A checkbox that refers to itself in Excel VBA

Question

I have an excel spreadsheet that sets a cell\'s value to the number of checked boxes in a group. I would like to assign a macro to each that looks like this:

Sub         


        

Answer 1

It really depends if you're tied into ActiveX controls or Form Controls. Either can work, and either path likely directs how to clearly implement it.

Using ActiveX Controls (checkboxes):

You have two options to code your "click handlers" for ActiveX controls. The first is hard-coding a public sub for each control:

control on Thisworkbook.Sheets("Sheet1"): CheckBox1

code in Excel Object Sheet1:

Private groupCheckBoxCount As Integer

Private Sub CheckBox1_Click()
    Debug.Print "Control on " & Me.Name & " is now " & Me.CheckBox1.Value
    RegisterCheckedValue Me.CheckBox1.Value
End Sub

Private Sub RegisterCheckedValue(cbVal As Boolean)
    If cbVal = True Then
        Range("CheckBoxCount") = Range("CheckBoxCount") + 1  'choose to store on the sheet
        groupCheckBoxCount = groupCheckBoxCount + 1          'or in a variable
    Else
        Range("CheckBoxCount") = Range("CheckBoxCount") - 1
        groupCheckBoxCount = groupCheckBoxCount - 1
    End If
End Sub

Then if you have ten checkboxes, you'll have ten CheckBox(x)_Click subs, each specifically tied to a single ActiveX control. Each of these click handlers can increment or decrement your counter in stored in a worksheet cell (or in a module private variable).

The second option is to create a class module that you can instantiate for any number of CheckBoxes.

code for class module MyCheckBoxClass

Dim WithEvents cbControl As MSForms.CheckBox

Private controlName As String

Public Sub cbControl_Click()
    Debug.Print controlName & " is now " & cbControl.Value
    If cbControl.Value = True Then
        Range("CheckBoxCount") = Range("CheckBoxCount") + 1  'choose to store on the sheet
        groupCheckBoxCount = groupCheckBoxCount + 1          'or in a variable
    Else
        Range("CheckBoxCount") = Range("CheckBoxCount") - 1
        groupCheckBoxCount = groupCheckBoxCount - 1
    End If
End Sub

Public Sub Attach(newCB As MSForms.CheckBox, newName As String)
    Set cbControl = newCB
    controlName = newName
End Sub

Private Sub Class_Initialize()
    controlName = ""
End Sub

code in a regular code module:

Public groupClickCount As Integer
Private cbCollection As Collection

Public Sub SetUpControlsOnce()
    Dim thisCB As MyCheckBoxClass
    Dim ctl As OLEObject
    Dim cbControl As MSForms.CheckBox

    If cbCollection Is Nothing Then
        Set cbCollection = New Collection
    End If

    For Each ctl In ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1").OLEObjects
        If TypeName(ctl.Object) = "CheckBox" Then
            '--- this is an ActiveX CheckBox
            Set thisCB = New MyCheckBoxClass
            thisCB.Attach ctl.Object, ctl.name
            cbCollection.Add thisCB
        End If
    Next ctl
End Sub

Using Form Controls (checkboxes):

While there are several ways to catch the click event for a Form checkbox, the simplest is to connect ALL checkboxes in a group to a single macro:

Public groupClickCount As Integer

Public Sub cbControl_Click()
    '--- loop through all the controls on the form and filter for
    '    only checkboxes, then count up how many are checked
    Dim ctl As Shape
    Dim checkCount As Integer
    checkCount = 0
    For Each ctl In ActiveSheet.Shapes
        If ctl.Type = msoFormControl Then
            On Error Resume Next
            If ctl.ControlFormat = xlCheckBox Then
                If ctl.ControlFormat.Value = 1 Then
                    checkCount = checkCount + 1
                Else
                    checkCount = checkCount - 1
                End If
            End If
        End If
    Next ctl
    Range("CheckBoxCount") = checkCount 'choose to store on the sheet
    groupClickCount = checkCount        'or in a variable
End Sub

Either solution can be adapted in many ways, depending on your needs and how you'd like to track your checkboxes.