Convert string to int if string is a number

I need to convert a string, obtained from excel, in VBA to an interger. To do so I'm using CInt() which works well. However there is a chance that the string could be something other than a number, in this case I need to set the integer to 0. Currently I have:

If oXLSheet2.Cells(4, 6).Value <> "example string" Then
  currentLoad = CInt(oXLSheet2.Cells(4, 6).Value)
Else
  currentLoad = 0
End If

The problem is that I cannot predict all possible non numeric strings which could be in this cell. Is there a way I can tell it to convert if it's an integer and set to 0 if not?

Solution 1:

Use IsNumeric. It returns true if it's a number or false otherwise.

Public Sub NumTest()
    On Error GoTo MyErrorHandler

    Dim myVar As Variant
    myVar = 11.2 'Or whatever

    Dim finalNumber As Integer
    If IsNumeric(myVar) Then
        finalNumber = CInt(myVar)
    Else
        finalNumber = 0
    End If

    Exit Sub

MyErrorHandler:
    MsgBox "NumTest" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "Err = " & Err.Number & _
        vbCrLf & "Description: " & Err.Description
End Sub

Solution 2:

Cast to long or cast to int, be aware of the following.

These functions are one of the view functions in Excel VBA that are depending on the system regional settings. So if you use a comma in your double like in some countries in Europe, you will experience an error in the US.

E.g., in european excel-version 0,5 will perform well with CDbl(), but in US-version it will result in 5. So I recommend to use the following alternative:

Public Function CastLong(var As Variant)

    ' replace , by .
    var = Replace(var, ",", ".")        

    Dim l As Long
    On Error Resume Next
    l = Round(Val(var))

    ' if error occurs, l will be 0
    CastLong = l

End Function

' similar function for cast-int, you can add minimum and maximum value if you like
' to prevent that value is too high or too low.
Public Function CastInt(var As Variant)

    ' replace , by .
    var = Replace(var, ",", ".")

    Dim i As Integer
    On Error Resume Next
    i = Round(Val(var))

    ' if error occurs, i will be 0
    CastInt = i

End Function

Of course you can also think of cases where people use commas and dots, e.g., three-thousand as 3,000.00. If you require functionality for these kind of cases, then you have to check for another solution.

Solution 3:

Try this: currentLoad = ConvertToLongInteger(oXLSheet2.Cells(4, 6).Value) with this function:

Function ConvertToLongInteger(ByVal stValue As String) As Long
 On Error GoTo ConversionFailureHandler
 ConvertToLongInteger = CLng(stValue)  'TRY to convert to an Integer value
 Exit Function           'If we reach this point, then we succeeded so exit

ConversionFailureHandler:
 'IF we've reached this point, then we did not succeed in conversion
 'If the error is type-mismatch, clear the error and return numeric 0 from the function
 'Otherwise, disable the error handler, and re-run the code to allow the system to 
 'display the error
 If Err.Number = 13 Then 'error # 13 is Type mismatch
      Err.Clear
      ConvertToLongInteger = 0
      Exit Function
 Else
      On Error GoTo 0
      Resume
 End If
End Function

I chose Long (Integer) instead of simply Integer because the min/max size of an Integer in VBA is crummy (min: -32768, max:+32767). It's common to have an integer outside of that range in spreadsheet operations.

The above code can be modified to handle conversion from string to-Integers, to-Currency (using CCur() ), to-Decimal (using CDec() ), to-Double (using CDbl() ), etc. Just replace the conversion function itself (CLng). Change the function return type, and rename all occurrences of the function variable to make everything consistent.