[excel] Compile throws a "User-defined type not defined" error but does not go to the offending line of code

Symptoms

This is a symptom specifically when compiling an Excel VBA project. The following error occurs:

User-defined type not defined

However, the code that produces this error is not highlighted by the compiler and so I cannot identify the issue.

What I already know and have tried

This is a "User-defined type not defined" error that I have seen before with simple issues such as naming something As Strig instead of As String. However, this particular error is only popping up during the Debug > Compile VBAProject menu option and when the error message box pops up it does not highlight the line of code that the error is occurring in.

After a lot of research I have found that this bug can be related to missing references and I have ruled this out as I have included all needed references and Toolbox objects.

To ensure I wasn't missing any obvious missing Dim statements I have added Option Explicit to all code pages (forms included) to make sure nothing was missing. The error still shows when running a compile.

There is also this known bug that states the issue has been known to happen because of the VB6 projects using binary compatibility:

Turn off Binary Compatibility and compile the project. Visual Basic will highlight the line of code that contains the User Defined Type that is not defined. After resolving the problem, Binary Compatibility can be turned back on.

I found this article via this Question and Answer, however, I cannot find this option in the standard Excel VBA editor.

Help save mine and others' sanity!

I know from Google searches and other questions that I am not the only one who has had this issue.

I have tried going through the code manually but there are simply too many lines to feasibly do so.

Is there a way of turning off Binary Compatibility in Excel VBA projects? How do people find this offending line of code if they can't debug to what they need to change? Any help would be lovely!

Thank you in advance.

Edit: I have found the offending line of code and so my particular issue is solved The problem is still here after removing that particular line - it was a misspelt control name on a form being referenced in its code. This still does not solve the particular issue of how you would go about finding this offending code was the issue. Are we able to find a good way of finding the offending code when this bug happens so others in the future can avoid this agony?

I had the same error yesterday: I had two classes, cProgress and cProgressEx, in my project, one of which was no longer used, and when I removed cProgress class I was given this same compilation error.

I managed to fix the error as follows:

• Exported all modules, forms and classes to the hard drive
• Removed everything from the project
• Saved the project
• Reimported all modules, forms and classes, removed cProgress class, and compiled.
• The error disappeared.

Late Binding

This error can occur due to a missing reference. For example when changing from early binding to late binding, by eliminating the reference, some code may remain that references data types specific the the dropped reference.

Try including the reference to see if the problem disappears.

Maybe the error is not a compiler error but a linker error, so the specific line is unknown. Shame on Microsoft!

I know this is old, but I had a similar problem and found a fix:

I had the same issue with a module I ported from Excel into Access, in an unrelated UDF I was dimming 'As Range' but ranges don't exist in Access. You may be using a variable type without having the proper reference library turned on.

If you have any non-standard dims google them and see if you're missing the reference to that library under tools.

-E

I don't have an answer as to what is actually wrong or to directly fix it.

I can report that exporting all the code and forms, then importing them into a fresh workbook fixed it for me. All the work was recovered, and nothing more needed to be done to get back to work. Since that works, it seems clear that it must be a bug in Excel, or whatever it is would still be missing in the new version.

I do have a possible clue to how this Excel (2007) bug works. It seems to be associated with the removal of a class module (or two). (But not every class module, every time for some reason.) No code was using any part of the removed modules (or the new imported version would not work either). One module had been cut down to nothing but some comments (in hope of removing anything that could be "missing" later) so that there was no code visibly connecting it to any other part of the project. But the error came up shortly after I removed the code module entirely. The error also stopped when the removed (but exported just in case) modules were returned. So for convenience, this project had been packing two unused code modules to avoid this error.

It appears then, that somehow some element of some departed modules remains in the VBA environment, even if nothing is being used from these (there two in this case) class modules anywhere in the project. Consequently, the debug/compile finds that element, and it is no surprise that something is missing because it is. Since the thing that is missing is nowhere in the project there is nothing to highlight so there is a message only and nothing else happens. That would explain the observed behavior.

I had the same issue, if you enable Microsoft Scripting Runtime you should be good. You can do so under tools > references > and then check the box for Microsoft Scripting Runtime. This should solve your issue.

I had this same problem when I inherited another analyst's workbook. He assigned macros to each button on his worksheet. When I changed the name of the module (not the procedure name), it kicked up this error. The fix was easy. Have the button run an _OnClick() event procedure in the worksheet and have that procedure explicitly Call MyProcedureName().

I had this problem with an ordinary VB6 program. It turned out that I had omitted a class definition, not a user-defined type. Apparently VB saw something like "Thing.name" and assumed Thing was a UDT. Yes, it's a serious VB6 bug, but you could hardly expect Microsoft to support something they sold sixteen years ago. So what versions of the various products involved are you using? This is only interesting if it occurs with a product that MS supports.

For future reference -

I had this issue with this piece of code in Microsoft Access with the debugger highlighting the line with the comment:

Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

Dim strSQL As String
Dim rstrSQL As String
Dim strTempPass As String


Private Sub btnForgotPassword_Click()
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler

Dim oApp As Outlook.Application '<---------------------------------Offending line
Dim oMail As MailItem
Set oApp = CreateObject("Outlook.application") 'this is the "instance" of Outlook
Set oMail = oApp.CreateItem(olMailItem) 'this is the actual "email"

I had to select references that were previously unselected. They were

Microsoft Outlook 15.0 Object Library
Microsoft Outlook View Control

After years I have discovered one, if not the, answer to the Microsoft bug of the 'User-defined type not defined' error in Excel. I'm running Excel 2010 for Windows.

If you have a UDF named for example 'xyz()', then if you invoke a non-existent entity beginning with that name followed by a period followed by other chars -- e.g., if you try to invoke non-existent range name 'xyz.abc', the stupid app throws that wrong msg., after which it returns you to your sheet.

In my case it was especially unnerving, because I have UDFs named with just one letter, e.g. x(), y(), etc., and I also have range names that include periods--'x.a', 'c.d', etc. Every time I, say, misspelled a range name--for example, 'x.h', the 'User-defined …' error was thrown simply because a UDF named 'x()' existed somewhere in my project.

It took several hrs. to diagnose. Suggestions above to incrementally remove code from your project, or conversely strip all code and incrementally add it back in, were on the right track but they didn't follow thru. It has nothing to do with code per se; it has only to do with the name of the first line of code in each proc, namely the Sub MyProc or Function MyProc line naming the proc. It was when I commented out one of my 1-letter-named UDFs in a completely unrelated part of the project that the bugged error msg. went away, and from there, after another hr. or so, I was able to generalize the rule as stated.

Perhaps the bug also occurs with punctuation characters other than period ('.') But there aren't very many non-alpha chars permitted in a range name; underline ('_') is allowed, but using it in the manner described doesn't seem to throw the bug.

Jim Luedke

When I had this error in a MS Access database I used the /decompile command line switch along with the Compact/Repair option. Worked for me. I had removed a reference that I was sure my code no longer used and started getting this error.

I've seen this error too when the code stopped at the line:

Dim myNode As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNode

I found out that I had to add "Microsoft XML, v6.0" via Tools > Preferences.

Then it worked for me.

Since it sounds like you've tried many different potentional solutions, you'll probably have to do this the long methodical way now.

Create a new blank workbook. Then piece by piece copy your old workbook into it. Add a reference, write a little bit of code to test it. Ensure it compiles, ensure it runs. Add a sub or function, again, write a little test sub to run it, also ensure it compiles. Repeat this process slowly adding and testing everything.

You can speed this up a bit by first trying larger chunks, then when you find one that triggers the problem, remove it and break it into smaller peices for testing.

Either you will find the offender, or you'll have a new workbook that magically does not have the problem. The latter would be due to some sort of hidden corruption in the workbook file, probably in the binary vbproject part.

Welcome to the world of debugging without debuggers or other helpful tools to do the heavy lifting for you!

For the Scripting.Dictionary type, you can either use late binding (as already pointed out ) with:

Dim Dict as Object
Set Dict = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")

Which works, but you don't get the code auto completion. Or you use early binding, but you need to make sure that VBA can find the Scripting.Dictionary type by adding the reference to the Microsoft Scripting Library via VBA-->Tools-->References--> "Microsoft Scripting Runtime". Then you can use:

Dim Dict as Scripting.Dictionary
Set Dict = New Scripting.Dictionary

... and auto completion will work.

My solution is not good news but at least it should work.

My case is: I have a .xlsm from a coworker. 1) I open it and click the button: it works fine. 2) I save the file, close excel, open the file again: now it doesn't work anymore. The conclusion is: the code is OK but excel can't manage references correctly. (I've tried removing the re-adding the references without any success)

So the solution is to declare every referenced object as Variant and use CreateObject("Foo.Bar") instead of New Foo.Bar.

For example:

Dim objXML As MSXML2.DOMDocument
Set objXML = New MSXML2.DOMDocument

Replaced by:

Dim objXML As Variant
Set objXML = CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument")

A bit late, and not a complete solution either, but for everyone who gets hit by this error without any obvious reason (having all the references defined, etc.) This thread put me on the correct track though. The issue seems to originate from some caching related bug in MS Office VBA Editor.

After making some changes to a project including about 40 forms with code modules plus 40 classes and some global modules in MS Access 2016 the compilation failed.

Commenting out code was obviously not an option, nor did exporting and re-importing all the 80+ files seem reasonable. Concentrating on what had recently been changed, my suspicions focused on removal of one class module.

Having no better ideas I re-cereated an empty class module with the same name that had previously been removed. And voliá the error was gone! It was even possible to remove the unused class module again without the error reappearing, until any changes were saved to a form module which previously had contained a WithEvents declaration involving the now removed class.

Not completely sure if WithEvents declaration really is what triggers the error even after the declaration has been removed. And no clues how to actually find out (without having information about the development history) which Form might be the culprit...

But what finally solved the issue was:

1. In VBE - Copy all code from Form code module
2. In Access open Form in Design view and set Has Module property to No
3. Save the project (this removes any code associated with Form)
4. (Not sure if need to close and re-open Access, but I did it)
5. Open Form in Design view and set Has Module property back to Yes
6. In VBE paste back the copied out module code
7. Save

I had exactly the same problem (always seems to occur when I try to implement a Interface onto a userform. Download and install Code Cleaner from here. This is a freeware utility that has saved me on numerous occasions. With your VBA project open, run the "Clean Code..." option. Make sure you check the "backup project" and/or "export all code modules" to safe locations before running the clean. As far as I understand it, this utility exports and then re-imports all modules and classes, which eliminates compiler errors that have crept into the code. Worked like a charm for me! Good luck.

Had a similiar experience, but it was because I had renamed an enum in one of my classes. I exported and re-imported the Classes that had referred to the old enum and the error message disappeared. This suggests it is a caching issue in the VBA environment.

An different problem with the same symptom: I had a class implemented which was not defined. It was wrapped with a #if that I thought should have not allowed the compiler to see it, but not so. Remove the comment out the Implements statement and all is well. I assume importing the definition would also work...

Just letting you all know I had this problem too. Rather than the code, the issue lay with what macro a button was calling. (It had been calling the 'createroutes.createroutes' macro, but I had renamed the 'createroutes' module to 'routes'.) Therefore the problem was fixed by pointing the button to the correct location.

I was able to fix the error by

1. Completely closing Access
2. Renaming the database file
3. Opening the renamed database file in Access.
4. Accepted various security warnings and prompts.
   • Not only did I choose to Enable Macros, but also accepted to make the renamed database a Trusted Document.
   • The previous file had also been marked as a Trusted Document.
5. Successfully compile the VBA project without error, no changes to code.
6. After the successful compile, I was able to close Access again, rename it back to the original filename. I had to reply to the same security prompts, but once I opened the VBA project it still compiled without error.

A little history of this case and observations:

• I'm posting this answer because my observed symptoms were a little different than others and/or my solution seems unique.
• At least during part of the time I experienced the error, my VBA window was showing two extra, "mysterious" projects. Regrettably I did not record the names before I resolved the error. One was something like ACXTOOLS. The modules inside could not be opened.
• I think the original problem was indeed due to bad code since I had made major changes to a form before attempting to update its module code. But even after fixing the code the error persisted. I knew the code worked, because the form would load and no errors. As the original post states, the “User-defined type not defined” error would appear but it would not go to any offending line of code.
• Prior to finding this error, I ensured all necessary references were added. I compacted and repaired the database more than once. I closed down Access and reopened the file numerous times between various fix attempts. I removed the suspected offending form, but still got the error. I tried other various steps suggested here and on other forums, but nothing fix the problem.
• I stumbled upon this fix when I made a backup copy for attempting drastic measures, like deleting one form/module at a time. But upon opening the backup copy, the problem did not reoccur.

Possible solution, you are trying to work with Powerpoint via Excel VBA and you didn't activate Powerpoint Object Library first.

To do this, in the VBA editor top menu select Tools, References, then scroll down to click the library called Microsoft Powerpoint xx.x Object Library. Office 2007 is library 12, each Office version has a different library. FYI, I've experienced some odd errors and file corruption when I activate the 2007 library but someone tries to open and run this macro using Excel 2003. The old version of Excel doesn't recognize the newer library, which seems to cause problems.