Range Names : Good or Bad programming practice?

[Jan Karel Pieterse]

Hi Zack,

Being more or less considered the RangeName wizz, I cannot refrain from posting to this thread!!!

Now this can confuse the heck out of a newbie VBA progger! Think about this: In the worksheet environment, named ranges are good across sheets (aka tabs, so cross-tab), but not in VBA. Just like everything else in VBA (as you have pointed out, to your credit) it needs an explicit reference, uless you luck out and have that sheet as the activesheet. This would not be my idea of "efficient coding" or "best practices" in regards to coding etiquette. Much in the same sense that I would not assume the ".Value" should follow a range object reference.

Of course the example you give is confusing because it (IMO) violates good VBA programming practice: qualifying the object you're talking to.

Using Range("test") is simply begging for trouble, whether you'd be using a range name or a cell address (so Range("A1") is equally bad), UNLESS you're deliberate about wanting to address the active worksheet (in which case you'll need a check to make sure a worksheet IS active!).