Code commenting

Bob Phillips sent me this magnificent example of quality code commenting (from MS somewhere, apparently)

Sub SelectEveryNthRow()
    ' Initialize ColsSelection equal to the number of columns in the
    ' selection.
    ColsSelection = Selection.Columns.Count

    ' Initialize RowsSelection equal to the number of rows in your
    ' selection.
    RowsSelection = Selection.Rows.Count

    ' Initialize RowsBetween equal to three.
    RowsBetween = 3

    ' Initialize Diff equal to one row less than the first row number of
    ' the selection.
    Diff = Selection.Row - 1

    ' Resize the selection to be 1 column wide and the same number of
    ' rows long as the initial selection.
    Selection.Resize(RowsSelection, 1).Select

    ' Resize the selection to be every third row and the same number of
    ' columns wide as the original selection.
    Set FinalRange = Selection. _
    Offset(RowsBetween - 1, 0).Resize(1, ColsSelection)

    ' Loop through each cell in the selection.
    For Each xCell In Selection
        ' If the row number is a multiple of 3, then . . .
        If xCell.Row Mod RowsBetween = Diff Then
            ' ...reset FinalRange to include the union of the current
            ' FinalRange and the same number of columns.
            Set FinalRange = Application.Union _
            (FinalRange, xCell.Resize(1, ColsSelection))
        ' End check.
        End If
    ' Iterate loop.
    Next xCell
    ' Select the requested cells in the range.
    FinalRange.Select
End Sub

Stunning!

Thanks Bob !

As Bob says, if ever there was an argument against commenting, this is it (Bob inserted the blank lines to make it readable)

It might be a bit arrogant, but I think you need to write your code on the understanding whoever comes later will have a reasonable level of competence. If they can’t work out what

Selection.Columns.Count

means then I’m not sure they should be poking around VBA. (or anything important really).

What do you think?

cheers

Simon