“Now… We are going in a loop” ― Ramakrishna, Springs of Indian Wisdom

 
This post provides a complete guide to the VBA Do While and VBA While Loops. (If you’re looking for information about the VBA For and For Each loops go here)

The VBA While loop exists to make it compatible with older code. However, Microsoft recommends that you use the Do Loop as it is more “structured and flexible”. Both of these loops are covered in this post.

For a quick guide to these loops check out the Quick Guide Table below.

If you are looking for something in particular, you can check out the Table of Contents below(if it’s not visible click on the post header).

 
 

A Quick Guide to VBA While Loops

Loop format	Description	Example
Do While ... Loop	Runs 0 or more time while condition is true	Do While result = "Correct" Loop
Do ... Loop While	Runs 1 or more times while condition is true	Do Loop While result = "Correct"
Do Until ... Loop	Runs 0 or more times until condition is true	Do Until result <> "Correct" Loop
Do ... Until Loop	Runs 1 or more times until condition is true	Do Loop Until result <> "Correct"
While ... Wend	Runs 0 or more times while condition is true. Note: this loop is considered obsolete.	While result = "Correct" Wend
Exit the Do Loop	Exit Do	Do While i < 10    i = GetTotal    If i < 0 Then       Exit Do    End If Loop

 
 

Introduction

If you have never use loops before then you may want to read What are Loops and Why Do You Need Them from my post on the For Loop.

I am going to be mainly concentrating on the Do Loop in this post. As I mentioned above, we have seen the While Wend loop is considered obsolete. For completeness, I have included a section on While Wend later in the post.

So first of all why do we need Do While loops when we already have For loops?

 
 

For Loops Versus Do While Loops

When we use a For Loop, we know in advance how many times we want to run it. For example, we may want to run the loop once for each item in a Collection, Array or Dictionary.

 
In the following code example, we know at the start of each loop, how many times it will run.

 
' runs 5 times
For i = 1 To 5

' runs once for each item in the collection
For i = 1 To coll.Count

' runs once for each item in the arr
For i = LBound(arr) To coll.lbound(arr)

' runs once for each value between 1 and the value in lastRow
For i = 1 To lastRow

' runs once for each item in the collection
For Each s In coll

 
 
The Do Loop is different. The Do Loop runs

1. While a conditon is true

 
Or
 

2. Until a condition is true

 
 
In other words, the number of times the loops runs is not relevant in most cases.

So what is a condition and how do we use them?

 
 

Conditions

A condition is a statement that evaluates to true or false. They are mostly used with Loops and If statements. When you create a condition you use signs like >,<,<>,>=,=.

 
 
The following are examples of conditions

Condition	This is true when
x < 5	x is less than 5
x <= 5	x is less than or equal to 5
x > 5	x is greater than 5
x >= 5	x is greater than or equal to 5
x = 5	x is equal to 5
x <> 5	x does not equal 5
x > 5 And x < 10	x is greater than 5 AND x is less than 10
x = 2 Or x >10	x is equal to 2 OR x is greater than 10
Range("A1") = "John"	Cell A1 contains text "John"
Range("A1") <> "John"	Cell A1 does not contain text "John"

 
 
You may have noticed x=5 as a condition. This should not be confused with x=5 when used as an assignment.

 
 
For example

' means: the value 6 will be stored in x
x = 6

' means: is x equal to 6?
If x = 6

' means: is x equal to 6?
Do While x = 6

 
 
The following table demonstrates how equals is used in conditions and assignments

Using Equals	Statement Type	Meaning
Loop Until x = 5	Condition	Is x equal to 5
Do While x = 5	Condition	Is x equal to 5
If x = 5 Then	Condition	Is x equal to 5
For x = 1 To 5	Assignment	Set the value of x to 1, then to 2 etc.
x = 5	Assignment	Set the value of x to 5
b = 6 = 5	Assignment and Condition	Assign b to the result of condition 6 = 5
x = MyFunc(5,6)	Assignment	Assign x to the value returned from the function

 
 

The Do Loop Format

The Do loop can be used in four ways and this often causes confusion. However, there is only a slight difference in each of these four ways.

 
 
Do is always at the start of the first line and Loop is always at the end of the last line

Do 
Loop

 
 
We can add a condition after either line

Do [condition]
Loop

Do 
Loop [condition]

 
 
The condition is preceded by While or Until which gives us these four possibilities

Do While [condition]
Loop

Do Until [condition]
Loop

Do 
Loop While [condition]

Do 
Loop Until [condition]

 
 
Let’s have a look at some examples to make this clearer.
 
 

A Do Loop Example

Imagine you want the user to enter a list of items. Each time the user enters an item you print it to the Immediate Window. When the user enters a blank string, you want the application to end.

In this case the For loop would not be suitable as you do not know how many items the user will enter. The user could enter the blank string first or on the hundredth attempt. For this type of scenario, you would use a Do loop.

 
 
The following code shows an example of this

    Dim sCommand As String

    Do
        ' Get user input
        sCommand = InputBox("Please enter item")

        ' Print to Immediate Window(Ctrl G to view)
        Debug.Print sCommand

    Loop While sCommand <> ""

 
 
The code enters the loop and continues until it reaches the “Loop While” line. At this point, it checks whether the condition evaluates to true or false.

• If the condition evaluates to false then the code exits the loop and continues on.
• If the condition evaluates to true then the code returns to the Do line and runs through the loop again.

 
 
The difference between having the condition on the Do line and on the Loop line is very simple

When the condition is on the Do line, the loop may not run at all. So it will run zero or more times.
When the condition is on the Loop line, the loop will always run at least once. So it will run one or more times.

 
 
In our the last example, the condition is on the Loop line because we always want to get at least one value from the user. In the following example, we use both versions of the loop. The loop will run while the user does not the enter the letter ‘n’

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub GetInput()

    Dim sCommand As String

    ' Condition at start
    Do While sCommand <> "n"
        sCommand = InputBox("Please enter item for Loop 1")
    Loop

    ' Condition at end
    Do
        sCommand = InputBox("Please enter item for Loop 2")
    Loop While sCommand <> "n"

End Sub

 
 
In the above example, both loops will behave the same.

However, if we set sCommand to ‘n’ before the Do While loop starts, then the code will not enter the loop.

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub GetInput2()

    Dim sCommand As String
    sCommand = "n"

    ' Loop will not run as command is "n"
    Do Whilel sCommand <> "n"
        sCommand = InputBox("Please enter item for Loop 1")
    Loop

    ' Loop will still run at least once
    Do
        sCommand = InputBox("Please enter item for Loop 2")
    Loop While sCommand <> "n"

End Sub

 
 
The second loop in the above example(i.e. Loop While) will always run at least once.

 
 

While Versus Until

When you use the Do Loop the condition mush be preceded by Until or While.

Until and While are essentially the opposite of each other. They are used in VBA in a similar way to how they are used in the English language. 

 
 
For example

• Leave the clothes on the line Until it rains
• Leave the clothes on the line While it does not rain

 
 
another example

• Stay in bed Until it is light
• Stay in bed While it is dark

 
 
yet another example

• repeat Until the count is greater than or equals ten
• repeat While the count is less than ten

 
 
As you can see – using Until and While is just the opposite way of writing the same condition.

 
 

Examples of While and Until

The following code shows the ‘While’ and ‘Until’ loops side by side. As you can see the only difference is the condition is reversed. Note: The signs <> means ‘does not equal’.

 
 

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub GetInput()

    Dim sCommand As String

    ' Condition at start
    Do Until sCommand = "n"
        sCommand = InputBox("Please enter item for Loop 1")
    Loop

    Do While sCommand <> "n"
        sCommand = InputBox("Please enter item for Loop 1")
    Loop

    ' Condition at end
    Do
        sCommand = InputBox("Please enter item for Loop 2")
    Loop Until sCommand = "n"

    Do
        sCommand = InputBox("Please enter item for Loop 2")
    Loop While sCommand <> "n"

End Sub

 
 
First loop: will only start if sCommand does not equal ‘n’.
Second loop: will only start if sCommand does not equal ‘n’.
Third loop: will run at least once before checking sCommand.
Fourth loop: will run at least once before checking sCommand.

 
 

Example: Checking Objects

An example of where Until and While are useful is for checking objects. When an object has not been assigned it has the value Nothing.

 
 
So when we declare a workbook variable in the following example it has a value of nothing until we assign it to a valid Workbook

    Dim wrk As Workbook

 
 
The opposite of Nothing is Not Nothing which can be confusing.

Imagine we have two functions called GetFirstWorkbook and GetNextWorkbook which return some workbook objects. The code will print the name of the workbook until the functions no longer return a valid workbook.

 
 
You can see the sample code here

    Dim wrk As Workbook
    Set wrk = GetFirstWorkbook()

    Do Until wrk Is Nothing
        Debug.Print wrk.Name
        Set wrk = GetNextWorkbook()
    Loop

 
 
To write this code using Do While would be more confusing as the condition is Not Is Nothing

    Dim wrk As Workbook
    Set wrk = GetFirstWorkbook()

    Do While Not wrk Is Nothing
        Debug.Print wrk.Name
        Set wrk = GetNextWorkbook()
    Loop

 
 
This makes the code clearer and having clear conditions is always a good thing. To be honest this is a very small difference and choosing between While and Until really comes down to a personal choice.

 
 

Exit Do Loop

We can exit any Do loop by using the Exit Do statement.

The following code shows an example of using Exit Do

Do While i < 1000
     If Cells(i,1) = "Found" Then 
         Exit Do
     End If
     i = i + 1
Loop 

 
 
In this case we exit the Do Loop if a cell contains the text “Found”.

 
 

While Wend

This loop is in VBA to make it compatible with older code. Microsoft recommends that you use the Do loops as they are more structured.

From MSDN: “The Do…Loop statement provides a more structured and flexible way to perform looping.”

 
 

Format of the VBA While Wend Loop

The VBA While loop has the following format

While <Condition>
Wend

 
 

While Wend vs Do

The different between the VBA While and the VBA Do Loop is :

1. While can only have a condition at the start of the loop.
2. While does not have a Until version.
3. There is no statement to exit a While loop like Exit For or Exit Do.

 
 
The condition for the VBA While loop is the same as for the VBA Do While loop. The two loops in the code below perform exactly the same way

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub GetInput()

    Dim sCommand As String

    Do While sCommand <> "n"
        sCommand = InputBox("Please enter item for Loop 1")
    Loop

    While sCommand <> "n"
        sCommand = InputBox("Please enter item for Loop 2")
    Wend

End Sub

 
 

 Infinite Loop

Even if you have never written code in your life I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase Infinite Loop. This is a loop where the condition will never be met. It normally happens when you forget to update the count.

 
 
The following code shows an infinite loop

    Dim cnt As Long
    cnt = 1

    ' Do not run - this is an infinite loop
    Do While cnt <> 5

    Loop

 
 
In this example cnt is set to 1 but it is never updated. Therefore the condition will never be met – cnt will always be less than 5.

 
 
In the following code the cnt is being updated each time so the condition will be met.

    Dim cnt As Long
    cnt = 1

    Do While cnt <> 5
        cnt = cnt + 1
    Loop

 
 
As you can see using a For Loop is safer for counting as it automatically updates the count in a loop. The following is the same loop using For.

    Dim i As Long
    For i = 1 To 4

    Next i

 
 
This is clearly a better way of doing it. The For Loop sets the initial value, condition and count in one line.

 
 
Of course it is possible to have an infinite loop using For – It just takes a bit more effort 🙂

    Dim i As Long
    ' DO NOT RUN - Infinite Loop
    For i = 1 To 4
        ' i will never reach 4
        i = 1
    Next i

 
 

Dealing With an Infinite Loop

When you have an infinite loop – VBA will not give an error. You code will keep running and the Visual Basic editor will not respond.

In the old days you could break out of a loop by simply pressing Ctrl and Break. Nowadays different Laptops use different key combinations. It is a good idea to know what this is for your laptop so that if an infinite loop occurs you can stop the code easily.

You can also break out of a loop by killing the process. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc. Under the Processes tab look for Excel/Microsoft Excel. Right-click on this and select “End Process”. This will close Excel and you may lose some work – so it’s much better to use Ctrl+Break or it’s equivalent.

 
 

Using Worksheet Functions Instead of Loops

Sometimes you can use a worksheet function instead of using a loop.

For example, imagine you wanted to add the values in a list of cells. You could do this using a loop but it would be more efficient to use the worksheet function Sum. This is quicker and saves you a lot of code.

 
 
It is very easy to use the Worksheet functions. The following is an example of using Sum and Count

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub WorksheetFunctions()

    Debug.Print WorksheetFunction.Sum(Range("A1:A10"))

    Debug.Print WorksheetFunction.Count(Range("A1:A10"))

End Sub

 
 
The following example use a loop to perform the same action. As you can see it is a much longer way of achieving the same goal

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub SumWithLoop()

    Dim total As Long, count As Long
    Dim rg As Range
    For Each rg In Range("A1:A10")
        ' Total
        total = total + rg
        ' Count
        If rg <> "" Then
            count = count + 1
        End If
    Next rg

    Debug.Print total
    Debug.Print count

End Sub

 
 

Summary

 
 

The Do While Loop

• The Do loop can be used in 4 ways.
• It can be used with While at the start or end, Do While .. Loop, Do … Loop While
• It can be used with Until at the start or end, Do Until .. Loop, Do … Loop Until
• While and Until use the opposite condition to each other.
• An Infinite loop occurs if your exit condition will never be met.
• Sometimes using a worksheet function is more efficient than using a loop.

 
 

The While Wend Loop

• The While Wend loop is obsolete and you can use the Do Loop instead.

 
 

What’s Next?

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