Determining whether an object is a member of a collection in VBA

Question

How do I determine whether an object is a member of a collection in VBA?

Specifically, I need to find out whether a table definition is a member of the TableDe

Answer 1

i used this code to convert array to collection and back to array to remove duplicates, assembled from various posts here (sorry for not giving properly credit).

Function ArrayRemoveDups(MyArray As Variant) As Variant
Dim nFirst As Long, nLast As Long, i As Long
Dim item As Variant, outputArray() As Variant
Dim Coll As New Collection

'Get First and Last Array Positions
nFirst = LBound(MyArray)
nLast = UBound(MyArray)
ReDim arrTemp(nFirst To nLast)
i = nFirst
'convert to collection
For Each item In MyArray
    skipitem = False
    For Each key In Coll
        If key = item Then skipitem = True
    Next
    If skipitem = False Then Coll.Add (item)
Next item
'convert back to array
ReDim outputArray(0 To Coll.Count - 1)
For i = 1 To Coll.Count
    outputArray(i - 1) = Coll.item(i)
Next
ArrayRemoveDups = outputArray
End Function

Answer 2

I wrote this code. I guess it can help someone...

Public Function VerifyCollection()
    For i = 1 To 10 Step 1
       MyKey = "A"
       On Error GoTo KillError:
       Dispersao.Add 1, MyKey
       GoTo KeepInForLoop
KillError: 'If My collection already has the key A Then...
        count = Dispersao(MyKey)
        Dispersao.Remove (MyKey)
        Dispersao.Add count + 1, MyKey 'Increase the amount in relationship with my Key
        count = Dispersao(MyKey) 'count = new amount
        On Error GoTo -1
KeepInForLoop:
    Next
End Function

Answer 3

It requires some additional adjustments in case the items in the collection are not Objects, but Arrays. Other than that it worked fine for me.

Public Function CheckExists(vntIndexKey As Variant) As Boolean
    On Error Resume Next
    Dim cObj As Object

    ' just get the object
    Set cObj = mCol(vntIndexKey)

    ' here's the key! Trap the Error Code
    ' when the error code is 5 then the Object is Not Exists
    CheckExists = (Err <> 5)

    ' just to clear the error
    If Err <> 0 Then Call Err.Clear
    Set cObj = Nothing
End Function

_{Source: http://coderstalk.blogspot.com/2007/09/visual-basic-programming-how-to-check.html}

Answer 4

Not exactly elegant, but the best (and quickest) solution i could find was using OnError. This will be significantly faster than iteration for any medium to large collection.

Public Function InCollection(col As Collection, key As String) As Boolean
  Dim var As Variant
  Dim errNumber As Long

  InCollection = False
  Set var = Nothing

  Err.Clear
  On Error Resume Next
    var = col.Item(key)
    errNumber = CLng(Err.Number)
  On Error GoTo 0

  '5 is not in, 0 and 438 represent incollection
  If errNumber = 5 Then ' it is 5 if not in collection
    InCollection = False
  Else
    InCollection = True
  End If

End Function

Answer 5

You can shorten the suggested code for this as well as generalize for unexpected errors. Here you go:

Public Function InCollection(col As Collection, key As String) As Boolean

  On Error GoTo incol
  col.Item key

incol:
  InCollection = (Err.Number = 0)

End Function

Answer 6

this version works for primitive types and for classes (short test-method included)

' TODO: change this to the name of your module
Private Const sMODULE As String = "MVbaUtils"

Public Function ExistsInCollection(oCollection As Collection, sKey As String) As Boolean
    Const scSOURCE As String = "ExistsInCollection"

    Dim lErrNumber As Long
    Dim sErrDescription As String

    lErrNumber = 0
    sErrDescription = "unknown error occurred"
    Err.Clear
    On Error Resume Next
        ' note: just access the item - no need to assign it to a dummy value
        ' and this would not be so easy, because we would need different
        ' code depending on the type of object
        ' e.g.
        '   Dim vItem as Variant
        '   If VarType(oCollection.Item(sKey)) = vbObject Then
        '       Set vItem = oCollection.Item(sKey)
        '   Else
        '       vItem = oCollection.Item(sKey)
        '   End If
        oCollection.Item sKey
        lErrNumber = CLng(Err.Number)
        sErrDescription = Err.Description
    On Error GoTo 0

    If lErrNumber = 5 Then ' 5 = not in collection
        ExistsInCollection = False
    ElseIf (lErrNumber = 0) Then
        ExistsInCollection = True
    Else
        ' Re-raise error
        Err.Raise lErrNumber, mscMODULE & ":" & scSOURCE, sErrDescription
    End If
End Function

Private Sub Test_ExistsInCollection()
    Dim asTest As New Collection

    Debug.Assert Not ExistsInCollection(asTest, "")
    Debug.Assert Not ExistsInCollection(asTest, "xx")

    asTest.Add "item1", "key1"
    asTest.Add "item2", "key2"
    asTest.Add New Collection, "key3"
    asTest.Add Nothing, "key4"
    Debug.Assert ExistsInCollection(asTest, "key1")
    Debug.Assert ExistsInCollection(asTest, "key2")
    Debug.Assert ExistsInCollection(asTest, "key3")
    Debug.Assert ExistsInCollection(asTest, "key4")
    Debug.Assert Not ExistsInCollection(asTest, "abcx")

    Debug.Print "ExistsInCollection is okay"
End Sub