Visual Basic for Applications:
Parsing HTML

How to:

In VBA, you can parse HTML using the Microsoft HTML Object Library. Add a reference to this library in your VBA editor by going to Tools > References and checking Microsoft HTML Object Library. This gives you access to classes for navigating and manipulating HTML documents.

Here’s a simple example that shows how to load an HTML document from a file and extract all the links (anchor tags):

Sub ParseHTML()
    Dim htmlDoc As MSHTML.HTMLDocument
    Dim htmlElement As MSHTML.IHTMLElement
    Dim htmlElements As MSHTML.IHTMLElementCollection
    Dim htmlFile As String
    Dim fileContent As String
    
    ' Load HTML content from a file
    htmlFile = "C:\path\to\your\file.html"
    Open htmlFile For Input As #1
    fileContent = Input$(LOF(1), 1)
    Close #1
    
    ' Initialize HTML Document
    Set htmlDoc = New MSHTML.HTMLDocument
    htmlDoc.body.innerHTML = fileContent
    
    ' Get all anchor tags
    Set htmlElements = htmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("a")

    ' Loop through all anchor elements and print the href attribute
    For Each htmlElement In htmlElements
        Debug.Print htmlElement.getAttribute("href")
    Next htmlElement
End Sub

This script reads an HTML file’s contents, loads it into an HTMLDocument object, retrieves all anchor elements (<a> tags), and then iterates over them, printing the href attribute of each to the Immediate Window.

Deep Dive:

Historically, parsing HTML in VBA has been a bit cumbersome due to the lack of direct support for modern web scraping and document handling technologies. The Microsoft HTML Object Library, despite being powerful, is somewhat dated and may not handle modern web standards as smoothly as newer technologies.

For complex HTML parsing and web scraping tasks, alternative tools and languages like Python with libraries such as Beautiful Soup or Scrapy are often recommended. These modern tools offer more flexibility, better performance, and are more in tune with current web standards. However, when working within the Microsoft Office ecosystem, using VBA with the Microsoft HTML Object Library remains a valuable skill. It unlocks direct manipulation of HTML content in a way that integrates seamlessly with applications like Excel and Access, providing a straightforward method for accomplishing tasks that involve basic HTML document handling without the need to step outside the familiar VBA environment.