
Tips.Net > ExcelTips Home > Files > Merging Many Workbooks
Summary: Got a whole slew of workbooks that you need to merge together? You can do it manually, but it could take you all day. It’s much better to use a macro to do the merging, and you can be done in a few minutes. This tip explains how you can develop such a macro and how it could save you time. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, and Excel 2003.)
Joydip Das ran into a problem merging quite a few workbooks together. The majority of the workbooks--about 200 of them, all in a single folder--each contain a single worksheet, but some contain more. The worksheets form each of these workbooks needs to be added to a single workbook.
The easiest way to do merges of this magnitude--particularly if you have to do it often--is with a macro. The following macro displays a dialog box asking you to select the files to merge. (You can select multiple workbooks by holding down the Ctrl key as you click each one.) It loops thru the list you select, opening each one and moving all its worksheets to the end of the workbook with the code.
Sub CombineWorkbooks()
Dim FilesToOpen
Dim x As Integer
On Error GoTo ErrHandler
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
FilesToOpen = Application.GetOpenFilename _
(FileFilter:="Microsoft Excel Files (*.xls), *.xls", _
MultiSelect:=True, Title:="Files to Merge")
If TypeName(FilesToOpen) = "Boolean" Then
MsgBox "No Files were selected"
GoTo ExitHandler
End If
x = 1
While x <= UBound(FilesToOpen)
Workbooks.Open FileName:=FilesToOpen(x)
Sheets().Move After:=ThisWorkbook.Sheets _
(ThisWorkbook.Sheets.Count)
x = x + 1
Wend
ExitHandler:
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Exit Sub
ErrHandler:
MsgBox Err.Description
Resume ExitHandler
End Sub
In the process of adding the worksheets to the end of the workbook, Excel will automatically append a (2), (3), etc. when duplicates worksheet names are detected. Any formulas in the book referring to other sheets will also be updated to reflect the new names.
Tip #2409 applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
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