How not to compete with self: MS Excel, VBA, functions

How not to compete with self

Asked by: DWG123

I am writing a user function to raise my bid price for an auction. I want to make sure 1) I have the highest bid price, 2) I don't ever pay more than needed to have the best bid price and 3) that I don't compete with myself. Number 3 is giving me trouble.

Mugadu sent some code back that worked (thanks), but with some buttons and sub routines in it. I would like to make this work as a function if possible. Mainly because I am not sure how to reference/call the sub and I want the same function to work lots of times in a spreadsheet and don't want to get public/private mixed up. (I'm new to this...)

What am I missing to keep from competing with myself? When MyBid becomes the CurBid, I don't want to "raise" against myself.

Thanks

Option Explicit
 
Function MyBid(CurBid As Single, ReservePrice As Single, FairValue As Single, ProfitMargin As Single)
 
 Dim MaxBid As Single
 Dim Step   As Single
 
 MaxBid = FairValue - ProfitMargin
 Step = 1
 
 If CurBid > MyBid Then
  MyBid = CurBid + Step
  If MyBid >= MaxBid Then
   MyBid = MaxBid
  End If
 End If
 
End Function

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BestBid.xls
- 20 KB
Best Bid with VBA function macro

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I assume that you are calling the MyBid function from a worksheet formula. It is therefore a user-defined function and not a macro.

It is worth noting that MyBid is 0 in statement 11. It only receives a value in statement 12. As a result, your If test will not work as intended.

I've added a parameter for your most recent bid in the function in the snippet below. I then use that value to initialize MyBid.

You'll also note that I changed all variable declarations to Double. This is because Excel VBA allocates space for a double precision number even when you specify Single in the Dim statement. There is thus no advantage to using Single. The same deal applies to integers--you should always use Long instead of Integer when declaring them because Excel allocates space for a Long anyway.

The final suggestion is that you will probably need to turn on Iterations using the Tools...Options...Calculation menu item. Without turning Iterations on, I got a circular reference error message when I tried to set the value of MyBid automatically using a formula.

Brad

Function MyBid(CurBid As Double, ReservePrice As Double, FairValue As Double, ProfitMargin As Double, LastBid As Double) As Double
 
 Dim MaxBid As Double
 Dim Step   As Double
 
 MaxBid = FairValue - ProfitMargin
 Step = 1
 MyBid = LastBid    'MyBid is 0 at this point. You need to pass the your previous bid here
 If CurBid > MyBid Then
  MyBid = CurBid + Step
  If MyBid >= MaxBid Then
   MyBid = MaxBid
  End If
 End If
 
End Function

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How not to compete with self

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MS Excel

VBA

functions

Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet Software

Microsoft Development

VB Objects

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