Summary
A variable that summarizes the results of a bunch of code.
Situation
You have a bunch of code. You want to see whether something happened in the code. It could happen in more than one place in the code. Validation is a common example, where user input could be invalid in a number of different ways.
Needs
A variable you can use as a flag.
Provides
A value in the flag, that you can test for.
Action
Example:
- 'Get user input.
- tMainColor = Cells(7, 2)
- 'Normalize.
- tMainColor = LCase(Trim(tMainColor))
- 'Initialize flag.
- tIsMainColorOk = "no"
- 'Test for valid colors.
- If tMainColor = "black" Then
- tIsMainColorOk = "yes"
- ElseIf tMainColor = "brown" Then
- tIsMainColorOk = "yes"
- ElseIf tMainColor = "white" Then
- tIsMainColorOk = "yes"
- ElseIf tMainColor = "pink" Then
- tIsMainColorOk = "yes"
- End If
- 'Is the color valid?
- If tIsMainColorOk = "no" Then
- 'Show error message to the user.
- tMessage = "Sorry, " & tMainColor & " is not a valid color."
- MsgBox tMessage
- 'Stop the program.
- End
- End If
Any of the Ifs can change the value of the flag.
See the Basic validation: strings lesson for deets, and a flag goat.
Where referenced