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.
Contents
- 1 Quick Guide to the VBA ArrayList
- 2 Description
- 3 Download the Source Code
- 4 Declare and Create the VBA ArrayList
- 5 Adding Items to the VBA ArrayList
- 6 Reading through an ArrayList
- 7 Sorting
- 8 Cloning the VBA ArrayList
- 9 Copying from an VBA ArrayList to an Array
- 10 Writing Directly to a Range
- 11 Array to a VBA ArrayList(1D)
- 12 Remove All Items from the ArrayList
- 13 What’s Next?
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:
- Select Tools and then References from the menu.
- Click on the Browse.
- Find the file mscorlib.tlb and click Open. It should be in a folder like this C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319.
- Scroll down the list and check mscorlib.dll.
- 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?
Free VBA Tutorial If you are new to VBA or you want to sharpen your existing VBA skills then why not try out the The Ultimate VBA Tutorial.
Related Training: Get full access to the Excel VBA training webinars and all the tutorials.
(NOTE: Planning to build or manage a VBA Application? Learn how to build 10 Excel VBA applications from scratch.)
Hello,
I tried to add the reference to mscorlib.dll, i add a popup error.
“impossible to add a reference to specified file” (my translation from french).
That reference file is no longer included in Windows by default so I would avoid using the ArrayList