Autofiltering Excel with multiple filter conditions - perl

Question

I am trying to autofilter in Excel using the below VBScript code. This script called multiple times from a Perl program.
Dim objExcel : Set objExcel = GetObject(,"Excel.Application")
objExcel.Visible = True
objExcel.Selection.AutoFilter
objExcel.ActiveSheet.Range("G1").AutoFilter WScript.Arguments.Item(0), _
WScript.Arguments.Item (1)
Now I would like to know: is there a way by which I can pass an array for WScript.Arguments.Item (1) so that all the conditions are selected in one go? The task is to delete the filtered value. I call this script through Perl multiple times and the above script filter one value at a time and delete. The program works fine, but is slow.
Following is the part of Perl which calls the VBScript.
while(<FILE>){
chomp;
system("CSCRIPT "."\"$currentWorkingDirectory\"".'aboveVBS.vbs 9 '."\"$_\"");
sleep(2);
}

Answer 1

If you put quotes around the values, VBScript will treat it as a single argument.
> cscript script.vbs arg1 "multiple values for arg 2"
In the script:
WScript.Echo WScript.Arguments.Count ' ==> 2
a = Split(WScript.Arguments(1))
WScript.Echo a(0) ' ==> multiple
WScript.Echo a(1) ' ==> values
WScript.Echo a(2) ' ==> for
WScript.Echo a(3) ' ==> arg
WScript.Echo a(4) ' ==> 2
Excel expects:
Range.AutoFilter <Field>, <Criteria>, <Operator>
If you want a list of criteria to filter on, you'll use xlFilterValues for the <Operator> argument. <Criteria> will be an array of string values, which we created above.
Const xlFilterVaues = 7
objExcel.ActiveSheet.Range("G1").AutoFilter WScript.Arguments.Item(0), a, xlFilterValues
So, just try adding Split() around WScript.Arguments(1) in your existing code, and pass xlFilterValues for the third param.

Answer 2

If only your second argument changes, you could pass the entire content of your data file to the VBScript:
local $/;
my $args = <FILE>;
$args =~ s/^\s+|\s+$//g;
$args =~ s/\r?\n/" "/g;
system("cscript \"$currentWorkingDirectory\\your.vbs\" 9 \"$args\"");
and change the processing in your VBScript to this:
Set xl = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
xl.Visible = True
Set wb = xl.Workbook.Open("C:\path\to\your.xlsx")
Set ws = wb.Sheets(1)
...
xl.Selection.AutoFilter
For i = 1 To WScript.Arguments.Count - 1
ws.Range("G1").AutoFilter WScript.Arguments(0), WScript.Arguments(i)
...
Next
Or you could simply call the VBScript with the field and the path to the data file:
system("cscript \"$currentWorkingDirectory\\your.vbs\" 9 \"$filepath\"");
and do all the processing in VBScript:
Set xl = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
xl.Visible = True
Set wb = xl.Workbook.Open("C:\path\to\your.xlsx")
Set ws = wb.Sheets(1)
...
xl.Selection.AutoFilter
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set f = fso.OpenTextFile(WScript.Arguments(1))
Do Until f.AtEndOfStream
ws.Range("G1").AutoFilter WScript.Arguments(0), f.ReadLine
...
Next
f.Close
Applying more than 2 AutoFilter conditions to a column at the same time is not possible. Check the signature of the AutoFilter method in the documentation:
expression .AutoFilter(Field, Criteria1, Operator, Criteria2, VisibleDropDown)
expression An expression that returns a Range object.
You have Critera1 and Criteria2 and an Operator for combining the two. Calling the AutoFilter method with another set of criteria replaces the existing criteria.