Sorting Dictionary of Strings and Numbers

Question

I have a dictionary object that needs to be sorted, but the keys are date values in the form

[\'Apr. 2013\',\'May 2013\',\'Feb. 2013\',
\'Mar. 2013\',\'Jul. 2013\',\'         


        

Answer 1

Code stolen from here:

  Const csSep = "|"
  Const cnMax = 100

  Dim sInp : sInp = "Apr. 2013|May. 2013|Apr. 2014|Feb. 2013|Apr. 2011|Mar. 2013|Jul. 2013|Aug. 2013"
  Dim aInp : aInp = Split(sInp, csSep) ' YourDic.Keys
  WScript.Echo "A:", vbCrLf & Join(aInp, vbCrLf)
  WScript.Echo "---------------------"

  Dim oNAL : Set oNAL = CreateObject( "System.Collections.ArrayList" )
  Dim oSB  : Set oSB  = CreateObject( "System.Text.StringBuilder" )
  Dim sWord
  For Each sWord In aInp
      Dim dtCmp : dtCmp = CDate(sWord) ' depends on regional/locale settings
      oSB.AppendFormat_3 "{0:yyyy-MM}{1}{2}", dtCmp, csSep, sWord
      sWord = oSB.ToString()
      oSB.Length = 0
      oNAL.Add sWord
  Next
  oNAL.Sort

  ReDim aOut(oNAL.Count - 1)
  Dim i
  For i = 0 To UBound(aOut)
      aOut(i) = Split(oNAL(i), csSep)(1)
  Next
  WScript.Echo "B:", vbCrLf & Join(aOut, vbCrLf)

output:

A:
Apr. 2013
May. 2013
Apr. 2014
Feb. 2013
Apr. 2011
Mar. 2013
Jul. 2013
Aug. 2013
---------------------
B:
Apr. 2011
Feb. 2013
Mar. 2013
Apr. 2013
May. 2013
Jul. 2013
Aug. 2013
Apr. 2014

The theory is (c) R. L. Schwartz (see Schwartzian transform).

Update wrt Martha's answer (and my caveat):

Don't have to much confidence in VBScript's date conversions:

>> WScript.Echo CDate("Dez 2013")
>>
Error Number:       13  ' <-- can't read german
Error Description:  Type mismatch

>> WScript.Echo CDate("Dec 2013") ' <-- can read english
>>
01.12.2013 ' <-- can write german

>> WScript.Echo DateValue("Dez 2013")
>>
Error Number:       13 ' <-- DateValue isn't more intelligent
Error Description:  Type mismatch