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I want to write a little logging function in an excel add-in that I will be calling from many different workbooks. I'd like to be able to just call it by passing only the log text, and the log function itself could handle the timestamp, workbookname, etc.

However, I cannot use either ThisWorkbook or ActiveWorkbook to determine which workbook was responsible for making the call, as Thisworkbook will return a reference to the add-in itself, whereas VBA code running in a workbook other than the workbook with active focus in Excel could make the call, but the ActiveWorkbook will return the one that has focus in the window.

Application.Caller looked like a possible solution, but this seems to work only when the function is called from a cell, not from VBA.

Is what I'm trying to do impossible?

Update

According to > 1 person, this is in fact impossible. If anyone happens to know some clever workaround please speak up.

Community
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tbone
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    I'm about 95% sure doing exactly what you want is impossible, so I'll let someone is 100% sure give us both an official answer. You probably have make your log routine look something like log(callingWbk As Workbook, text As String), and call it from each place with ThisWorkbook as a parameter. You could have a log routine local to each workbook that calls your add-in logger, though, so your actual log calls could stay simple. – jtolle Feb 04 '11 at 18:41

5 Answers5

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Ok, so having read the question properly I'll try again...

So, to state the problem:

you want a routine written in an addin, that when called from vba in another workbook can work out (among other things) which workbook contains the vba that made the call, without having to pass this information explicitly.

As stated this is not possible (this is a similar question to accessing the call stack from code: something that is to my knowledge not possible)

However you can almost get what you want like this

Declare your log function like this:

Sub MyLogger(wb as Workbook, LogText as String)
    Dim CallerName as String
    CallerName = wb.name
    ' your code...
End Sub

Then wherever you call the sub use

MyLogger ThisWorkbook, "Log Text"

Not quite as good as passing nothing, but at least its always the same

chris neilsen
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To get the name of the calling workbook, use

Application.Caller.Worksheet.Parent.Name

Application.Caller returns information about how Visual Basic was called. If called from a custom function entered in a single cell, a Range object specifying that cell is returned

Having got a reference to the cell, .Worksheet.Parent.Name gives you the name of the workbook

Note that Application.Caller will return other things depending on how your function is called (see VBA help for details)

chris neilsen
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    this is all true, but I think @tbone is looking for some way to get that information when the call *isn't* coming from an Range. – jtolle Feb 06 '11 at 16:02
0

In an Add-In Function called by an Excel Worksheet Array Entered Function Call, I find that "Application.Caller.Parent.name" gives the Sheet Name (Tab Name, not sheet number).

Ronald E Johnson
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I had the same issue when coding a custom function. Function works well, but anytime another workbook is calculated or activated, all cells using that function revert to #value. It can be very frustrating when working with multiple files using this formula.

To get the Workbook I used:

Dim CallingWb As Workbook
Set CallingWb = Application.Caller.Parent.Parent

This should work if your function is in a cell.

Too late for the original post, but might help others!

Jade
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I know this answer is around 12 years late, but I have recently had the same problem and have a solution that might help others in this situation.

My solution is to code the logger interface as a class. To use the logger the calling application must obtain a new instance of the class, then call the log methods on that instance, rather than calling global log methods of the add-in.

To provide a new instance of the logger class, write a global factory function (such as: set myLogger = loggerAddin.newLogger(workbook), or similar), where workbook is a reference to the caller. The reference is saved in the logger instance and then can be referred to within logging functions (e.g. myLogger.log(message) ) without these logging functions needing to be given a reference to the workbook.

JohnRC
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