VBA MsgBox – How to use

Syntax of MsgBox function in VBA:

The syntax of VBA Msgbox is as follows:

MsgBox (Text_String [, buttons] [, title] [, helpfile, context])

Here ‘Text_String’ is the message that you want the msgbox to display. The maximum length of ‘Text_String’ is 1024 characters.

‘buttons’ parameter specifies the type of buttons and icon that you want to be shown on the message box. It is an optional parameter. If you omit it then msgbox shows the default ‘vbOKOnly’ button.

‘title’ refers to the text displayed in the title bar of message box. This is an optional parameter.

‘helpfile’ is a string parameter that specifies the help file to be used for the dialog box. It is also an optional parameter but it becomes mandatory if ‘context’ parameter is to be used.

‘context’ is a numeric parameter that specifies the number assigned to the appropriate Help topic. It is an optional parameter but it becomes mandatory if ‘helpfile’ parameter is used.

Different values of ‘buttons’ parameter in Msgbox:

In VBA message box, ‘buttons’ parameter can have following values:

Constant	Description
vbOKOnly	It displays a single OK button
vbOKCancel	It displays two buttons OK and Cancel.
vbAbortRetryIgnore	It displays three buttons Abort, Retry, and Ignore.
vbYesNoCancel	It displays three buttons Yes, No, and Cancel.
vbYesNo	It displays two buttons Yes and No.
vbRetryCancel	It displays two buttons Retry and Cancel.
vbCritical	It displays a Critical Message icon.
vbQuestion	It displays a Query icon.
vbExclamation	It displays a Warning Message icon.
vbInformation	It displays an Information Message icon.
vbDefaultButton1	First button is treated as default.
vbDefaultButton2	Second button is treated as default.
vbDefaultButton3	Third button is treated as default.
vbDefaultButton4	Fourth button is treated as default.
vbApplicationModal	This suspends the current application till the user responds to the message box.
vbSystemModal	This suspends all the applications till the user responds to the message box.
vbMsgBoxHelpButton	This adds a Help button to the message box.
VbMsgBoxSetForeground	Ensures that message box window is foreground.
vbMsgBoxRight	This sets the Text to right aligned
vbMsgBoxRtlReading	This option specifies that text should appear as right-to-left.

 

Examples of Message boxes in VBA:

Now, let’s move on to some particle examples to understand the use of msgbox:

Example 1: Basic message box:

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1. Sub Msg_exe()  
2. MsgBox "This is a message!"  
3. End Sub  

Example 2: Message box with a title:

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1. Sub Msg_exe()  
2. MsgBox "This is a message!", , "This is the Title"  
3. End Sub  

Example 3:  Exclamation message box:

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1. Sub Msg_exe()  
2. MsgBox "This is a message!", vbExclamation, "This is the Title"  
3. End Sub  

Example 4: Message box with multiple lines

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1. Sub Msg_exe()  
2. MsgBox "Message Line 1" & vbCrLf & "Message Line 2", , "This is the Title"  
3. End Sub  

Note 1: Here ‘vbCrLf’ is the new line character in VBA. It can also be replaced by ‘vbNewLine’.

Example 5: Critical Message box with three buttons

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1. Sub Msg_exe()  
2. result = MsgBox("Critical Error Encountered", vbAbortRetryIgnore + vbCritical, "Error Encountered")  
3. End Sub  

Note 1:  Here I have used two values for the ‘button’ parameter separated by a ‘+’ sign.

Note 2: You will notice that here I have used a variable ‘result’ for accepting the value returned by Msgbox.

Values returned by MsgBox Function:

As I have foretold that VBA MsgBox function returns a value based on the user input. These values can be anyone of the below ones:

Value	Description
1	Specifies that OK button is clicked.
2	Specifies that Cancel button is clicked.
3	Specifies that Abort button is clicked.
4	Specifies that Retry button is clicked.
5	Specifies that Ignore button is clicked.
6	Specifies that Yes button is clicked.
7	Specifies that No button is clicked.

 

How you can decide program flow based on the values returned by Message Box?

In the above table you can see that VBA Msgbox function returns some integer values corresponding to button clicked on the dialog box. You can check this number using an IF Statement or by using a Select case statement.

In the below example I have done the same:

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1. Sub Msg_exe()  
2. Dim Ret_type As Integer  
3. Dim strMsg As String  
4. Dim strTitle As String  
5. ' Dialog Message  
6. strMsg = "Click any one of the below buttons."  
7. ' Dialog's Title  
8. strTitle = "Some Title"  
9. 'Display MessageBox  
10.     Ret_type = MsgBox(strMsg, vbYesNoCancel + vbQuestion, strTitle)  
11. ' Check pressed button  
12. Select Case Ret_type  
13. Case 6  
14.     MsgBox "You clicked 'YES' button."  
15. Case 7  
16.     MsgBox "You clicked 'NO' button."  
17. Case 2  
18.     MsgBox "You clicked 'CANCEL' button."  
19. End Select  
20. End Sub  

So, this was all about the msgbox function in VBA. Do let me know if you have any queries related to the topic