"Can't find Project or Library" for standard VBA functions

So I'm having to run someone else's excel app on my PC, and I'm getting "Can't find Project or Library" on standard functions such as date, format, hex, mid, etc.

Some research indicates that if I prefix these functions with "VBA." as in "VBA.Date" then it'll work fine.

Webpages suggest it has to do with my project references on my system, whereas they must be ok on the developer's system. I'm going to be dealing with this for some time from others, and will be distributing these applications to many others, so I need to understand what's wrong with my excel setup that I need to fix, or what needs to be changed in the xls file so that it'll run on a variety of systems. I'd like to avoid making everyone use "VBA." as an explicit reference, but if there's no ideal solution I suppose that's what we'll have to do.

• How do I make "VBA." implicit in my project properties/references/etc?

-Adam

Solution 1:

I have seen errors on standard functions if there was a reference to a totally different library missing.

In the VBA editor launch the Compile command from the menu and then check the References dialog to see if there is anything missing and if so try to add these libraries.

In general it seems to be good practice to compile the complete VBA code and then saving the document before distribution.

Solution 2:

I had the same problem. This worked for me:

• In VB go to Tools » References
• Uncheck the library "Crystal Analysis Common Controls 1.0". Or any library.
• Just leave these 5 references:
  1. Visual Basic For Applications (This is the library that defines the VBA language.)
  2. Microsoft Excel Object Library (This defines all of the elements of Excel.)
  3. OLE Automation (This specifies the types for linking and embedding documents and for automation of other applications and the "plumbing" of the COM system that Excel uses to communicate with the outside world.)
  4. Microsoft Office (This defines things that are common to all Office programs such as Command Bars and Command Bar controls.)
  5. Microsoft Forms 2.0 This is required if you are using a User Form. This library defines things like the user form and the controls that you can place on a form.
• Then Save.

Solution 3:

I have experienced this exact problem and found, on the users machine, one of the libraries I depended on was marked as "MISSING" in the references dialog. In that case it was some office font library that was available in my version of Office 2007, but not on the client desktop.

The error you get is a complete red herring (as pointed out by divo).

Fortunately I wasn't using anything from the library, so I was able to remove it from the XLA references entirely. I guess, an extension of divo' suggested best practice would be for testing to check the XLA on all the target Office versions (not a bad idea in any case).

Solution 4:

In my case, it was that the function was AMBIGUOUS as it was defined in the VBA library (present in my references), and also in the Microsoft Office Object Library (also present). I removed the Microsoft Office Object Library, and voila! No need to use the VBA. prefix.