Get Selected value of a Combobox

Question

I have a thousands of cells in an Excel worksheet which are ComboBoxes. The user will select one at random and populate it.

How do I get the selected ComboBox value? Is there a way to trigger a function (i.e. an event handler) when the ComboxBoxes has been selected?

Answer 1

If you're dealing with Data Validation lists, you can use the Worksheet_Change event. Right click on the sheet with the data validation and choose View Code. Then type in this:

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)

    MsgBox Target.Value

End Sub

If you're dealing with ActiveX comboboxes, it's a little more complicated. You need to create a custom class module to hook up the events. First, create a class module named CComboEvent and put this code in it.

Public WithEvents Cbx As MSForms.ComboBox

Private Sub Cbx_Change()

    MsgBox Cbx.Value

End Sub

Next, create another class module named CComboEvents. This will hold all of our CComboEvent instances and keep them in scope. Put this code in CComboEvents.

Private mcolComboEvents As Collection

Private Sub Class_Initialize()
    Set mcolComboEvents = New Collection
End Sub

Private Sub Class_Terminate()
    Set mcolComboEvents = Nothing
End Sub

Public Sub Add(clsComboEvent As CComboEvent)

    mcolComboEvents.Add clsComboEvent, clsComboEvent.Cbx.Name

End Sub

Finally, create a standard module (not a class module). You'll need code to put all of your comboboxes into the class modules. You might put this in an Auto_Open procedure so it happens whenever the workbook is opened, but that's up to you.

You'll need a Public variable to hold an instance of CComboEvents. Making it Public will kepp it, and all of its children, in scope. You need them in scope so that the events are triggered. In the procedure, loop through all of the comboboxes, creating a new CComboEvent instance for each one, and adding that to CComboEvents.

Public gclsComboEvents As CComboEvents

Public Sub AddCombox()

    Dim oleo As OLEObject
    Dim clsComboEvent As CComboEvent

    Set gclsComboEvents = New CComboEvents

    For Each oleo In Sheet1.OLEObjects
        If TypeName(oleo.Object) = "ComboBox" Then
            Set clsComboEvent = New CComboEvent
            Set clsComboEvent.Cbx = oleo.Object
            gclsComboEvents.Add clsComboEvent
        End If
    Next oleo

End Sub

Now, whenever a combobox is changed, the event will fire and, in this example, a message box will show.

You can see an example at https://www.dropbox.com/s/sfj4kyzolfy03qe/ComboboxEvents.xlsm