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

In your specific case (TableDefs) iterating over the collection and checking the Name is a good approach. This is OK because the key for the collection (Name) is a property of the class in the collection.

But in the general case of VBA collections, the key will not necessarily be part of the object in the collection (e.g. you could be using a Collection as a dictionary, with a key that has nothing to do with the object in the collection). In this case, you have no choice but to try accessing the item and catching the error.

Answer 2

Isn't it good enough?

Public Function Contains(col As Collection, key As Variant) As Boolean
Dim obj As Variant
On Error GoTo err
    Contains = True
    obj = col(key)
    Exit Function
err:

    Contains = False
End Function

Answer 3

I created this solution from the above suggestions mixed with microsofts solution of for iterating through a collection.

Public Function InCollection(col As Collection, Optional vItem, Optional vKey) As Boolean
On Error Resume Next

Dim vColItem As Variant

InCollection = False

If Not IsMissing(vKey) Then
    col.item vKey

    '5 if not in collection, it is 91 if no collection exists
    If Err.Number <> 5 And Err.Number <> 91 Then
        InCollection = True
    End If
ElseIf Not IsMissing(vItem) Then
    For Each vColItem In col
        If vColItem = vItem Then
            InCollection = True
            GoTo Exit_Proc
        End If
    Next vColItem
End If

Exit_Proc:
Exit Function
Err_Handle:
Resume Exit_Proc
End Function

Answer 4

I did it like this, a variation on Vadims code but to me a bit more readable:

' Returns TRUE if item is already contained in collection, otherwise FALSE

Public Function Contains(col As Collection, item As String) As Boolean

    Dim i As Integer

    For i = 1 To col.Count

    If col.item(i) = item Then
        Contains = True
        Exit Function
    End If

    Next i

    Contains = False

End Function

Answer 5

For the case when key is unused for collection:

Public Function Contains(col As Collection, thisItem As Variant) As   Boolean

  Dim item As Variant

  Contains = False
  For Each item In col
    If item = thisItem Then
      Contains = True
      Exit Function
    End If
  Next
End Function

Answer 6

Not my code, but I think it's pretty nicely written. It allows to check by the key as well as by the Object element itself and handles both the On Error method and iterating through all Collection elements.

https://danwagner.co/how-to-check-if-a-collection-contains-an-object/

I'll not copy the full explanation since it is available on the linked page. Solution itself copied in case the page eventually becomes unavailable in the future.

The doubt I have about the code is the overusage of GoTo in the first If block but that's easy to fix for anyone so I'm leaving the original code as it is.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'INPUT       : Kollection, the collection we would like to examine
'            : (Optional) Key, the Key we want to find in the collection
'            : (Optional) Item, the Item we want to find in the collection
'OUTPUT      : True if Key or Item is found, False if not
'SPECIAL CASE: If both Key and Item are missing, return False
Option Explicit
Public Function CollectionContains(Kollection As Collection, Optional Key As Variant, Optional Item As Variant) As Boolean
    Dim strKey As String
    Dim var As Variant

    'First, investigate assuming a Key was provided
    If Not IsMissing(Key) Then

        strKey = CStr(Key)

        'Handling errors is the strategy here
        On Error Resume Next
            CollectionContains = True
            var = Kollection(strKey) '<~ this is where our (potential) error will occur
            If Err.Number = 91 Then GoTo CheckForObject
            If Err.Number = 5 Then GoTo NotFound
        On Error GoTo 0
        Exit Function

CheckForObject:
        If IsObject(Kollection(strKey)) Then
            CollectionContains = True
            On Error GoTo 0
            Exit Function
        End If

NotFound:
        CollectionContains = False
        On Error GoTo 0
        Exit Function

    'If the Item was provided but the Key was not, then...
    ElseIf Not IsMissing(Item) Then

        CollectionContains = False '<~ assume that we will not find the item

        'We have to loop through the collection and check each item against the passed-in Item
        For Each var In Kollection
            If var = Item Then
                CollectionContains = True
                Exit Function
            End If
        Next var

    'Otherwise, no Key OR Item was provided, so we default to False
    Else
        CollectionContains = False
    End If

End Function