The VBA ArrayList is a much better alternative to the built-in VBA Collection. It contains much richer functionality such as sorting, converting to an array, removing all items etc.

Check out the quick guide for an overview of what the ArrayList does. The rest of this post provides examples of how to use the ArrayList.

 

Quick Guide to the VBA ArrayList

Task	Method	Parameters	Examples
Access item	Item	index - long integer	value = list.Item(0) value = list.Item(3)
Access item added last	Item	index - long integer	value = list.Item(list.Count - 1)
Access item added first	Item	index - long integer	value = list.Item(0)
Access all items(For Each)	N/A	N/A	Dim element As Variant For Each element In fruit Debug.Print element Next element
Access all items(For)	Item	index - long integer	Dim i As Long For i = 0 To list.Count - 1 Debug.Print list.item(i) Next i
Add item	Add	object or value	list.Add "Apple" list.Add "Pear"
Copy ArrayList to another ArrayList	Clone	None	Dim list2 As Object Set list2 = list.Clone
Copy to Array	ToArray	None	Dim arr As Variant arr = list.ToArray
Copy to a range(row)	ToArray	None	Sheet1.Range("A1").Resize(1, list.Count).Value = list.ToArray
Copy to a range(column)	ToArray	None	Sheet1.Range("A3").Resize(list.Count, 1).Value = WorksheetFunction.Transpose(list.ToArray)
Create	CreateObject	"System.Collections.ArrayList"	Dim list As Object Set list = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
Declare	N/A	N/A	Dim list As Object
Find - check if item exists	Contains	item to find	list.Contains("Apple")
Find the position of an item in the ArrayList	IndexOf	1. Item to find. 2. Position to start searching from.	Dim index As Long ' Search from 0 position index = fruit.IndexOf("Pear", 0)
Get number of items	Count	None	totalElements = list.Count
Insert Item	Insert	1. Index - position to insert at. 2 Value - object or value to insert.	list.Insert 0, "Peach" ' First list.Insert 1, "Banana" ' Second list.Insert list.Count, "Orange" ' Last
Remove all Items	Clear	None	list.Clear
Remove item at position	RemoveAt	Index - position where the item is	list.RemoveAt 0
Remove item by name	Remove	Item - the item to remove from the ArrayList	list.Remove "Apple"
Remove a range of Items	RemoveRange	1. Index - starting postion. 2. Count - the number of items to remove.	list.RemoveRange 1,3
Reverse the list	Reverse	None	list.Reverse
Sort in ascending	Sort	None	list.Sort

 

Description

The ArrayList is similar to the VBA built-in Collection. It is not part of VBA, but it is in an external library which we can access easily. The ArrayList is the same one that is used in the language C#. As you would expect, the ArrayList has a built-in sort, array conversion and other functionality that you would expect in a modern programming language. For the purpose of this article, I will refer to it as the VBA ArrayList.

 

Download the Source Code

 

Declare and Create the VBA ArrayList

Like all external libraries we can create the ArrayList using early and late binding.

 
 

Late Binding

We use CreateObject to create the ArrayList using late binding:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub UsingArrayList()

    Dim coll As Object
    Set coll = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")

End Sub

 
 
The disadvantage of late binding is that we don’t have access to the Intellisense. The advantage is that it is better to use when distributing a VBA application to a user.
 
 

Early Binding

Update 12-Nov-2019: Intellisense doesn’t currently work for the ArrayList.
Early binding allows use to use the Intellisense to see what is available to use. We must first add the type library as a reference and then select it from the reference list. We can use the following steps to do this:

1. Select Tools and then References from the menu.
2. Click on the Browse.
3. Find the file mscorlib.tlb and click Open. It should be in a folder like this C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319.
4. Scroll down the list and check mscorlib.dll.
5. Click Ok.

 
You can now use the following code to declare the ArrayList using early binding:

Dim coll As New ArrayList

 
 

VBA ArrayList Automation Error

You may encounter the VB Run-time Error ‘-2146232576 Automation Error’ when trying to get the ArrayList to work. Or sometimes your code has been working for a long time and then suddenly this error appears.

This is caused by not having the correct .Net Framework version installed. The correct version is 3.5. It doesn’t matter if you have a later version like 4.7, you must have 3.5 installed.

 
 

Adding Items to the VBA ArrayList

Adding items to the ArrayList is very similar to how we add them to the Collection. We use the Add method:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub AddingToList()

    Dim coll As Object
    Set coll = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
    
    ' Add items
    coll.Add "Apple" 
    coll.Add "Watermelon"
    coll.Add "Pear"
    coll.Add "Banana"
    
    ' Insert to first position
    coll.Insert 0, "Plum"

End Sub

 

Reading through an ArrayList

We read through the ArrayList similar to the VBA Collection except that we read from zero to Count-1 rather than from one to Count.

Note: We will use this PrintToImmediateWindow sub in the follow examples to show the contents of the array after the various operations.

' Print all items to the Immediate Window(Ctrl + G)
' Items must be basic data type e.g. Long, String, Double
' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub PrintToImmediateWindow(coll As Object)

    Dim i As Long
    For i = 0 To coll.Count - 1
        Debug.Print coll(i)
    Next i
    
End Sub

 
We can use the For Each loop with the VBA ArrayList just like we use it with a Collection:

' Print all items to the Immediate Window(Ctrl + G)
' Items much be basic data type e.g. Long, String, Double
' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub PrintToImmediateWindowEach(coll As Object)

    Dim item As Variant
    For Each item In coll
        Debug.Print item
    Next item
    
End Sub

You can download all the code examples at the top of this post.

 

Sorting

Sort will sort the VBA ArrayList in ascending order.

To sort in descending order simply use Reverse after Sort.

The following code shows an example of sorting in both ascending and descending order:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub Sorting()

    Dim coll As Object
    Set coll = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
    
    ' Add items
    coll.Add "Apple"
    coll.Add "Watermelon"
    coll.Add "Pear"
    coll.Add "Banana"
    coll.Add "Plum"
    
    ' Sort
    coll.Sort
    
    Debug.Print vbCrLf & "Sorted Ascending"
    ' Add this sub from "Reading through the items" section
    PrintToImmediateWindow coll
    
    ' Reverse sort
    coll.Reverse
    
    Debug.Print vbCrLf & "Sorted Descending"
    PrintToImmediateWindow coll
    
End Sub

 

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub PrintToImmediateWindow(coll As Object)

    Dim i As Long
    For i = 0 To coll.Count - 1
        Debug.Print coll(i)
    Next i
    
End Sub

 

Cloning the VBA ArrayList

We can create a copy of the ArrayList by using the Clone method. This creates a brand new copy of the ArrayList.

It’s not the same as assigning the variable which means both variables point to the same ArrayList e.g.

' Both variables point to the same ArrayList
Set coll2 = coll

 

We use Clone like this:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub Cloning()

    ' Create the ArrayList
    Dim coll1 As Object
    Set coll1 = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
    
    ' Add items
    coll1.Add "Apple"
    coll1.Add "Watermelon"
    coll1.Add "Pear"
    coll1.Add "Banana"
    coll1.Add "Plum"
    
    ' Creates a copy of the original ArrayList
    Dim coll2 As Object
    Set coll2 = coll1.Clone
    
    ' Remove all items from coll1
    coll1.Clear
    
    ' Add PrintToImmediateWindow sub from "Reading through the items" section
    Debug.Print vbCrLf & "coll1 Contents are:"
    PrintToImmediateWindow coll1
    
    Debug.Print vbCrLf & "coll2 Contents are:"
    PrintToImmediateWindow coll2

End Sub

 

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub PrintToImmediateWindow(coll As Object)

    Dim i As Long
    For i = 0 To coll.Count - 1
        Debug.Print coll(i)
    Next i
    
End Sub

 

Copying from an VBA ArrayList to an Array

We can copy from the ArrayList to an array in one line using the ToArray method:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub CopyToArray()

    ' Declare and Create ArrayList
    Dim coll As Object
    Set coll = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
    
    ' Add items
    coll.Add "Apple"
    coll.Add "Watermelon"
    coll.Add "Pear"
    coll.Add "Banana"
    coll.Add "Plum"
    
    ' Copy to array
    Dim arr As Variant
    arr = coll.ToArray
    
    ' Print the array
    Debug.Print vbCrLf & "Printing the array contents:"
    PrintArrayToImmediate arr
    
End Sub

 

' Prints the contents of a one dimensional array
' to the Immediate Window(Ctrl + G)
' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub PrintArrayToImmediate(arr As Variant)
    
    Dim i As Long
    For i = LBound(arr) To UBound(arr)
        Debug.Print arr(i)
    Next i
       
End Sub

 
You can download all the code examples at the top of this post.
 

Writing Directly to a Range

One of the biggest advantages of the ArrayList is that we can write the contents directly to a range.

The code below writes the contents to both a row and a column:

'  Writes the contents of an ArrayList to a worksheet range
' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub ClearArrayList()

    ' Declare and Create ArrayList
    Dim fruit As Object
    Set fruit = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
    
    ' Add items
    fruit.Add "Apple"
    fruit.Add "Watermelon"
    fruit.Add "Pear"
    fruit.Add "Banana"
    fruit.Add "Plum"
    fruit.Add "Peach"
    
       
    ' ' Clean existing data
    Sheet1.Cells.ClearContents
    
    ' Write to a row
    Sheet1.Range("C1").Resize(1, fruit.Count).Value = fruit.toArray
    
    ' Write to a column
    Sheet1.Range("A1").Resize(fruit.Count, 1).Value = WorksheetFunction.Transpose(fruit.toArray)
    
End Sub

 

Array to a VBA ArrayList(1D)

As we have seen, there is an in-built function ToArray which will copy from an ArrayList to an Array.

If we want to copy from an Array to an ArrayList we need to create our own function which I have done below. Because we read through the items one at a time, it may be a bit slow if we have a lot of data:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Function ArrayToArrayList(arr As Variant) As Object

    ' Check that array is One Dimensional
    On Error Resume Next
    Dim ret As Long
    ret = -1
    ret = UBound(arr, 2)
    On Error Goto 0
    If ret <> -1 Then
        Err.Raise vbObjectError + 513, "ArrayToArrayList" _
                , "The array can only have one 1 dimension"
    End If

    ' Create the ArrayList
    Dim coll As Object
    Set coll = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
    
    ' Add items to the ArrayList
    Dim i As Long
    For i = LBound(arr, 1) To UBound(arr, 1)
        coll.Add arr(i)
    Next i
    
    ' Return the new ArrayList
    Set ArrayToArrayList = coll
    
End Function

 
You can use it like this:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub ReadFromArray1D()
    
    Dim arr(1 To 3) As Variant
    
    arr(1) = "PeterJ"
    arr(2) = "Jack"
    arr(3) = "Jill"
    
    ' Create the ArrayList
    Dim coll As Object
    Set coll = ArrayToArrayList(arr)

    PrintToImmediateWindow coll
    
End Sub

 

Remove All Items from the ArrayList

We can remove all the items from an ArrayList by using the Clear function:

' https://excelmacromastery.com/
Sub ClearArrayList()

    ' Declare and Create ArrayList
    Dim coll As Object
    Set coll = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
    
    ' Add items
    coll.Add "Apple"
    coll.Add "Watermelon"
    coll.Add "Pear"
    coll.Add "Banana"
    coll.Add "Plum"
    
    Debug.Print vbCrLf & "The number of items is: " & coll.Count
    
    ' Remove all item
    coll.Clear
    
    Debug.Print "The number of items is: " & coll.Count
    
End Sub

 
You can download all the code examples at the top of this post.
 

What’s Next?

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