Searching for programming functionality help (Microsoft Excel articles and knowledgebase)

[vba_php]

I've posted links to these pages so many times, it's about time that the people of this community understand how it works. It's very simple. If you need to search for anything, literally, related to Excel, whether it be functions or VBA code, you can find it all on Microsoft's 2 support websites:

support.microsoft.com and docs.microsoft.com

Here is how you look for articles written by Microsoft on everything regarding Excel:

Functions and Formulas
An example of a google search that brings these listings up at the top is:

www.google.com/search?q=ms+excel+FUNCTION_NAME_HERE+function

so, say for function countif(), it would be this:
http://www.google.com/search?q=ms+ex...untif+function

as you can see, it brings up this page:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...4-1f464816df34

most microsoft articles have encrypted hash strings on the end of their URLs.

VBA Coding Functionality
An example of a google search that brings these listings up at the top is: http://www.google.com/search?q=ms+ex..._to_know_about

so, say for the string function called instr(), it would be this:
http://www.google.com/search?q=www.g...xcel+vba+instr

as you can see, it brings up this page:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...instr-function

the wonderful thing about the people who created the VBA documentation website is that the article pages do not have hash strings at the end of them. Either that, or they are using very clever code to un-encrypt hash strings, which I seriously doubt. That would be a pretty big waste of time and effort. So, you don't have to google search for everything all the time. you can literally paste this addressing string into the address bar of the browser you are using and get to the article you want to look at immediately:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/language/reference/user-interface-help/NAME_OF_THE_FEATURE_YOU_WANT_HERE-function

here are some examples of VBA function articles to prove that this claim works:

UCASE()
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...ucase-function

ARRAY()
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...array-function

RND()
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...p/rnd-function

MID()
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...p/mid-function

BUT....apparently this doesn't work all the time, as some coding features and functions are grouped together if they possess the same functional or categorical qualities in terms of what purpose they serve. such as being in the category of mathematics like fix() and int(). In their case, they have the same page:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...-fix-functions

If you want to look up VBA code that is specific to Excel, as in those functions and features that use objects and related information that are part of Excel's object model and not universal to the VBA language itself, you would use this addressing protocol:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/excel.OBJECT_NAME_HERE

here are some examples of working web addresses:

WORKBOOK OBJECT
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...excel.workbook

WORKSHEET OBJECT
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...xcel.worksheet

SHAPES OBJECT / COLLECTION
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...i/excel.shapes

CHARTS OBJECT / COLLECTION
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...i/excel.charts

and here are some examples of how to look up properties and methods associated with Excel objects (you can probably figure out the addressing protocol pattern of this one by now):

WORKBOOK.SAVEAS() METHOD
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...orkbook.saveas

WORKSHEET.COPY() METHOD
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...worksheet.copy

RANGE.PASTESPECIAL() METHOD
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...e.pastespecial

WORKSHEET.EXPORTASFIXEDFORMAT() METHOD
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...tasfixedformat

RANGE.ADDRESSLOCAL PROPERTY
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...e.addresslocal

WORKSHEET.VISIBLE PROPERTY
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...ksheet.visible

FONT.BOLD PROPERTY
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...xcel.font.bold


Hopefully this gives some insight to others that come here for resourceful information. It can be a good first step, as these articles have been sitting on Microsoft's server network for decades now, waiting for folks to look at them.