VBA dim ws as worksheets (not worksheet)

Question

OK so, I know I can do this:

Dim ws as worksheet
Set ws = thisworkbook.worksheets("Sheet1")

and then do my fancy stuff with the ws worksheet object

I also know I can Dim wss as worksheets and that using worksheets("Sheet1") returns the worksheet object. So why doesn't the following work?

Dim wss as worksheets
Dim ws as worksheet
Set wss = thisworkbook.worksheets
Set ws = wss("Sheet1")

I've also tried:

Dim wss as worksheets
Dim ws as worksheet
Set ws = thisworkbook.wss("Sheet1")

but the latter just looks like I'm trying to rename/shorten "worksheets" which seems totally wrong. I'm trying to get the worksheets of a workbook in to one worksheets object called wss. This is more about trying to understand the heirachy than anything but for functional purposes I'm trying to get wss to encompass all worksheets from workbook x so I could just do ws = wss(1) instead of saying set ws = wb.worksheets(1)

Is that even possible or am I misunderstanding the worksheets/ worksheet relationship?

Answer 1

you must declare wss as a Sheets object

Dim wss As Sheets
Dim ws As Worksheet

Set wss = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
Set ws = wss("Sheet1")

this is because Worksheets property of Workbook object returns a Sheets collection, ie a collection that contains both Worksheets and Charts object of the workbook

Should you need a collection of your Workbook Worksheets only (not Charts ) to be called like ws = wss(1) or the likes then you could adopt the following workaround with Collection object

Option Explicit

Sub main()
    Dim wss As Collection
    Dim ws As Worksheet

    Set wss = GetWorkSheets
    Set ws = wss("Sheet1")
    Set ws = wss(1)
End Sub

Function GetWorkSheets() As Collection
    Dim wss As New Collection
    Dim ws As Worksheet

    For Each ws In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
        wss.add ws, ws.Name
    Next ws
    Set GetWorkSheets = wss
End Function