Excel Name goes away when set to empty string

Can you explain further what you mean when you say you "set a Name to the empty string"?

ThisWorkbook.Names("MyName").Value = ""

Ok, when a Name has to be attached to something so it makes sense that it would go away when it isn't. I don't know why you'd want to keep it around (can you explain?), but certainly assigning something to it would keep it.

I want to use Names rather than Globals to save values.  A blank string is a valid value that I would want to save.  Mostly I associate names with cells, but these values are not really associated with any particular worksheet or cell.

Ok, this is a workaround. Run the FindOut sub and it will tell you if the name exists. If it doesn't you can treat it like it's blank.

Function NameExists(nme As String) As Boolean
Dim n As Name

For Each n In Names
    If nme = n.Name Then
        NameExists = True
        Exit Function
    End If
Next

End Function
Sub FindOut()
If Not NameExists("MyName1") Then
    MsgBox "It's gone"
End If
End Sub

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Thanks for the idea, but that will be rather cumbersome.  I'm using the Names to store previous values for a bunch of different cells.

When I was using globals I could just remember the values like this:

PrevValue = Range("MyCell").Value

and reset the cell later with the previous value like so:

Range("MyCell").Value = PrevValue

The problem with globals is that they go away if any of the macros error out.  Which means the user has to close and reopen the workbook in order for the globals to be recreated.  I was hoping that Names would stick around, but evidently Bill Gates is too smart for me and wants to save me space by getting rid of a perfectly good name just because it has an empty string in it.

What I'm going to do is find an obscure location on an obscure worksheet and store my Names associated with those cells then I can do this:

Worksheet("Obscure").Range("PrevValue") = Worksheet("Main").Range("MyCell").Value

and

Worksheet("Main").Range("MyCell").Value = Worksheet("Obscure").range("PrevValue")

...evidently Bill Gates is too smart for me and wants to save me space by getting rid of a perfectly good name just because it has an empty string in it.

This line of code...

    ThisWorkbook.Names("MyName").Value = "" 

...is not setting the Name value to an empty string. It is in fact the equivalent to the RefersTo property in that it refers to the formula (see here). So, while this...

   ThisWorkbook.Names("MyName").Value = "bob"

...looks like it sets the value to "bob", it actually sets the value to ="bob".

With this in mind, instead of using the Value property, how about using the Comment value? That can actually be an empty string and will be retained.

Martin:  Thanks.  I had forgotten about those.  I will look to see if I can implement, but I may go with Named cell ranges as that is what I am using for saving other values.

Wayne:  I am saving some stuff in comments, but there are issues with those as well.  They are a bit kludgy to get things in and out of and the show up as red triangles in the cells.  I'm actually thinking of moving away from those using Named cell ranges for those as well.

You're welcome and I'm glad I was able to help.

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Marty - Microsoft MVP 2009 to 2016
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