UDF, Type it or use Insert Function

[Otto Moehrbach]

Excel 2002, Win XP
I remember being told in the past that a UDF must be entered using the
function wizard (Insert Function dialog box) and that typing the function
into a cell would not work.
I have 3 UDFs below. The 3rd one uses the first 2. During development,
I was able to utilize either of the first 2 by typing them into a cell
manually. The 3rd one, no. The 3rd one required the function wizard to
make it work.
What is the rule that allows the first 2 to work (by typing direct) and
the 3rd one to require the function wizard. Thanks for your help as always.
For your information, this has to do with the military 8 digit date
format. Otto
Function DateFrom8(j As Range) As Date
DateFrom8 = DateSerial(Left(j, 4), Mid(j, 5, 2), Right(j, 2))
End Function

Function DateTo8(i As Date) As String
DateTo8 = Year(i) & _
IIf(Len(Month(i)) > 1, Month(i), "0" & Month(i)) & _
IIf(Len(Day(i)) > 1, Day(i), "0" & Day(i))
End Function

Function IncDate(k As Range) As String
Dim TheDate As Date
TheDate = DateFrom8(k)
'The "5" in the following line is actually a calculated variable.
'The "5" is used here for development purposes only'
TheDate = _
DateSerial(Year(TheDate), Month(TheDate) + 5, Day(TheDate))
IncDate = DateTo8(TheDate)
End Function

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

who ever told you that was obviously wrong.

I entered all three by typing them in and had no problem.

I rarely use the function wizard to enter anything. I have never found it
was necessary.

Regards,
Tom Ogilvy

 

[Charles Williams]

Mostly the difference is that the function wizard uses EVALUATE (I think) ro
evaluate each keystroke as it goes along.

hth
Charles
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[Dana DeLouis]

I believe one of the advantages of using the function wizard is that it will
put the name of the Workbook in front of the Function. This helps when
calling a function in another workbook, or perhaps when the same function
name exists in two different workbooks. For example, it saves typing when
calling a function located in Personal.xls.

=Personal.xls!YourFunction( )