Excel VBA: Can I name a range using a formula?

Question

My goal is to name my just-pasted range something unique to I can find it in the future.

The copied and pasted range comes from a drop-down menu, and thus must be modi

Answer 1

I believe what you are trying to do is:

Selection.Name = "AddSection_" &  Replace(Worksheets("Add Section").Range("D3").Value, " ", "")

or, setting it up to ensure that the range name has not yet been used, perhaps something like:

Dim myName As String
Dim maxSuffix As Long
Dim n As Name
myName = "AddSection_" & Replace(Worksheets("Add Section").Range("D3").Value, " ", "")
maxSuffix = 0
For Each n In Names
    If Left(n.Name, Len(myName)) = myName Then
        If IsNumeric(Mid(n.Name, Len(myName) + 1)) Then
            If CLng(Mid(n.Name, Len(myName) + 1)) > maxSuffix Then
                maxSuffix = CLng(Mid(n.Name, Len(myName) + 1))
            End If
        End If
    End If
Next
Selection.Name = myName & (maxSuffix + 1)

This only increments the count if the existing base name has been used before, i.e. AddSection_OilFurnace1, then AddSection_OilFurnace2, then maybe AddSection_GasFurnace1 - it doesn't go AddSection_OilFurnace1, AddSection_GasFurnace2, AddSection_OilFurnace3 - but maybe it is useful.

Answer 2

I think YowE3K has the right approach. I refactored his code because I don't like Do Loop.

Sub AddName()

    Dim myNameBase As String
    Dim arr() As String
    Dim maxName As Long
    Dim n As Name
    myNameBase = "AddSection_" & Replace(Worksheets("Add Section").Range("D3").Value, " ", "")

    For Each n In Names
        If n.Name Like myNameBase & "*" Then
            If n.Name = myNameBase Then
                maxName = 1
            ElseIf n.Name Like myNameBase & ".*." Then
                arr = Split(n.Name, ".")
                If arr(UBound(arr) - 1) >= maxName Then maxName = arr(UBound(arr) - 1) + 1
            End If

        End If
    Next
    Selection.Name = myNameBase & IIf(maxName, "." & maxName & ".", "")

End Sub

YowE3K Thanks for the help!