VBA Used Range – Count Number of Used Rows or Columns

UsedRange – Find Last Used Cell, Column or Row

The following code will return a message box indicating the total number of rows used in a worksheet. Empty rows are considered used if data follows the empty row.

MsgBox ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Rows.Count

Do you have to run a loop down a sheet but don’t know where the data stops? ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Rows.Count might help.

Put this in a module:

Sub LastRow()

Dim LastRow As Integer

LastRow = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Rows.Count

MsgBox LastRow

End Sub

Sub LastCol()

Dim LastCol As Integer

LastCol = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Col.Count

MsgBox LastCol

End Sub

Find First Empty Cell

Using VBA you may need to write to the first empty cell, or after the last row used in a column. There is no need to loop to find this, the following code does it for you.

In this example the code will write “FirstEmpty” in the first empty cell in column “d”

Public Sub AfterLast()

ActiveSheet.Range("d" & ActiveSheet.Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Offset(1, 0).Value = "FirstEmpty"
End Sub

Count Used Columns In Worksheet

The following code will return in a message box the total number of columns used in a worksheet. Empty columns are considered used if data follows the empty column.

MsgBox ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Columns.Count

Last Used Cell – Problems

When I need to For..Next..Loop through an entire column I usually use ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Rows.Count to find where to stop. I’ve always had good luck with this approach.

I am also aware that occasionally Excel thinks the last row exists somewhere, but the row is actually empty. I’ve seen this a few times after importing data. From BeyondTechnology:

The Worksheet object’s UsedRange does not always work because the used range (or “dirty area”) of a spreadsheet may be larger than the area actually populated with your records.