Question

I want to use a Dictionary as a private variable in a module. I tried the following code, but the vba editor marks the collection (variable resource) red when I want to access it in a procedure. How do I have to code this?

Option Explicit

Private Type Translation
    german As String
    french As String
    italian As String
End Type

Private resource
Set resource = CreateObject("scripting.dictionary")

Public Sub addTranslation(key As String, g As String, f As String, i As String)
    Dim trx As Translation
    trx.german = g
    trx.french = f
    trx.italian = i

    resource.add(key, trx)  '<== marked red
End Sub

'more methods to come which do access resource

Answer 1

The instancing:

Set resource = CreateObject("scripting.dictionary")

Needs to be in a sub/function not in the declaration, you can add it somewhere convenient or change the declaration to:

Private resource as object

and add a guard check whenever you access it (instancing it once elsewhere is obviously better);

If resource Is Nothing Then Set resource = CreateObject("scripting.dictionary") 

And no parens in the .add call so:

resource.Add key, trx