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I have an Excel VBA project that makes heavy use of Windows Scripting Dictionary objects. I recently had a user attempt to use it on a Mac and received the following error:

Compile Error: Can't find project or library

Which is the result of using the Tools > References > Microsoft Scripting Runtime library.

My question is, is there a way to make this work on a Mac?

The following are the 3 cases I can think of as being possible solutions:

  1. Use a Mac plugin that enables use of Dictionaries on Macs (my favorite option if one exists)
  2. Do some kind of variable switch like the following:

    isMac = CheckIfMac
    If isMac Then
        ' Change dictionary variable to some other data type that is Mac friendly and provides the same functionality 
    End If
    
  3. Write 2 completely separate routines to do the same thing (please let this not be what needs to happen):

    isMac = CheckIfMac
    If isMac Then
        DoTheMacRoutine
    Else
       DoTheWindowsRoutine
    End If
    
Martijn Pieters
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user1205577
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    If you need to be cross-platform you can replace the Scripting.Dictionary with a custom class: eg http://sysmod.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/dictionary-class-in-vba-instead-of-scripting-dictionary/ – Tim Williams Nov 08 '13 at 22:06
  • Make that an answer and I'll accept it - that example worked like a charm. Probably should copy/paste some if not all of the actual code (there are 2 files, no too big) in case the link breaks so viewers can still make use of it. – user1205577 Dec 06 '13 at 11:57

3 Answers3

18

Pulling the Answer from the comments to prevent link rot.

Patrick O'Beirne @ sysmod wrote a class set that addresses this issue.

Be sure to stop by Patirk's Blog to say thanks! Also there is a chance he has a newer version.

save this as a plain text file named KeyValuePair.cls and import into Excel
VERSION 1.0 CLASS
BEGIN
  MultiUse = -1  'True
END
Attribute VB_Name = "KeyValuePair"
Attribute VB_GlobalNameSpace = False
Attribute VB_Creatable = False
Attribute VB_PredeclaredId = False
Attribute VB_Exposed = False
Option Explicit
'Unrestricted class just to hold pairs of values together and permit Dictionary object updating
Public Key As String
Public value As Variant

save this as a plain text file named Dictionary.cls and import into excel
VERSION 1.0 CLASS
BEGIN
  MultiUse = -1  'True
END
Attribute VB_Name = "Dictionary"
Attribute VB_GlobalNameSpace = False
Attribute VB_Creatable = False
Attribute VB_PredeclaredId = False
Attribute VB_Exposed = False
Option Explicit

'Collection methods: Add, Count, Item, Remove
'Dictionary : .Add(Key as string, Item as variant), .CompareMode, .Count, .Exists(Key); _
   .Item(Key) - writeable, .Items, .Keys, .Remove(Key), .RemoveAll
'plus KeyValuePairs collection, KeyValuePair(Index as long), Tag as variant
' 25-11-2011 KeyValuePair helper object

Public KeyValuePairs As Collection ' open access but allows iteration
Public Tag As Variant            ' read/write unrestricted

Private Sub Class_Initialize()
   Set KeyValuePairs = New Collection
End Sub

Private Sub Class_Terminate()
   Set KeyValuePairs = Nothing
End Sub

' in Scripting.Dictionary this is writeable, here we have only vbtextCompare because we are using a Collection
Public Property Get CompareMode() As VbCompareMethod
   CompareMode = vbTextCompare   '=1; vbBinaryCompare=0
End Property

Public Property Let Item(Key As String, Item As Variant)    ' dic.Item(Key) = value ' update a scalar value for an existing key
   Let KeyValuePairs.Item(Key).value = Item
End Property

Public Property Set Item(Key As String, Item As Variant)    ' Set dic.Item(Key) = value ' update an object value for an existing key
   Set KeyValuePairs.Item(Key).value = Item
End Property

Public Property Get Item(Key As String) As Variant
   AssignVariable Item, KeyValuePairs.Item(Key).value
End Property

' Collection parameter order is Add(Item,Key); Dictionary is Add(Key,Item) so always used named arguments
Public Sub Add(Key As String, Item As Variant)
   Dim oKVP As KeyValuePair
   Set oKVP = New KeyValuePair
   oKVP.Key = Key
   If IsObject(Item) Then
      Set oKVP.value = Item
   Else
      Let oKVP.value = Item
   End If
   KeyValuePairs.Add Item:=oKVP, Key:=Key
End Sub

Public Property Get Exists(Key As String) As Boolean
   On Error Resume Next
   Exists = TypeName(KeyValuePairs.Item(Key)) > ""  ' we can have blank key, empty item
End Property

Public Sub Remove(Key As String)
   'show error if not there rather than On Error Resume Next
   KeyValuePairs.Remove Key
End Sub

Public Sub RemoveAll()
   Set KeyValuePairs = Nothing
   Set KeyValuePairs = New Collection
End Sub

Public Property Get Count() As Long
   Count = KeyValuePairs.Count
End Property

Public Property Get Items() As Variant     ' for compatibility with Scripting.Dictionary
Dim vlist As Variant, i As Long
If Me.Count > 0 Then
   ReDim vlist(0 To Me.Count - 1) ' to get a 0-based array same as scripting.dictionary
   For i = LBound(vlist) To UBound(vlist)
      AssignVariable vlist(i), KeyValuePairs.Item(1 + i).value ' could be scalar or array or object
   Next i
   Items = vlist
End If
End Property

Public Property Get Keys() As String()
Dim vlist() As String, i As Long
If Me.Count > 0 Then
   ReDim vlist(0 To Me.Count - 1)
   For i = LBound(vlist) To UBound(vlist)
      vlist(i) = KeyValuePairs.Item(1 + i).Key   '
   Next i
   Keys = vlist
End If
End Property

Public Property Get KeyValuePair(Index As Long) As Variant  ' returns KeyValuePair object
    Set KeyValuePair = KeyValuePairs.Item(1 + Index)            ' collections are 1-based
End Property

Private Sub AssignVariable(variable As Variant, value As Variant)
   If IsObject(value) Then
      Set variable = value
   Else
      Let variable = value
   End If
End Sub

Public Sub DebugPrint()
   Dim lItem As Long, lIndex As Long, vItem As Variant, oKVP As KeyValuePair
   lItem = 0
   For Each oKVP In KeyValuePairs
      lItem = lItem + 1
      Debug.Print lItem; oKVP.Key; " "; TypeName(oKVP.value);
      If InStr(1, TypeName(oKVP.value), "()") > 0 Then
         vItem = oKVP.value
         Debug.Print "("; CStr(LBound(vItem)); " to "; CStr(UBound(vItem)); ")";
         For lIndex = LBound(vItem) To UBound(vItem)
            Debug.Print " (" & CStr(lIndex) & ")"; TypeName(vItem(lIndex)); "="; vItem(lIndex);
         Next
         Debug.Print
      Else
         Debug.Print "="; oKVP.value
      End If
   Next
End Sub

'NB VBA Collection object index is 1-based, scripting.dictionary items array is 0-based
'cf Scripting.Dictionary Methods s.Add(Key, Item), s.CompareMode, s.Count, s.Exists(Key); _
   s.Item(Key) - updateable, s.Items, s.Key(Key), s.Keys, s.Remove(Key), s.RemoveAll
'Scripting.Dictionary has no index number; you can index the 0-based variant array of Items returned
'  unlike Collections which can be indexed starting at 1
'Efficient iteration is For Each varPair in thisdic.KeyValuePairs
'Another difference I introduce is that in a scripting.dictionary, the doc says
'  If key is not found when changing an item, a new key is created with the specified newitem.
'  If key is not found when attempting to return an existing item, a new key is created and its corresponding item is left empty.
'but I want to raise an error when addressing a key that does not exist
'similarly, the scripting.dictionary will create separate integer and string keys for eg 2
Frobbit
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    I hate to accept an answer that was originally given by @Tim Williams, but I've been waiting for him to make that comment an answer for almost a year. Kudos to you for both posting the solution and for pulling out the actual code. – user1205577 Sep 11 '14 at 15:00
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    Thanks, I hate link rot. The question exactly what I needed to ask. It was disappointing to have to dig in the comments. I hope this saves someone else some time. – Frobbit Sep 12 '14 at 19:34
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    Patirk's implementation doesn't work for MS Office 2016 on Mac. I made use of another implementation. Please see it in my answer. – Alexander Poleschuk Sep 20 '17 at 07:31
  • How do I use it? Thanks... Any how to would be great – Si8 Mar 13 '19 at 14:13
10

Patirk's implementation doesn't work for MS Office 2016 on Mac. I made use of the implementation by Tim Hall. Here is the link: https://github.com/VBA-tools/VBA-Dictionary

Also import of cls files into Excel doesn't work in MS Office 2016 on Mac as of September 2017. So I had to create a class module and to copy and paste the contents of Dictionary.cls manually in that module while removing meta info from Dictionary.cls such as VERSION 1.0 CLASS, BEGIN, END, Attribute.

7

I have at last updated the files for Excel 2016 for Mac. http://www.sysmod.com/Dictionary.zip (capital D in Dictionary)

Unzip this and import the class files (tested in Excel 2016 for Mac 16.13 Build 424, 27-Apr-2018)

My bug report to MS is at answers.microsoft.com Excel 16.13 for Mac User Defined Class passed as parameter all properties are Null

Let me know if I've missed anything else! Good luck,

Patrick O'Beirne

sysmod
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