On Calling Solver From a Macro

Solver is a wonderful tool but one that

can't be called from an Excel macro
without some setup work in advance.
The worksheets in this workbook are:
Solver Demo - Exposition
See Solver work under macro control.
Solver's Solution
An archive workbook with Solver's
solution to the problem recorded.
Call Solver from VBA
A description of how to set up Solver
as an "available reference" to VBA.

253253145.xls

Excel Solver Demo: Forecast for 4 quarters

Target Cell

Changing Cells

Constraints

Product Price:
Product Cost:

Solve fo
Product

$40.00
$25.00

Seasonality

Q1
0.9

Q2
1.1

Q3
0.8

Q4
1.2

Total

Units Sold
Sales Revenue
Cost of Sales
Gross Margin

3,592
$143,662
89,789
53,873

4,390
$175,587
109,742
65,845

3,192
$127,700
79,812
47,887

4,789
$191,549
119,718
71,831

15,962
$638,498
399,061
239,437

Salesforce
Advertising
Overhead
Total Costs

8,000
10,000
21,549
39,549

8,000
10,000
26,338
44,338

9,000
10,000
19,155
38,155

9,000
10,000
28,732
47,732

34,000
40,000
95,775
169,775

Product Profit
Profit Margin

$14,324
10%

$21,507
12%

$9,732
8%

$24,099
13%

$69,662
11%

To return to the original worksheet: The

changing cells values were 10,000 each quarter.

Page 2

Return
origin

253253145.xls

Solve for maximum

Product Profit in Q1

Return model to
original values.

Page 3

253253145.xls

Excel Solver Demo: with Solver's Solution

Target Cell

Changing Cells

Product Price:
Product Cost:

Constraints

$40.00
$25.00

Seasonality

Q1
0.9

Q2
1.1

Q3
0.8

Q4
1.2

Total

Units Sold
Sales Revenue
Cost of Sales
Gross Margin

4,465
$178,605
111,628
66,977

3,970
$158,819
99,262
59,557

2,888
$115,505
72,190
43,314

4,331
$173,257
108,286
64,971

15,655
$626,186
391,366
234,820

Salesforce
Advertising
Overhead
Total Costs

8,000
$17,093
26,791
51,884

8,000
$7,636
23,823
39,459

9,000
$7,636
17,326
33,961

9,000
$7,636
25,989
42,624

34,000
40,000
93,928
167,928

Product Profit
Profit Margin

$15,093
8%

$20,099
13%

$9,353
8%

$22,347
13%

$66,892
11%

The completed "Solver Parameters" dialog for this problem.

The constraint d

Page 4

253253145.xls

The constraint definition dialog for this problem.

Page 5

Setup so you can Call Solver from a Macro

How to:
Create your model with Solver as usual. Save it.
Open the VBA Editor (ALT+F11) and choose Tools, References
to open the "References - VBAProject" dialog shown below.

Find "Solver" in the list of "Available References" and check it 'on'. Click OK.
Save your workbook.
Look in the VBA Project window for your project. There should now be a folder
with the name "References". If you open this folder, you should see an item
that reads "Reference to SOLVER.XLA". This reference is stored with your
workbook and macros so you don't need to re-establish it every time you
want to run the macro that calls Solver that's in your workbook.

The 12 Solver-related func

use in VBA code:

Now in this workbook you can write a macro that invokes Solver
and the invocation can occur under macro control.
Without this setup step, you can record a macro that invokes Solver
but the macro won't run. You'll get an error message like the one below.

The 12 Solver-related functions available for

use in VBA code: