What are the differences between using the New keyword and calling CreateObject in Excel VBA?

Question

What criteria should I use to decide whether I write VBA code like this:

Set xmlDocument = New MSXML2.DOMDocument

or like this:

Set xmlDocument = CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument")

?

Answer 1

As long as the variable is not typed as object

Dim xmlDocument as MSXML2.DOMDocument
Set xmlDocument = CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument")

is the same as

Dim xmlDocument as MSXML2.DOMDocument
Set xmlDocument = New MSXML2.DOMDocument

both use early binding. Whereas

Dim xmlDocument as Object
Set xmlDocument = CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument")

uses late binding. See MSDN here.

When you’re creating externally provided objects, there are no differences between the New operator, declaring a variable As New, and using the CreateObject function.

New requires that a type library is referenced. Whereas CreateObject uses the registry.

CreateObject can be used to create an object on a remote machine.