Copy sheet and get resulting sheet object?

Question

Is there any easy/short way to get the worksheet object of the new sheet you get when you copy a worksheet?

ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(\         


        

Answer 1

Updated with suggestions from Daniel Labelle:

To handle possible hidden sheets, make the source sheet visible, copy it, use the ActiveSheet method to return the reference to the new sheet, and reset the visibility settings:

Dim newSheet As Worksheet
With ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1")
    .Visible = xlSheetVisible
    .Copy after:=someSheet
    Set newSheet = ActiveSheet
    .Visible = xlSheetHidden ' or xlSheetVeryHidden
End With

Answer 2

As already mentioned here, copy/paste the sheet to the very left (index = 1), then assign it to a variable, then move it where you would like.

Function CopyWorksheet(SourceWorksheet As Worksheet, AfterDestinationWorksheet As Worksheet) As Worksheet

    Dim DestinationWorkbook As Workbook
    Set DestinationWorkbook = AfterDestinationWorksheet.Parent

    Dim FirstSheetVisibility As XlSheetVisibility
    FirstSheetVisibility = DestinationWorkbook.Sheets(1).Visible

    DestinationWorkbook.Sheets(1).Visible = xlSheetVisible
    SourceWorksheet.Copy Before:=DestinationWorkbook.Sheets(1)
    DestinationWorkbook.Sheets(2).Visible = FirstSheetVisibility

    Dim NewWorksheet As Worksheet
    Set NewWorksheet = DestinationWorkbook.Sheets(1)

    NewWorksheet.Move After:=AfterDestinationWorksheet

    Set CopyWorksheet = NewWorksheet

End Function

Answer 3

Wanted to share my simple solution to this with the following code

Sub copy_sheet(insheet As String, newsheet As String)
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
On Error Resume Next
ThisWorkbook.Sheets(newsheet).Delete
ThisWorkbook.Sheets(insheet).Copy before:=ThisWorkbook.Sheets(1)
For Each ws In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
    If (InStr(ws.Name, insheet) > 0 And InStr(ws.Name, "(") > 0) Then
        ThisWorkbook.Sheets(ws.Name).Name = newsheet
        Exit For
    End If
Next
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
End Sub

Whenever you copy a sheet, the resulting "copied" sheet ALWAYS has the name of the original sheet, and a bracketed number. As long as none of your original sheets contain bracketed number names, this will work 100% of the time.

It copies the sheet, then loops through all sheet names looking for one that 1) contains the original name and 2) has a bracketed number, and then renames the sheet

Answer 4

Based on Trevor Norman's method, I've developed a function for copying a sheet and returning a reference to the new sheet.

1. Unhide the last sheet (1) if not visible
2. Copy the source sheet (2) after the last sheet (1)
3. Set the reference to the new sheet (3), i.e. the sheet after the last sheet (1)
4. Hide the last sheet (1) if necessary

Code:

Function CopySheet(ByRef sourceSheet As Worksheet, Optional ByRef destinationWorkbook As Workbook) As Worksheet

    Dim newSheet As Worksheet
    Dim lastSheet As Worksheet
    Dim lastIsVisible As XlSheetVisibility

    If destinationWorkbook Is Nothing Then Set destinationWorkbook = sourceSheet.Parent

    With destinationWorkbook
        Set lastSheet = .Worksheets(.Worksheets.Count)
    End With

    ' store visibility of last sheet
    lastIsVisible = lastSheet.Visible
    ' make the last sheet visible
    lastSheet.Visible = xlSheetVisible

    sourceSheet.Copy After:=lastSheet
    Set newSheet = lastSheet.Next

    ' restore visibility of last sheet
    lastSheet.Visible = lastIsVisible

    Set CopySheet = newSheet

End Function

This will always insert the copied sheet at the end of the destination workbook.

After this, you can do any moves, renames, etc.

Usage:

Sub Sample()

    Dim newSheet As Worksheet

    Set newSheet = CopySheet(ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Template"))

    Debug.Print newSheet.Name

    newSheet.Name = "Sample" ' rename new sheet
    newSheet.Move Before:=ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(1) ' move to beginning

    Debug.Print newSheet.Name

End Sub

Or if you want the behaviour/interface to be more similar to the built-in Copy method (i.e. before/after), you could use:

Function CopySheetTo(ByRef sourceSheet As Worksheet, Optional ByRef beforeSheet As Worksheet, Optional ByRef afterSheet As Worksheet) As Worksheet

    Dim destinationWorkbook As Workbook
    Dim newSheet As Worksheet
    Dim lastSheet As Worksheet
    Dim lastIsVisible As XlSheetVisibility

    If Not beforeSheet Is Nothing Then
        Set destinationWorkbook = beforeSheet.Parent
    ElseIf Not afterSheet Is Nothing Then
        Set destinationWorkbook = afterSheet.Parent
    Else
        Set destinationWorkbook = sourceSheet.Parent
    End If

    With destinationWorkbook
        Set lastSheet = .Worksheets(.Worksheets.Count)
    End With

    ' store visibility of last sheet
    lastIsVisible = lastSheet.Visible
    ' make the last sheet visible
    lastSheet.Visible = xlSheetVisible

    sourceSheet.Copy After:=lastSheet
    Set newSheet = lastSheet.Next

    ' restore visibility of last sheet
    lastSheet.Visible = lastIsVisible

    If Not beforeSheet Is Nothing Then
        newSheet.Move Before:=beforeSheet
    ElseIf Not afterSheet Is Nothing Then
        newSheet.Move After:=afterSheet
    Else
        newSheet.Move After:=sourceSheet
    End If

    Set CopySheetTo = newSheet

End Function

Answer 5

I've been trying to create a reliable generic "wrapper" function for the sheet.Copy method for re-use across multiple projects for years.

I've tried several of the approaches here and I've found only Mark Moore's answer to be a reliable solution across all scenarios. Ie the one using the "Template (2)" name to identify the new sheet.

In my case, any solution using the "ActiveSheet method" was useless as in some instances the target workbook was in a non-Active or hidden Workbook.

Similarly, some of my Workbooks have hidden sheets intermixed with visible sheets in various locations; at the beginning, in the middle, at the end; and therefore I found the solutions using the Before: and After: options also unreliable depending on the ordering of the visible and hidden sheets, along with the additional factor when the source sheet is also hidden.

Therefore after several re-writes, I've ended up with the following wrapper function:

'***************************************************************************
'This is a wrapper for the worksheet.Copy method.
'
'Used to create a copy of the specified sheet, optionally set it's name, and return the new
' sheets object to the calling function.
'
'This routine is needed to predictably identify the new sheet that is added. This is because
' having Hidden sheets in a Workbook can produce unexpected results in the order of the sheets,
' eg when adding a hidden sheet after the last sheet, the new sheet doesn't always end up
' being the last sheet in the Worksheets collection.
'***************************************************************************
Function wsCopy(wsSource As Worksheet, wsAfter As Worksheet, Optional ByVal sNewSheetName As String) As Worksheet

    Dim Ws              As Worksheet

    wsSource.Copy After:=wsAfter
    Set Ws = wsAfter.Parent.Sheets(wsSource.Name & " (2)")

    'set ws Name if one supplied
    If sNewSheetName <> "" Then
        Ws.Name = sNewSheetName
    End If
    Set wsCopy = Ws
End Function

NOTE: Even this solution will have issues if the source sheet's Name is more than 27 chars, as the maximum sheet name is 31, but that is usually under my control.

Answer 6

Another solution I used would be to copy the sheet to a place where you know its index, aka first. There you can easily have a reference to it for whatever you need, and after that you can move it freely to where you want.

Something like this:

Worksheets("Sheet1").Copy before:=Worksheets(1)
set newSheet = Worksheets(1)
newSheet.move After:=someSheet