Copying range of cells from one workbook to another yields 400 error

Question

Okay, so I am relatively new to Excel VBA. I am trying to do something which seems quite simple to me and there are many, many examples of how to do it which I have read exhaustively but I cannot seem to get past this so...here goes.

I am trying to paste a range of cells from one worksheet to another in Excel Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010. I think I have reduced the problem to the absolute simplest form possible to illustrate the problem. This is just a snippet. The VictimResults and TempWorksheet variables are set higher up. I didn't include the code because I thought it might confuse the articulation of the problem.

Dim SourceWorksheet As Worksheet
Dim TargetWorksheet As Worksheet
Dim SourceRange As Range
Dim TargetRange As Range    

Set SourceWorksheet = VictimResults
Set TargetWorksheet = TempWorksheet
Set SourceRange = Cells(1, 1)
Set TargetRange = Cells(1, 1)    

TargetWorksheet.Range(TargetRange) = SourceWorksheet.Range(SourceRange) I have placed the variables SourceWorksheet, TargetWorksheet, SourceRange, and TargetRange in a watch and set a breakpoint at the last line and they are all valid objects (not null). When I step over the breakpoint I get a dialog box which simply says "400".

Any help is much appreciated.

---edit--- I have created this complete VBA file that replicates the problem. Thought that might help someone answer.

Option Explicit

Sub Main()
    GetFirstWorksheetContainsName("Sheet1").Range(Cells(1, 1)).Value = GetFirstWorksheetContainsName("Sheet2").Range(Cells(1, 1)).Value
End Sub

Function GetFirstWorksheetContainsName(worksheetNameContains) As Worksheet
    Dim m As Long
    Dim result As Worksheet

    m = 1

    Do
        If InStr(1, Sheets(m).Name, worksheetNameContains) Then
            Set result = Sheets(m)
            Exit Do
        End If

        m = m + 1
    Loop Until m > ThisWorkbook.Worksheets.Count

    Set GetFirstWorksheetContainsName = result
End Function

Here is something else I tried which yields something a little more verbose.

Option Explicit

Sub Main()
    Sheets("Sheet1").Select
    Range(Cells(1, 1)).Select
    Selection.Copy
    Sheets("Sheet2").Select
    Range(Cells(1, 1)).Select
    ActiveSheet.Paste
End Sub

It gives me a "Method 'Range' of object '_Global' failed" error when executing the first Range(Cells(1, 1)).Select line.

Answer 1

If you are trying to copy and paste why not use .copy and .pastespecial . They may slow down your code a little bit but as long as your aren't copying and pasting thousands of things it should be ok.

Answer 2

I'm not sure where the 400 is coming from, but the exception that is thrown is the same is in your verbose example (1004 - "Method 'Range' of object '_Worksheet' failed", and is thrown for the same reason.

The problem is how you're addressing the Range. Cells(1, 1) is implicitly set to the active worksheet , not whatever range you are passing it to as a parameter. Since you only need one cell, you can just use the .Cells property instead:

Sub Main()

    GetFirstWorksheetContainsName("Sheet1").Cells(1, 1).Value = _
        GetFirstWorksheetContainsName("Sheet2").Cells(1, 1).Value

End Sub

If you need to copy more than one cell, you'll have to either grab a reference to a worksheets instead of inlining the calls to GetFirstWorksheetContainsName if you use dynamic ranges:

Sub Main()

    Dim source As Worksheet
    Dim data As Range

    Set source = GetFirstWorksheetContainsName("Sheet2")
    Set data = source.Range("A1:B2")

    GetFirstWorksheetContainsName("Sheet1").Range(data.Address).Value = data.Value

End Sub

Or hard code it:

Sub Main()

    GetFirstWorksheetContainsName("Sheet1").Range("A1:B2").Value = _
        GetFirstWorksheetContainsName("Sheet2").Range("A1:B2").Value

End Sub