Visual Basic 6 includes the Windows Scripting Host runtime component. This dynamic link library adds the ability to create and use Dictionary objects, which are similar to Collections, but are more powerful and can also be used in VBA. Unfortunately, several things are lacking in the Dictionary object, and the documentation provided with VB6 for this new object is thin at best.
This class accomplishes three things:
Procedure Name | Type | Description |
(Declarations) | Declarations | Declarations and private variables for the CDictionary class. |
CompareMode | Property | Get the setting of the CompareMode property. This property is used by the Exists method to find keys in the Dictionary. Use Binary mode to do exact comparison. Use Text mode to case-insensitive comparisons. |
Count | Property | Get the count of objects in the Dictionary. |
Dictionary | Property | Get the handle to the current Dictionary object. Use this property for direct access to the Dictionary object. |
Item | Property | Get the item in the Dictionary with the specified key. |
Items | Property | Get the Dictionary items as an array. |
Key | Property | Get the key in the Dictionary with the specified key. |
Keys | Property | Get the Dictionary keys as an array. |
Class_Initialize | Initialize | Set initial values to defaults which may be overridden with property settings. |
Add | Method | Adds the specified item to the Dictionary. |
Exists | Method | Determine if the specified item exists in the Dictionary. Comparison is done according to the setting of the CompareMode property. |
Remove | Method | Removes the specified item from the Dictionary. A runtime error occurs if the specified item does not exist. |
RemoveAll | Method | Removes all items from the Dictionary. |
SortDictionary | Method | Sorts the Dictionary items. This method copies all keys and items to arrays, sorts the array, removes all items from the Dictionary, and then re-populates the Dictionary with the contents of the sorted array. |
DoSort | Private | Sorts the passed variant array. |
' Example of CDictionary ' ' To use this example, create a new module and paste this code into it. ' Then run the procedure by putting the cursor in the procedure and pressing: ' F5 to run it, or ' F8 to step through it line-by-line (see the Debug menu for more options) Private Sub Example_CDictionary() ' Comments: Example of the CDictionary class using the Windows Scripting Runtime component SCRRUN.DLL using VBA and VB6. ' See the results in the Immediate Window. Dim clsDictionary As CDictionary Dim varItems As Variant Dim varItem As Variant Set clsDictionary = New CDictionary clsDictionary.Add "K1", "John" clsDictionary.Add "K2", "Mary" clsDictionary.Add "K3", "Louise" Debug.Print "Item count: " & clsDictionary.Count If clsDictionary.Exists("K2") Then Debug.Print "Mary exists" Else Debug.Print "Mary doesn't exist" End If clsDictionary.SortDictionary True varItems = clsDictionary.Items For Each varItem In varItems Debug.Print "Item: " & varItem Next varItem End Sub
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