GetFormulas Method [Visio 2003 SDK Documentation]

Article
05/01/2007

Returns the formulas of many cells.

object**.GetFormulas**SID_SRCStream, formulas

object Required. An expression that returns a Page, Master, Shape, or Style object.

SID_SRCStream Required Integer. Stream identifying cells to be queried.

formulas Required Variant. Array that receives formulas of queried cells.

Version added

4.5

Remarks

The GetFormulas method is like the Formula property of a Cell object, except you can use it to obtain the formulas of many cells at once rather than one cell at a time. The GetFormulas method is a specialization of the GetResults method, which can be used to obtain cell formulas or results. Setting up a call to the GetFormulas method involves slightly less work than setting up the GetResults method.

For Shape or Style objects, you can use the GetFormulas method to get formulas of any set of cells.

For Page or Master objects, you can use the GetFormulas method to get formulas of any set of cells in any set of shapes of the page or master.

SID_SRCStream is an array of 2-byte integers:

For Shape or Style objects, SID_SRCStream should be a one-dimensional array of 3n 2-byte integers for some n >= 1. GetFormulas interprets the stream as:
```
{sectionIdx, rowIdx, cellIdx}n
```
where sectionIdx is the section index of the desired cell, rowIdx is its row index and cellIdx is its cell index.
For Page or Master objects, SID_SRCStream should be a one-dimensional array of 4n 2-byte integers for n >= 1. The GetFormulas method interprets SID_SRCStream as:
```
{sheetID, sectionIdx, rowIdx, cellIdx}n
```
where sheetID is the ID property of the Shape object on the page or master whose cell formula is desired.

Note If the sheetID in an entry is visInvalShapeID (-1) or if the bottom byte of sectionIdx is visSectionInval (255), the entry will be ignored and an empty variant will be returned in the corresponding results array entry. This is because the same SID_SRCStream array can be used on several calls to GetFormulas, SetFormulas, and similar methods with the caller only needing to make minor changes to the stream between calls.

If the GetFormulas method succeeds, formulas returns a one-dimensional array of n variants indexed from 0 to n - 1. Each variant returns a formula as a string. Formulas is an out argument that is allocated by the GetFormulas method, which passes ownership back to the caller. The caller should eventually perform the SafeArrayDestroy procedure on the returned array. Note that the SafeArrayDestroy procedure has the side effect of clearing the variants referenced by the array's entries, hence deallocating any strings the GetFormulas method returns. (Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications take care of this for you.) The GetFormulas method fails if formulas is Null.

Note Beginning with Microsoft Visio 2000, you can use both local and universal names to refer to Visio shapes, masters, documents, pages, rows, add-ons, cells, hyperlinks, styles, fonts, master shortcuts, UI objects, and layers. When a user names a shape, for example, the user is specifying a local name. Beginning with Microsoft Office Visio 2003, the ShapeSheet spreadsheet displays only universal names in cell formulas and values. (In prior versions, universal names were not visible in the user interface.)

As a developer, you can use universal names in a program when you don't want to change a name each time a solution is localized. Use the GetFormulas method to get more than one formula when you are using local syntax. Use the GetFormulasU method to get more than one formula when you are using universal syntax.

Example

The following macro shows how to use the GetFormulas method. It assumes that there is an active Microsoft Office Visio page that has at least three shapes on it. It uses GetFormulas to get the width of shape 1, the height of shape 2, and the angle of shape 3.

This example uses the GetFormulas method of the Page object to get three cell formulas. The input array has four slots for each cell, as it also would for Master objects. For Shape or Style objects, only three slots would be needed for each cell (section, row, and cell).

Public Sub GetFormulas_Example() 

    On Error GoTo HandleError 

    Dim aintSheetSectionRowColumn(1 To (3 * 4)) As Integer 

    aintSheetSectionRowColumn(1) = ActivePage.Shapes(1).ID 
    aintSheetSectionRowColumn(2) = visSectionObject 
    aintSheetSectionRowColumn(3) = visRowXFormOut 
    aintSheetSectionRowColumn(4) = visXFormWidth 

    aintSheetSectionRowColumn(5) = ActivePage.Shapes(2).ID 
    aintSheetSectionRowColumn(6) = visSectionObject 
    aintSheetSectionRowColumn(7) = visRowXFormOut 
    aintSheetSectionRowColumn(8) = visXFormHeight 

    aintSheetSectionRowColumn(9) = ActivePage.Shapes(3).ID 
    aintSheetSectionRowColumn(10) = visSectionObject 
    aintSheetSectionRowColumn(11) = visRowXFormOut 
    aintSheetSectionRowColumn(12) = visXFormAngle 

    'Return the formulas of the cells. 
    Dim avarFormulaArray() As Variant 
    ActivePage.GetFormulas aintSheetSectionRowColumn, avarFormulaArray
       
    Debug.Print "Shape 1 width is "; avarFormulaArray(0)
    Debug.Print "Shape 2 height is "; avarFormulaArray(1)
    Debug.Print "Shape 3 angle is "; avarFormulaArray(2)


Exit Sub   

HandleError: 
    MsgBox "Error" 
Exit Sub  
 
End Sub

Applies to | Master object | Page object | Shape object | Style object

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GetFormulas Method [Visio 2003 SDK Documentation]

Version added

Remarks

Example

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