VBA – Yes No Message Box (Msgbox)

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Last updated on October 25, 2023

This tutorial will cover how to use the VBA MsgBox Function to display messageboxes to users (including the YesNo Messagebox). You might also be interested in our article on InputBoxes.

VBA MsgBox Function

In VBA, it’s easy to display a simple MsgBox:

MsgBox "This is a Message Box"

vba messagebox

However you can do a lot more than display a simple OK message box. Let’s quickly look at complicated example before we dive into specifics…

VBA YesNo Message Box

Below we will create a message box with:

A title “Message Box Title” and prompt “Text”
A question mark icon
Yes / No options instead of a simple “OK”
Default button = ‘No’

Dim answer As Integer

answer = MsgBox("Text", vbQuestion + vbYesNo + vbDefaultButton2, "Message Box Title")

vba yesno messagebox

The messagebox will return vbYes or vbNo depending on the user’s choice. You can then then perform different actions based on the choice:

If answer = vbYes Then
  MsgBox "Yes"
Else
  MsgBox "No"
End If

In the next section we will show you all of the options available to you when creating message boxes. Then we will introduce you to the syntax of the MsgBox Function and finally go over other message box examples.

VBA Message Box Options

Take a look at the image below. Here you will see (almost) all of the options available to you when creating message boxes. Take notice of the icons and the different buttons.

vba write messagebox code

This is a screenshot of the “MessageBox Builder” from our Premium VBA Add-in: AutoMacro. The MessageBox Builder allows you to quickly design your desired messagebox and insert the code into your code module. It also contains many other code builders, an extensive VBA code library, and an assortment of coding tools. It’s a must-have for any VBA developer.

Syntax of MsgBox Function

MsgBox( prompt [, buttons ] [, title ] [, helpfile, context ] )

prompt (Required) – This is the primary message box text.

buttons – Choose which buttons to display. If omitted, ‘OKonly’. Here you can also specify what icon to show and the default button.

title – The title at the top of the message box. If omitted, the name of the current application is displayed (ex. Microsoft Excel).

helpfile – Specify help file that can be accessed when user clicks on the ‘Help’ button. If specified, then you must also add context (below)

context – Numeric expression representing the Help context number assigned to the appropriate Help topic.

You can probably ignore the helpfile and context arguments. I’ve never seen them used.

Customize Message Box Title and Prompt

The MsgBox function allows you to customize the title and prompt messages like so:

Msgbox "Prompt",,"Title"

Another example:

Sub MsgBoxPromptTitle()
  MsgBox "Step 1 Complete. Click OK to run step 2.",, "Step 1 of 5"
End Sub

vba messagebox okonly

Important! You must remember to surround your text with quotations.

MessageBox LineBreaks

You can also add line breaks to your message box prompts with ‘vbNewLine’.

Sub MsgBoxPromptTitle_NewLine()
  MsgBox "Step 1 Complete." & vbNewLine & "Click OK to Run Step 2.", , "Step 1 of 5"
End Sub

vba messagebox insert line

Notice we use the & symbol to join text together. You can learn more about using & with text and other options for inserting linebreaks in our article on joining text.

MsgBox Icons

VBA gives you the ability to add one of four pre-built icons to your message boxes:

Icon Constant	Icon
vbInformation
vbCritical
vbQuestion
vbExclamation

The Icon constant should be placed within the button argument:

Sub MsgBoxQuestionIcon()
  MsgBox "Question Example", vbQuestion
End Sub

This will generate the default ‘OK’ message box with the Question icon:

Notice how when you type, the VBA Editor will show you the options available to you:

vba msgbox syntax

This is helpful because you don’t need to remember the exact syntax or names of icons or buttons.

Now we will demo each message box icon:

MsgBox Icons – Information

Sub MsgBoxInformationIcon()
  MsgBox "Information Example", vbInformation
End Sub

MsgBox Icons – Critical

Sub MsgBoxCriticalIcon()
  MsgBox "Critical Example", vbCritical
End Sub

vba critical message box

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MsgBox Icons – Question

Sub MsgBoxQuestionIcon()
  MsgBox "Question Example", vbQuestion
End Sub

MsgBox Icons – Exclamation

Sub MsgBoxExclamationIcon()
  MsgBox "Exclamation Example", vbExclamation
End Sub

msgbox exclamation icon

Below we will talk about generating message boxes with different button layouts. If you do choose a different message box type, you will need to append the icon type after the buttons using a “+”:

Sub MsgBoxQuestionIcon()
  MsgBox "Do you want to continue?", vbOKCancel + vbQuestion
End Sub

vba messagebox question

MsgBox Variables

So far we have worked primarily with the default ‘OK’ message box. The OK message box only has one option: Pressing ‘OK’ allows the code to continue. However, you can also specify other button groupings: OK / Cancel, Yes / No, etc.

In which case you will want to perform different actions based on which button is pressed. Let’s look at an example.

Here is the message box we will generate:

vba yes no msgbox

This is the entire code (we will break it down next):

Sub MsgBoxVariable()

Dim answer As Integer
answer = MsgBox("Do you want to Continue?", vbQuestion + vbYesNo)

  If answer = vbYes Then
    MsgBox "Yes"
  Else
    MsgBox "No"
  End If

End Sub

First we assign the messagebox output to an integer variable.

Dim answer As Integer

answer = MsgBox("Do you want to Continue?", vbQuestion + vbYesNo)

Next we use an If-Else to determine what to do based on which button is pressed:

If answer = vbYes Then
  MsgBox "Yes"
Else
  MsgBox "No"
End If

The MsgBox function returns an integer value (between 1-7) so we define the variable as an integer type. However, instead of referring to the integer number, you can refer to a constant (ex. vbOK, vbCancel, etc.). Look at this table to see all of the options:

Button	Constant	Value
OK	vbOK	1
Cancel	vbCancel	2
Abort	vbAbort	3
Retry	vbRetry	4
Ignore	vbIgnore	5
Yes	vbYes	6
No	vbNo	7

Now we will demo each button grouping:

OK Message Box – vbOKOnly

messagebox okonly

This is the standard VBA messagebox.

Sub MsgBox_OKOnly()

Dim answer As Integer
answer = MsgBox("OKOnly Example", vbOKOnly)

End Sub

OK Cancel Message Box – vbOKCancel

messagebox okcancel

Sub MsgBox_OKCancel()

Dim answer As Integer
answer = MsgBox("OK Cancel Example", vbOKCancel)

  If answer = vbOK Then
    MsgBox "OK"
  Else
    MsgBox "Cancel"
  End If

End Sub

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Yes No Message Box – vbYesNo

messagebox yes no

Sub MsgBox_YesNo()

Dim answer As Integer
answer = MsgBox("Yes No Example", vbYesNo)

  If answer = vbYes Then
    MsgBox "Yes"
  Else
    MsgBox "No"
  End If

End Sub

Yes No Cancel Message Box – vbYesNoCancel

messagebox yes no cancel

Sub MsgBox_YesNoCancel()

Dim answer As Integer
answer = MsgBox("Yes No Cancel Example", vbYesNoCancel)

  If answer = vbYes Then
    MsgBox "Yes"
  ElseIf answer = vbNo Then
    MsgBox "No"
  Else
    MsgBox "Cancel"
  End If

End Sub

Abort Retry Ignore Message Box – vbAbortRetryIgnore

messagebox abort retry ignore

Sub MsgBox_AbortRetryIgnore()

Dim answer As Integer
answer = MsgBox("Abort Retry Ignore Example", vbAbortRetryIgnore)

  If answer = vbAbort Then
    MsgBox "Abort"
  ElseIf answer = vbRetry Then
    MsgBox "Retry"
  Else
    MsgBox "Ignore"
  End If

End Sub

Retry Cancel Message Box – vbRetryCancel

messagebox retry cancel

Sub MsgBox_RetryCancel()

Dim answer As Integer
answer = MsgBox("Retry Cancel Example", vbRetryCancel)

  If answer = vbRetry Then
    MsgBox "Retry"
  Else
    MsgBox "Cancel"
  End If

End Sub