XL2000: Crash Running Macro When Object Set to Nothing

In Microsoft Excel, when you run a Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications macro, you may receive the following error message: If you click Details, you receive an error message similar to the following: This may be followed by a second illegal operation error message similar to the following: NOTE: You may receive this error message even though the procedure ran successfully in earlier versions of Microsoft Excel.

This problem may occur if all of the following conditions are true:

• You create an object variable in a Visual Basic for Applications macro and assign it to an object.
  
  -and-
  
  
• When you are finished using the object variable, you set the object variable to the Nothing keyword, so the variable no longer refers to the actual object.
  
  -and-
  
  
• You run the macro.

NOTE: If you step through the macro, it does not crash.

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements. To prevent this problem, explicitly close an object with the Close method before setting an object variable to Nothing.

Example:

The following code may generate the errors shown in the "Symptoms" section: Replace this with:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

It is generally good programming practice to close an object you have created before destroying it.