Question

I am attempting to dump hybrid dictionary keys to an excel worksheet range, but it is not performing as expected. Here’s my code.

    Dim ExcelApplication As Excel.Application = New Excel.Application
    Dim ExcelWorkbook As Excel.Workbook = ExcelApplication.Workbooks.Add
    Dim SheetName As String = "Area Information"
    Dim ExcelAreaBalanceWorksheet As Excel.Worksheet = CType(ExcelWorkbook.Sheets(1), Excel.Worksheet)
    Dim BAGenByKVDictionary As New HybridDictionary

   'code to populate hybriddictionary

    Dim Rng As Excel.Range = ExcelAreaBalanceWorksheet.Range("a1", _
                ExcelAreaBalanceWorksheet.Cells(BAGenByKVDictionary.Count, 1))
    Rng.Value = ExcelApplication.WorksheetFunction.Transpose(BAGenByKVDictionary.Keys.ToString)

When I try to pass the keys to Excel, it passes System.Collections.Hashtable+ValueCollection for all cells instead of passing the keys.

Answer 1

This is because ToString() on the HybridDictionary does not override the base Object implementation, which is defined, in part as:

The default implementation of the ToString method returns the fully
qualified name of the type of the Object…

In order to retrieve the keys as an array of strings, there are numerous methods, but I always prefer the most straightforward approach, a loop:

    Dim sbKeys As New System.Text.StringBuilder(1000)

    For Each oKey As Object In BAGenByKVDictionary.Keys
        ' Produce a comma=separated list
        If sbKeys.Length <> 0 Then
            sbKeys.Append(",")
        End If
        sbKeys.Append(oKey.ToString())
    Next

    Rng.Value = ExcelApplication.WorksheetFunction.Transpose(sbKeys.ToString())