MsgBox Function in Excel is not only an interaction tool between the user and the computer but also a great debugging tool. Watch the video below:
The MsgBox function displays a message in a dialog box, waits for the user to click a button, and returns an Integer indicating which button the user clicked.
Syntax
MsgBox (prompt, [ buttons, ] [ title, ] [ helpfile, context ])
The MsgBox function syntax has these named arguments:
| Part | Description |
| prompt | Required. String expression displayed as the message in the dialog box. The maximum length of prompt is approximately 1024 characters, depending on the width of the characters used. If prompt consists of more than one line, you can separate the lines by using a carriage return character (Chr(13)), a linefeed character (Chr(10)), or carriage return – linefeed character combination (Chr(13) & Chr(10)) or VBCrLf or vbNewLine between each line. |
| buttons | Optional. Numeric expression that is the combination of values specifying the number and type of buttons to display, the icon style to use, the identity of the default button, and the modality of the message box. If omitted, the default value for buttons is 0. |
| title | Optional. String expression displayed in the title bar of the dialog box. If you omit title, the application name is placed in the title bar. |
| helpfile | Optional. String expression that identifies the Help file to use to provide context-sensitive Help for the dialog box. If helpfile is provided, context must also be provided. |
| context | Optional. Numeric expression that is the Help context number assigned to the appropriate Help topic by the Help author. If context is provided, helpfile must also be provided. |
The buttons argument settings are:
| Constant | Value | Description |
| vbOKOnly | 0 | Display OK button only. |
| vbOKCancel | 1 | Display OK and Cancel buttons. |
| vbAbortRetryIgnore | 2 | Display Abort, Retry, and Ignore buttons. |
| vbYesNoCancel | 3 | Display Yes, No, and Cancel buttons. |
| vbYesNo | 4 | Display Yes and No buttons. |
| vbRetryCancel | 5 | Display Retry and Cancel buttons. |
| vbCritical | 16 | Display Critical Message icon. |
| vbQuestion | 32 | Display Warning Query icon. |
| vbExclamation | 48 | Display Warning Message icon. |
| vbInformation | 64 | Display Information Message icon. |
| vbDefaultButton1 | 0 | First button is default. |
| vbDefaultButton2 | 256 | Second button is default. |
| vbDefaultButton3 | 512 | Third button is default. |
| vbDefaultButton4 | 768 | Fourth button is default. |
| vbApplicationModal | 0 | Application modal; the user must respond to the message box before continuing work in the current application. |
| vbSystemModal | 4096 | System modal; all applications are suspended until the user responds to the message box. |
| vbMsgBoxHelpButton | 16384 | Adds Help button to the message box. |
| vbMsgBoxSetForeground | 65536 | Specifies the message box window as the foreground window. |
| vbMsgBoxRight | 524288 | Text is right-aligned. |
| vbMsgBoxRtlReading | 1048576 | Specifies text should appear as right-to-left reading on Hebrew and Arabic systems. |
The first group of values (0-5) describes the number and type of buttons displayed in the dialog box; the second group (16, 32, 48, 64) describes the icon style; the third group (0, 256, 512) determines which button is the default; and the fourth group (0, 4096) determines the modality of the message box. When combining numbers to create a final value for the buttons argument, use only one number from each group.
Note
These constants are specified by Visual Basic for Applications. As a result, the names can be used anywhere in your code in place of the actual values.
| Constant | Value | Description |
| vbOK | 1 | OK |
| vbCancel | 2 | Cancel |
| vbAbort | 3 | Abort |
| vbRetry | 4 | Retry |
| vbIgnore | 5 | Ignore |
| vbYes | 6 | Yes |
| vbNo | 7 | No |
Remarks
When both helpfile and context are provided, the user can press F1 (Windows) or HELP (Macintosh) to view the Help topic corresponding to the context. Some host applications, for example, Microsoft Excel, also automatically add a Help button to the dialog box.
If the dialog box displays a Cancel button, pressing the ESC key has the same effect as clicking Cancel. If the dialog box contains a Help button, context-sensitive Help is provided for the dialog box. However, no value is returned until one of the other buttons is clicked.
The code to make ‘No’ the default button, i. e. if the user presses ‘Enter’ this button performs the action. This is useful in cases where you run a macro to delete data, for example.
MsgBox “My Message Box”, vbYesNoCancel + vbMsgBoxHelpButton + vbDefaultButton2, “My Message”, _”Help”, 1
Code of Module1:
Sub MyMessageBox()
‘MsgBox “My Message Box”, vbMsgBoxHelpButton, “My Message”, _
“Help”, 1
‘MsgBox “My Message Box”, vbMsgBoxHelpButton, “My Message”, _
“Help”, 1
‘MsgBox “My Message Box”, vbYesNo + vbMsgBoxHelpButton, “My Message”, _
“Help”, 1
‘If MsgBox(“My Message Box”, vbYesNo + vbMsgBoxHelpButton, “My Message”, _
“Help”, 1) = vbYes Then
‘UserForm1.Show
‘End If
Range(“A1”) = MsgBox(“My Message Box”, vbYesNo + vbMsgBoxHelpButton, “My Message”, _
“Help”, 1)
End Sub
Note: Code line with an apostrophe are inactive.
Module2:
Sub MsgBoxToDebug()
Dim lastrow As Long
Dim NextBlankRow As Long
Sheet2.Activate
MsgBox ActiveSheet.Name
lastrow = Application.WorksheetFunction.CountA(Sheet2.Range(“A:A”))
NextBlankRow = lastrow + 1
MsgBox “The lastrow used is: ” & lastrow & vbCrLf & “The next blank row is: ” & NextBlankRow
Cells(NextBlankRow, 1).Select
MsgBox ActiveSheet.Name
Cells(NextBlankRow, 1) = “ABC010”
End Sub
Module3:
Sub msgboxtodisplay()
MsgBox ActiveSheet.Name
End Sub
Macro code for Module4:
Sub checklastrow()
Dim lastrow As Long
‘Sheet3.Activate
lastrow = Sheets(“Sheet3”).Range(“A” & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
MsgBox ActiveSheet.Name
MsgBox “The last row used is: ” & lastrow
Cells(lastrow + 1, 1).Select
MsgBox ActiveSheet.Name
End Sub
The above descriptive details are taken from the Microsoft Official Document on the MsgBox function.