Chapter 10.

Debugging and Error

Handling
BMGT 302
Business Application Programming
Scott Hudson

Debugging
Bugs
Errors in your program

Debugging
The process of locating and correcting the errors in the program

3 types of errors
Syntax errors
Runtime errors
Logical errors
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Syntax errors

occur when you spell something wrong, omit

a keyword, or commit various other
grammatical errors.
Visual Basic Editor (VBE) typically detects
them immediately, colors the offending line
red, and displays a warning in a message box
If variable1 > variable2
End If
! Compile Error
Expected Then

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Runtime errors

occur when there is some- thing wrong with your code, but
the error is not discovered until you run your program
Divided by zero
Array index out of range
Memory overflow

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 What if user enters 20?

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Correcting your code

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Run time errors

May be caused by unexpected user
inputs
Open BankAccount.xlms
Type 0 and interest rate, and run
findYears

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Logical errors

You run the program, it produces

some results, but the results can be
totally wrong
No warning signs
you often dont even know that you
made an error

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VBE debugging tools

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Breakpoints
You can set and clear breakpoints in your code
A breakpoint is a line of code that the program will pause
when it is reached
This allows you to examine variables and see if they are what you
expect
You can set a breakpoint by:
Place cursor on the line you want, click hand symbol
Place cursor on the line you want, click toggle breakpoint in
Debug toolbar
Place cursor in the gray margin to the left of the line you want and
click
Reset by toggling again

Breakpoint set

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Breakpoints
With a breakpoint, your code will run until the
execution reaches that statement then it halts.
Program enters break mode

At this point, you can:

Examine the value of variables
mouse over/hover over a variable that appears in
the code. The value of the variable appears in a popup
Request the value of any variable via the immediate
window (example: ? cellCount)
Step through the code one line at a time to see what
is happening
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Breakpoint Example (Count High Sales.xlsm)

Breakpoint set,
yellow means
code has stopped
here

Variables queried In Immed. window

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Breakpoint Mouse-over

You can move your mouse over a

variable while in break mode and
VBE will display its value

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Watch Mode

Another valuable technique is to enable Watch

Mode
Watch Mode allows you to set conditions for
when either a break should take place or
when something should be displayed
Classic example: you have a big loop (like
1000) and something wrong seems to
happen around 900.
Without a Watch Mode, you would have to
manually go through 900 iterations
(stopping at a break point each time) before
you got to where you wanted
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Watch Mode

Turn on Watch Window

Watch
Window
appears

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Add Watch

Turn on the Add Watch dialog box from the

Debug choice on the main toolbar

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Add Watch

1. Put in a condition

2. Select where

3. Select action

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Step Into, Step Over, Step Out

One powerful debugging technique uses
breakpoints in conjunction with the step
buttons
Step Into, Step Over, Step Out

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Step Into
The most used button is Step Into
When a Sub stops at a breakpoint, it can
be extremely useful to then step
through the remaining code, one
statement at a time
Step Into does this
Each click on the Step Into button executes
only the next statement
You can watch what happens as a result of
that statement execution in the immediate
and watch windows or by using a mouse
over
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Step Over
When executing in Step Into mode,
you may encounter a call to another
Subroutine
It is likely you will not want to execute
this subroutine one line at a time as that
is time consuming
A click on the Step Over button will have
VBA execute that subroutine at full
speed, stopping again when the code
returns
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Step Out

Similarly, at some point you may

want to go back to full speed mode
One click on Step Out and the rest of
the Sub is executed at full speed
Often used in loops with a breakpoint
Stop at breakpoint
Step Into several statements to see
what is happening
Step Out to execute at full speed until
the breakpoint
is hit
again
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Exercise

Exercise: debug the average example. Open

Debug Average.xlsm

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Debugger Tools
The Debug Tools are extremely powerful and
will save you large amounts of time and
frustration
They are not hard to learn/use
Take the time to work with them and learn
how to use them IT WILL PAY OFF!
Note: the VBA debug tools are extremely
similar in function to such tools in other
languages.
Learn one, learn them all.
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Errors

The reason programming is so difficult and

why much commercial software has
bugs is that it is impossible to predict
exactly how all people will use the
application.
People will make mistakes when they use an
application
People will follow a path that the programmer
did not predict (and plan for)
Designers/programmers cannot predict every
possible input
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Errors

However there are things a sensible

designer can do to:
Prevent certain inappropriate actions from the user
Detect inappropriate actions and at least keep the
application from crashing

The first item above is usually performed by

doing input validation checking
The second is accomplished by trapping an
error when it occurs and seeing if recovery is
possible
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Need for input validation

People are . People. They make many mistakes.
Good designers protect themselves (the
application) by checking/validating user input
Invalid dates (13/35/2011)
End date before start date
entering decimals when the program expects integers,
alphas instead of numbers, etc.
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Validating User Input

Typically, user input is checked/validated
when the user clicks on a button to submit
input (OK, Submit, Enter, whatever)
To validate, you would put some input check
code within the button_click event code

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Validate Code
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
Dim ctl As Control Control would be TextBox, Button etc..
Dim begDate As Date, endDate As Date
'test to see if a date has been entered in the date fields
For Each ctl In Me.Controls
Look at all Contols
If TypeName(ctl) = "TextBox" Then
If Control is a form
If ctl.Value = "" Or Not IsDate(ctl) Then
MsgBox "Enter a valid date.", vbInformation, _ "Invalid
Entry"
ctl.SetFocus
Exit Sub Exit CommandButton1_Click() Subroutine
End If
End If
Next ctl
'a data has been entered, check to see if it's within right
begDate = Me.TextBox1.Value begDate and endDate are
Data Type as Date
endDate = Me.TextBox2.Value
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Validate Code cont

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Note:
The code on the previous page displays several new concepts:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

A ctl (control) object

This relates to all the controls on a form

Me reference

Points to current part of the application. In this example, the

form

If TypeName(ctl) = TextBox

Allows you to determine what kind of control you are looking at

ctl.value =

Many controls have input. This allows you to check if anything

has been typed in or it is blank ()

Not IsDate(ctl)

After checking if something is not blank, this code checks if the

input is a date type

ctl.SetFocus

This method sets the cursor on the selected control

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On Error Statement

VBA provides the On Error statement

This is used to trap an error that causes
VBA to stop your code. Examples:

Deleting something that doesnt exist

Looking for a file that doesnt exist
Data type mismatch
Protected cell violation

With this you can:

Either ignore the error and continue
Jump to an error handling routine that you write
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On Error Statement

On Error Resume Next

On Error GoTo <lable>
On Error GoTo 0

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Ignoring an Error
This statement, once executed
anywhere in your code, will put your
program in ignore error mode
On Error Resume Next
Basically, if a statement is executed
that causes an error that would
normally force VBA to stop, that
statement is ignored and execution
continues to the next statement
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Ignoring an Error
Example:
On Error Resume Next
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
Worksheets(Results).Delete

If worksheet Results does not exist, no

error is given and the code continues
This must be used carefully.
If a divide by zero happens, you should not ignore
this as you will be making incorrect calculations
from now on.
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Error Number
When an error takes place, you can receive and
check the error number to determine the type of
failure.
Error number is non-zero in event of an error
You can check this with an IF test
Err.Number is Built-In

If Err.Number <> 0 Then

do something about the error (msg?)
Example: delete a worksheet that doesnt exist = error 9
divided by zero = error 11
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On Error GoTo <lable>

VBA allows you to define a code label
Code labels act like a bookmark and can be
any name or number you want, followed by a
colon :
A GoTo statement jumps to that label
Similar to a Call Subroutine EXCEPT the routine does
NOT return to the statement after the call

After the On Error GoTo <label> statement

is excecuted, it is always on. Execution
jumps to the specified error routine if ANY
error takes place.
Turn off with On Error GoTo 0
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Example: On Error GoTo

Note: the Exit Sub is critical -otherwise, the error routine

will be executed at the end
of the subroutine even when
there is no error

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Example: On Error GoTo

Used
alone,Resumecauses
execution to resume at
the line of code that
caused the error.
In this case you must
ensure that your error
handling block fixed the
problem that caused the
initial error.

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On Error GoTo 0
default mode in VBA
when a run time error occurs VBA should display
its standard run time error message box
no enabled error handler

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