Does VBA have Dictionary Structure?

Question

Does VBA have dictionary structure? Like key<>value array?

Answer 1

Yes.

Set a reference to MS Scripting runtime ('Microsoft Scripting Runtime'). As per @regjo's comment, go to Tools->References and tick the box for 'Microsoft Scripting Runtime'.

Create a dictionary instance using the code below:

Set dict = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")

or

Dim dict As New Scripting.Dictionary 

Example of use:

If Not dict.Exists(key) Then 
    dict.Add key, value
End If 

Don't forget to set the dictionary to Nothing when you have finished using it.

Set dict = Nothing 

Answer 2

VBA has the collection object:

    Dim c As Collection
    Set c = New Collection
    c.Add "Data1", "Key1"
    c.Add "Data2", "Key2"
    c.Add "Data3", "Key3"
    'Insert data via key into cell A1
    Range("A1").Value = c.Item("Key2")

The Collection object performs key-based lookups using a hash so it's quick.

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You can use a Contains() function to check whether a particular collection contains a key:

Public Function Contains(col As Collection, key As Variant) As Boolean
    On Error Resume Next
    col(key) ' Just try it. If it fails, Err.Number will be nonzero.
    Contains = (Err.Number = 0)
    Err.Clear
End Function

Edit 24 June 2015: Shorter Contains() thanks to @TWiStErRob.

Edit 25 September 2015: Added Err.Clear() thanks to @scipilot.

Answer 3

VBA does not have an internal implementation of a dictionary, but from VBA you can still use the dictionary object from MS Scripting Runtime Library.

Dim d
Set d = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
d.Add "a", "aaa"
d.Add "b", "bbb"
d.Add "c", "ccc"

If d.Exists("c") Then
    MsgBox d("c")
End If

Answer 4

An additional dictionary example that is useful for containing frequency of occurence.

Outside of loop:

Dim dict As New Scripting.dictionary
Dim MyVar as String

Within a loop:

'dictionary
If dict.Exists(MyVar) Then
    dict.Item(MyVar) = dict.Item(MyVar) + 1 'increment
Else
    dict.Item(MyVar) = 1 'set as 1st occurence
End If

To check on frequency:

Dim i As Integer
For i = 0 To dict.Count - 1 ' lower index 0 (instead of 1)
    Debug.Print dict.Items(i) & " " & dict.Keys(i)
Next i

Answer 5

Building off cjrh's answer, we can build a Contains function requiring no labels (I don't like using labels).

Public Function Contains(Col As Collection, Key As String) As Boolean
    Contains = True
    On Error Resume Next
        err.Clear
        Col (Key)
        If err.Number <> 0 Then
            Contains = False
            err.Clear
        End If
    On Error GoTo 0
End Function

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For a project of mine, I wrote a set of helper functions to make a Collection behave more like a Dictionary. It still allows recursive collections. You'll notice Key always comes first because it was mandatory and made more sense in my implementation. I also used only String keys. You can change it back if you like.

Set

I renamed this to set because it will overwrite old values.

Private Sub cSet(ByRef Col As Collection, Key As String, Item As Variant)
    If (cHas(Col, Key)) Then Col.Remove Key
    Col.Add Array(Key, Item), Key
End Sub

Get

The err stuff is for objects since you would pass objects using set and variables without. I think you can just check if it's an object, but I was pressed for time.

Private Function cGet(ByRef Col As Collection, Key As String) As Variant
    If Not cHas(Col, Key) Then Exit Function
    On Error Resume Next
        err.Clear
        Set cGet = Col(Key)(1)
        If err.Number = 13 Then
            err.Clear
            cGet = Col(Key)(1)
        End If
    On Error GoTo 0
    If err.Number <> 0 Then Call err.raise(err.Number, err.Source, err.Description, err.HelpFile, err.HelpContext)
End Function

Has

The reason for this post...

Public Function cHas(Col As Collection, Key As String) As Boolean
    cHas = True
    On Error Resume Next
        err.Clear
        Col (Key)
        If err.Number <> 0 Then
            cHas = False
            err.Clear
        End If
    On Error GoTo 0
End Function

Remove

Doesn't throw if it doesn't exist. Just makes sure it's removed.

Private Sub cRemove(ByRef Col As Collection, Key As String)
    If cHas(Col, Key) Then Col.Remove Key
End Sub

Keys

Get an array of keys.

Private Function cKeys(ByRef Col As Collection) As String()
    Dim Initialized As Boolean
    Dim Keys() As String

    For Each Item In Col
        If Not Initialized Then
            ReDim Preserve Keys(0)
            Keys(UBound(Keys)) = Item(0)
            Initialized = True
        Else
            ReDim Preserve Keys(UBound(Keys) + 1)
            Keys(UBound(Keys)) = Item(0)
        End If
    Next Item

    cKeys = Keys
End Function

Answer 6

All the others have already mentioned the use of the scripting.runtime version of the Dictionary class. If you are unable to use this DLL you can also use this version, simply add it to your code.

https://github.com/VBA-tools/VBA-Dictionary/blob/master/Dictionary.cls

It is identical to Microsoft's version.

Answer 7

The scripting runtime dictionary seems to have a bug that can ruin your design at advanced stages.

If the dictionary value is an array, you cannot update values of elements contained in the array through a reference to the dictionary.

Answer 8

Yes. For VB6, VBA (Excel), and VB.NET

Answer 9

If by any reason, you can't install additional features to your Excel or don't want to, you can use arrays as well, at least for simple problems. As WhatIsCapital you put name of the country and the function returns you its capital.

Sub arrays()
Dim WhatIsCapital As String, Country As Array, Capital As Array, Answer As String

WhatIsCapital = "Sweden"

Country = Array("UK", "Sweden", "Germany", "France")
Capital = Array("London", "Stockholm", "Berlin", "Paris")

For i = 0 To 10
    If WhatIsCapital = Country(i) Then Answer = Capital(i)
Next i

Debug.Print Answer

End Sub

Answer 10

VBA can use the dictionary structure of Scripting.Runtime.

And its implementation is actually a fancy one - just by doing myDict(x) = y, it checks whether there is a key x in the dictionary and if there is not such, it even creates it. If it is there, it uses it.

And it does not "yell" or "complain" about this extra step, performed "under the hood". Of course, you may check explicitly, whether a key exists with Dictionary.Exists(key). Thus, these 5 lines:

If myDict.exists("B") Then
    myDict("B") = myDict("B") + i * 3
Else
    myDict.Add "B", i * 3
End If

are the same as this 1 liner - myDict("B") = myDict("B") + i * 3. Check it out:

Sub TestMe()

    Dim myDict As Object, i As Long, myKey As Variant
    Set myDict = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
    
    For i = 1 To 3
        Debug.Print myDict.Exists("A")
        myDict("A") = myDict("A") + i
        myDict("B") = myDict("B") + 5
    Next i
    
    For Each myKey In myDict.keys
        Debug.Print myKey; myDict(myKey)
    Next myKey

End Sub

Answer 11

You can access a non-Native HashTable through System.Collections.HashTable.

HashTable

Represents a collection of key/value pairs that are organized based on the hash code of the key.

Not sure you would ever want to use this over Scripting.Dictionary but adding here for the sake of completeness. You can review the methods in case there are some of interest e.g. Clone, CopyTo

Example:

Option Explicit

Public Sub UsingHashTable()

    Dim h As Object
    Set h = CreateObject("System.Collections.HashTable")
   
    h.Add "A", 1
    ' h.Add "A", 1  ''<< Will throw duplicate key error
    h.Add "B", 2
    h("B") = 2
      
    Dim keys As mscorlib.IEnumerable 'Need to cast in order to enumerate  'https://stackoverflow.com/a/56705428/6241235
    
    Set keys = h.keys
    
    Dim k As Variant
    
    For Each k In keys
        Debug.Print k, h(k)                      'outputs the key and its associated value
    Next
    
End Sub

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This answer by @MathieuGuindon gives plenty of detail about HashTable and also why it is necessary to use mscorlib.IEnumerable (early bound reference to mscorlib) in order to enumerate the key:value pairs.

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