytical and processing capabilities they re bits of code that allow a computer to understand and compare items vba can analyze whether the user s name is jo the program can analyze the input and perform a logical evaluation using logical operators such as if then true and false visual basic for applications is the only version of vb 6 that s still sold and supported by microsoft it s only available as an internal component of office programs 5vba usersvisual basic for applications allows users to perform myriad functions within ms office applications that go beyond simple word processing and spreadsheet operations vba helps to make frequent everyday tasks less repetitive via macros for the most basic user macros can automate just about any task such as generating customized charts and reports and performing word and data processing functions you can write a macro with a single click that will make excel create an entire balance sheet from a series of accounting entries in a spreadsheet programmers use macros in more complex ways like replicating large pieces of code merging existing program functions and designing specific languages advanced vba code can convert a single row vector into a matrix populate a range or manipulate the characteristics of a sheet vba can also work in external non microsoft settings by using a technology called com interface that allows commands to interact across computer boundaries 6 many firms have implemented vba within their applications both proprietary and commercial including autocad arcgis catia corel raw and solidworks any firm may use vba to customize excel for a unique purpose such as discerning how long it would take to earn 1 million in an investment portfolio based on a specific interest rate and other factors like the number of years until retirement 