VBA Routine to Add and Name Worksheets

This tutorial will discuss how to add / insert worksheets using VBA.

Add Sheet

This simple macro will add a Sheet before the ActiveSheet:

Sub Add ()
    Sheets.Add
End Sub

After inserting a Sheet, the new Sheet becomes the ActiveSheet. You can then use the ActiveSheet object to work with the new Sheet (At the bottom of this article we will show how to insert a new sheet directly to a variable).

ActiveSheet.Name = "NewSheet"

Add Sheet with Name

You can also define a Sheet name as you create the new Sheet:

Sheets.Add.Name = "NewSheet"

Create New Sheet with Name from a Cell

Or use a cell value to name a new Sheet:

Sheets.Add.Name = range("a3").value

Add Sheet Before / After Another Sheet

You might also want to choose the location of where the new Sheet will be inserted. You can use the After or Before properties to insert a sheet to a specific location in the workbook.

Insert Sheet After Another Sheet

This code will insert the new sheet AFTER another sheet:

Sheets.Add After:=Sheets("Input")

This will insert a new Sheet AFTER another sheet and specify the Sheet name:

Sheets.Add(After:=Sheets("Input")).Name = "NewSheet"

Notice the extra parenthesis required in the second example (the first example will generate an error if the second parenthesis are added).

or Before:

Sheets.Add(Before:=Sheets("Input")).Name = "NewSheet"

In these examples we explicitly named the Sheet used to determine the sheet location. Often you’ll want to use the Sheet Index number instead, so that you can insert the sheet to the beginning or end of the Workbook:

Add Sheet To End of Workbook

To add a Sheet to the end of the workbook:

Sheets.Add After:=Sheets(Sheets.Count)

Add Sheet To Beginning of Workbook:

To add a Sheet to the beginning of the workbook:

Sheets.Add(Before:=Sheets(1)).Name = "FirstSheet"

Add Sheet to Variable

This code assigns the new Sheet to a variable as the sheet is created:

Dim ws As Worksheet
Set ws = Sheets.Add

From here you can reference the new sheet with the variable ‘ws’:

ws.name = "VarSheet"

More Add Sheet Examples

Create Sheet if it Doesn’t Already Exist

You might want to create a sheet only if it doesn’t already exist.

 

Create Worksheets From List of Names

The following routine will look at the contents of a single column set up Excel worksheets within the current workbook with these names. It makes a call to another function to see if a sheet with that name already exists, and if so the sheet isn’t created.

Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()

Call CreateWorksheets(Sheets("Sheet2").Range("A1:a10"))

End Sub

Sub CreateWorksheets(Names_Of_Sheets As Range)
Dim No_Of_Sheets_to_be_Added As Integer
Dim Sheet_Name As String
Dim i As Integer

No_Of_Sheets_to_be_Added = Names_Of_Sheets.Rows.Count

For i = 1 To No_Of_Sheets_to_be_Added

Sheet_Name = Names_Of_Sheets.Cells(i, 1).Value

'Only add sheet if it doesn't exist already and the name is longer than zero characters

If (Sheet_Exists(Sheet_Name) = False) And (Sheet_Name <> "") Then
    Worksheets.Add().Name = Sheet_Name
End If

Next i

End Sub

Function Sheet_Exists(WorkSheet_Name As String) As Boolean
Dim Work_sheet As Worksheet

Sheet_Exists = False

For Each Work_sheet In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets

    If Work_sheet.Name = WorkSheet_Name Then
        Sheet_Exists = True
    End If

Next

End Function

So if we have the following text in cells A1:A30 in Sheet 2:

Then the following sheets will be created:

Note that although “Dog” appears twice, only one sheet is created.