How to monitor the values in a Dictionary in the Excel VBA watch window?

Question

I am using dictionaries in Excel VBA via dict As New Dictionary (and adding a reference to the scripting runtime). When I try to monitor those during debugging,

Answer 1

I use a recursive function which can be used to display all simple type variables and the contents of all nested dictionaries in the watch window. This produces output in the form:

Fred:rabbit; Tiddles:cat; Fluffy:cat; Food:[1:lettuce; 2:biscuits; ]; 

where keys and values are separated by ":", items are separated by "; " and nested dictionaries are shown in square brackets.

Public Function DictionaryContents(ByVal dcDictionary, Optional ByVal boolShowKeyIndex As Boolean = False)

  Dim Keys
  Keys = dcDictionary.Keys

  Dim i As Long
  Dim stIndex As String

  Dim stOutput As String
  stOutput = vbNullString

  For i = 0 To dcDictionary.Count - 1

    If boolShowKeyIndex Then
      stIndex = "(" & i & ")"
    End If

    stOutput = stOutput & Keys(i) & stIndex & ":"

    If IsObject(dcDictionary(Keys(i))) Then
      stOutput = stOutput & "[" & DictionaryContents(dcDictionary(Keys(i)), boolShowKeyIndex) & "]"
    Else
      stOutput = stOutput & dcDictionary(Keys(i))
    End If

    stOutput = stOutput & "; "

  Next i

  DictionaryContents = stOutput

End Function

Answer 2

I usually type dict.items into the immediate window, select it and go Shift+F9 to insert it into the watch window.

Alternatively, here's a one-liner for the immediate window, to list all items:

for each i in dic.Items: debug.Print i: next