Question

new to vba, and wonder how to address elements within a range.
I add range of cells (rows) indexed with an id to a dictionary

 Set spRange = import.Range("A2:" & spRange.End(xlDown).Address)
    For Each cell In spRange
        dict.Add cell.Offset(0, 2).Text, cell.Row

Next cell

later on, I retrieve the row, and need to access value of first element.

For Each x In dict
        Set spRange = dict.Item(x)
        'how to get value of first element of spRange 
Next

It could be very easy for u, but i am not familiar with api 🙂

thanks

Answer 1

bsreekanth

The Dictionary object, if I am not wrong first came out way back in 1996 as part of VB Script 2 and was later added to the VB Scripting run-time library (scrrun.dll). To work with the Dictionary object, you have to add a reference to Microsoft Scripting Runtime.

The syntax of adding item to dictionary is

DictObject.Add **<Unique key>**,Value

The key has to be unique else you will get an error. Let’s cover different scenarios to understand how it works.

Let’s take an example

We store the row (and not the cell text) and then retrieve the row number

Sub Sample()
    Dim spRange As Range
    Dim Dict As Dictionary
    Dim j as long

    Set spRange = Range("A1:A10")
    Set Dict = New Dictionary

    j = 1

    For Each cell In spRange
        Dict.Add j, cell.Row
        j = j + 1
    Next cell

    Dim x As Variant

    For Each x In Dict
        Debug.Print Dict(x)
    Next
End Sub

If you noticed that I am using the variable “j” to create unique keys and then storing the row values.

To retrieve the stored row values, I am then looping through the Dictionary Objects.

Now back to your question.

later on, I retrieve the row, and need to access value of first element.

This is the part where I am kind of confused. Reason being, if you wanted just to get the value of a particular row in range spRange then why are you using a dictionary object?

You can directly get the value using this code

Debug.print spRange.Cells(1, 1).Value

If you still would like to use a dictionary object then you can use the below code

Sub Sample()
    Dim spRange As Range
    Dim Dict As Dictionary

    Set spRange = Range("A1:A3")
    Set Dict = New Dictionary

    j = 1

    For Each cell In spRange
        Dict.Add j, cell.Row
        j = j + 1
    Next cell

    Dim x As Variant

    For Each x In Dict
        Debug.Print spRange.Cells(Dict(x), 1).Value
    Next
End Sub

And If your intention is to store the range values in the dictionary and then retrieve the value based on a particular key (Row Number) then you can use this code

Sub Sample()
    Dim spRange As Range
    Dim Dict As Dictionary

    Set spRange = Range("A1:A3")
    Set Dict = New Dictionary

    For Each cell In spRange
        '~~> See how I reversed it?
        Dict.Add cell.Row, cell.Text
    Next cell

    Dim x As Variant

    For Each x In Dict
        Debug.Print Dict(x)
    Next

    'OR

    'Debug.Print Dict(2)
End Sub

Now one last point. If you are not going to loop through the Dictionary object to retrieve the values but are planning to use something like “Debug.Print Dict(2)” then I would suggest using an extra piece of code which first checks if the element is present or not and then shows it. For example

If Dict.Exists(2) Then Debug.Print Dict(2)

HTH

Let me know if you have any questions.

Sid