VISIO VBA Get a collection of all Shapes in a group

Question

I want to get a collection of all shapes that are in a certain group. Shapes in the group may be a group themselves so I (think I) need a recursive function to get every shape.

This is my code:

Function getAllShapes(shp As Shape) As Collection
    Dim shapes As Collection
    Dim subshp As Shape
    Dim colShp As Shape
    Dim col As Collection

    If shp.Type = 2 Then 'Check if shp is a group
        For Each subshp In shp.shapes
            shapes.Add (subshp) 'Add the subshp to the shape collection
            If subshp.Type = 2 Then 'Check if subshp is group
                Set col = getAllShapes (subshp) 'Get all the shapes from the group
                For Each colShp In col 'Error here
                    shapes.Add (colShp) 'Add all the shapes to the collection
                Next colShp
            End If
        Next subshp
    Else: shapes.Add (shp)
    End If

    Set getAllShapes = shapes
    Set shapes = Nothing

End Function

However, I always get a runtime error: Object Required whenever I try to access the collection from the function (for example in the function itself)

It seems you have a syntax error: 'getAllShapes' is a function accepting one argument, so it should be called as such, no? You appear to be using it as a variable (at the line where you get the error) — Nikolay, Jul 28 '18 at 18:08
Thanks for the input, I corrected the mistake earlier but forgot to update the code in the post. Unfortunately the error remains — ksbawpn, Jul 28 '18 at 19:28

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 28 '18 at 23:17

Your problem starts in this line:

        shapes.Add (subshp) 'Add the subshp to the shape collection

Which should be (note the removal of the parenthesis):

        shapes.Add subshp 'Add the subshp to the shape collection

What is happening here is that the () means that the VBA evaluates subshp and would return whatever the default method returns (e.g. name or ID). So you are not adding a Shape to your collection but something else (e.g. a String or Long).

The space in this line confuses me:

Set col = getAllShapes (subshp) 'Get all the shapes from the group

Your VBE should have written this as:

Set col = getAllShapes(subshp) 'Get all the shapes from the group

So this tells me something else is going on there. However, at this point in the code subshp is a Shape object so should not be causing any problems.

So now, when you use the following code, the VBA is looking for a Shape but your collection contains other things. This causes a mismatch in the line of code - hence your error.

            For Each colShp In col 'Error here
                shapes.Add (colShp) 'Add all the shapes to the collection
            Next colShp

How often do you do this?

shapes.Add (subshp) 'Add the subshp to the shape collection
shapes.Add (colShp) 'Add all the shapes to the collection
Else: shapes.Add (shp)

Also: no need to join two lines together with the ":" - this helps obfuscate your code. They should be:

shapes.Add subshp 'Add the subshp to the shape collection
shapes.Add colShp 'Add all the shapes to the collection
Else with shapes.Add shp on the next line before the End If

As a final point, a good idea is not to name variables (e.g. 'shapes') the same as an existing common method or property - this could lead to some confusion as to which parameter you are using.

VISIO VBA Get a collection of all Shapes in a group

1 Answers1