Excel – Cannot delete a chart series using VBA in Excel 2010

excelvba

I have a VBA macro written in Excel 2003 which has worked perfectly well in Excel 2003 and 2007. However, it falls over in Excel 2010 and I cannot tell why.

The macro updates the series in a chart after the user has added or removed data. The first step (after data validation) is to delete all but the first series in the chart.

'clear all chart series except for series 1
Do While theChart.SeriesCollection.Count > 1
    theChart.SeriesCollection(2).Delete
Loop

Execution halts in the very first iteration of the loop, with the error dialog "Method 'delete' of object 'series' failed."

I thought perhaps the object model had changed in Excel 2010, so I used the macro recorder to record the action of deleting a series:

ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Plant Feed").Activate
ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(3).Select
Selection.Delete

Running the recorded macro (with Series 3 re-instated obviously) stops on the second line with "Method 'select' of object 'series' failed."

I then added an object variable and some msgbox lines to try to debug the problem:

Dim theSeries As Series
ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Plant Feed").Activate
MsgBox (ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(3).Name)
Set theSeries = ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(3)
MsgBox (theSeries.Name)
theSeries.Delete

The object variable sets correctly and the message boxes give the right output, but it still falls over on theSeries.delete.

Finally, I repeated all of the above using a brand new chart created in Excel 2010, just in case it was a legacy problem from 2003, but I got the same error.

I am tearing my hair out. I've searched on line for solutions to no avail, which is what led me to this Stack Overflow site. I would appreciate any help that anyone can offer.

Regards,

Darren

Best Answer

Have you tried it this way instead?

For x = theChart.SeriesCollection.Count To 2 Step -1
   theChart.SeriesCollection(x).Delete
Next x

How it works

I will try my best to explain how it works - please excuse my English.

The VBE will call a system function to create the password dialog box.
If user enters the right password and click OK, this function returns 1. If user enters the wrong password or click Cancel, this function returns 0.
After the dialog box is closed, the VBE checks the returned value of the system function
if this value is 1, the VBE will "think" that the password is right, hence the locked VBA project will be opened.
The code below swaps the memory of the original function used to display the password dialog with a user defined function that will always return 1 when being called.

Using the code

Please backup your files first!

Open the file(s) that contain your locked VBA Projects

Create a new xlsm file and store this code in Module1

code credited to Siwtom (nick name), a Vietnamese developer

Option Explicit

Private Const PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE = &H40

Private Declare Sub MoveMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" _
        (Destination As Long, Source As Long, ByVal Length As Long)

Private Declare Function VirtualProtect Lib "kernel32" (lpAddress As Long, _
        ByVal dwSize As Long, ByVal flNewProtect As Long, lpflOldProtect As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function GetModuleHandleA Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpModuleName As String) As Long

Private Declare Function GetProcAddress Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hModule As Long, _
        ByVal lpProcName As String) As Long

Private Declare Function DialogBoxParam Lib "user32" Alias "DialogBoxParamA" (ByVal hInstance As Long, _
        ByVal pTemplateName As Long, ByVal hWndParent As Long, _
        ByVal lpDialogFunc As Long, ByVal dwInitParam As Long) As Integer

Dim HookBytes(0 To 5) As Byte
Dim OriginBytes(0 To 5) As Byte
Dim pFunc As Long
Dim Flag As Boolean

Private Function GetPtr(ByVal Value As Long) As Long
    GetPtr = Value
End Function

Public Sub RecoverBytes()
    If Flag Then MoveMemory ByVal pFunc, ByVal VarPtr(OriginBytes(0)), 6
End Sub

Public Function Hook() As Boolean
    Dim TmpBytes(0 To 5) As Byte
    Dim p As Long
    Dim OriginProtect As Long

    Hook = False

    pFunc = GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandleA("user32.dll"), "DialogBoxParamA")


    If VirtualProtect(ByVal pFunc, 6, PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE, OriginProtect) <> 0 Then

        MoveMemory ByVal VarPtr(TmpBytes(0)), ByVal pFunc, 6
        If TmpBytes(0) <> &H68 Then

            MoveMemory ByVal VarPtr(OriginBytes(0)), ByVal pFunc, 6

            p = GetPtr(AddressOf MyDialogBoxParam)

            HookBytes(0) = &H68
            MoveMemory ByVal VarPtr(HookBytes(1)), ByVal VarPtr(p), 4
            HookBytes(5) = &HC3

            MoveMemory ByVal pFunc, ByVal VarPtr(HookBytes(0)), 6
            Flag = True
            Hook = True
        End If
    End If
End Function

Private Function MyDialogBoxParam(ByVal hInstance As Long, _
        ByVal pTemplateName As Long, ByVal hWndParent As Long, _
        ByVal lpDialogFunc As Long, ByVal dwInitParam As Long) As Integer
    If pTemplateName = 4070 Then
        MyDialogBoxParam = 1
    Else
        RecoverBytes
        MyDialogBoxParam = DialogBoxParam(hInstance, pTemplateName, _
                           hWndParent, lpDialogFunc, dwInitParam)
        Hook
    End If
End Function

Paste this code under the above code in Module1 and run it

Sub unprotected()
    If Hook Then
        MsgBox "VBA Project is unprotected!", vbInformation, "*****"
    End If
End Sub

Come back to your VBA Projects and enjoy.

Excel – VBA in Excel 2007/2010 GUI Hidden Sheet Query Refresh

Select does not work on a very hidden sheet. Try it without the select -
Sheet2.Range("a1").ListObject.QueryTable.Refresh BackgroundQuery:=False

Best Answer

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