Error - An Item with the same key has already been added - vba

Upon opening a macro enabled Excel file, I get the following:
Run-Time Error '-2147024809 (80070057)': An Item with the same key has already been added.
I've seen lots of similar questions for other languages, but nothing for VBA. I did find one thing online for VBA, but it says it has something to do with the Scripting.Dictionary library.
However, I have no reference to MS Scripting Runtime, nor do I ever bind to it, and I have no Dictionaries or Arrays or anything of the sort in this file. The only thing I can think of is I have a small Userform that is only a Progress bar. Every item on that Userform is uniquely named, and none of them are words that should be reserved or used by the system.
Has anyone run into this or have any ideas?
Edit:
Ok, strange thing just happened...I closed the 2 other VBA Projects (Add-Ins) that were opened in the VBE, before opening my file, and the error didn't come up. Those 2 other files have been open the whole time I've been working on this file...
Then I closed Excel altogether...left the other 2 files open, and opened my file with no error. I have no idea...
Update:
Just got the same error opening a different file. In case my question wasn't already clear enough...Does anyone know what this error might have to with, or how to stop it?

This looks like a Scripting.Dictionary error but in facts the following code throws an error of code 457 which is different from yours and the error message for dictionaries is different too 'This key is already associated with an element of this collection' This can be verified with the code
Option Explicit
Sub Tst()
On Error Resume Next
Dim dic As New Scripting.Dictionary
dic.Add 1, 0
dic.Add 1, 0
Debug.Print Err.Number, Err.Description
End Sub
So it is not your VBA code IMHO, but it looks rather like a C# error and we can verify this with some code, opening a Windows Forms C# project in Visual Studio and then edit Form1_Load to the following
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace WindowsFormsApplication3
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
Dictionary<long, long> dicTest = new Dictionary<long, long>();
dicTest.Add(1, 0);
dicTest.Add(1, 0);
}
catch (Exception ex) {
System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(string.Format("{0} {1}", ex.HResult, ex.Message));
}
}
}
}
and this throws the message box with the error number and message that you reported. Thus it is a C# Dictionary error IMHO, and note how we trapped it with a try catch block whereas I think you have code C# that is not catching the error.
So next question is which workbook is responsible. I would suggest in your experiments using Application.EnableEvents = False which turns off event handling, such that event handlers written in any language VBA, C# , VB,NET do not run. Then you can run your workbook's initialisation routines manually, if no error occurs your workbook is not guilty whereas the other workbooks/addins must be guilty at which you report the bug to their author.
I hope you make progress with this. It is difficult to take this further without feedback.

Related

Getting type of SelectedShape in picture and content placeholder fails in VSTO

When running the following snippet of VSTO code I get a COM exception
if (param.SelectedShape.Type != MsoShapeType.msoPlaceholder) { //Stuff is happening }
The exception occurs when trying to read the Type property of SelectedShape.
We have been running with this code in PowerPoint (Office 365 ProPlus) for a long time, but somewhere between build 9126.2210 (works) and build 9330.2087 (doesn't work) it broke.
When looking through the release notes it doesn't seem like anything has been changed that should be related to this. What could have been changed?
You might try to use the call in a try/catch block like here:
try
{
if (param.SelectedShape.Type != MsoShapeType.msoPlaceholder)
{
// Stuff is happening
}
}
catch (COMException)
{
// Add logging here
}
This is a workaround. Of course, Microsoft should fix the problem.

MailItem event not firing without Visual Studio

I want to handled the BeforeAttachmentAdd event from an Outlook mail item. But my code works in Visual Studio environment but not out. Have you an idea?
This is my code:
namespace MyOutlookProject
{
using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook;
using OutlookApplication = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application;
using OutlookAttachment = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Attachment;
using OutlookInspector = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Inspector;
using OutlookMail = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.MailItem;
class MailManager
{
public void StartUp(OutlookApplication application)
{
_inspectors = application.Inspectors;
_inspectors.NewInspector += Inspectors_NewInspector;
}
private void Inspectors_NewInspector(OutlookInspector Inspector)
{
if (Inspector.CurrentItem is OutlookMail)
{
OutlookMail mail = (Inspector.CurrentItem as OutlookMail);
mail.BeforeAttachmentAdd += Mail_BeforeAttachmentAdd;
}
}
private void Mail_BeforeAttachmentAdd(OutlookAttachment Attachment, ref bool Cancel)
{
/*Never called without Visual Studio*/
}
}
}
Thanks for your help.
The object firing the events (mail variable in your code) must be on the global/class level to prevent it from being garbage collected. The variable is local in you case.
On a general note, you can have multiple inspectors open, so it might make sense to have a wrapper object that holds references to the inspector and its mail item, and have a list of such wrappers in your addin.
From what I see you may be hitting a My button stopped working issue
From the book Of E. Carter and E. Lippert VSTO 2007
It states
One issue commonly encountered when beginning to program agains Office events in .NET is known as the "my button stopped working" issue. A developer will write some code to handle a Click event raised by a CommandBarButton in the Office toolbar object model. This code will sometimes work temporarily but then stop. The user will click the button, but the Click event appears to have stopped working. The cause of this issue is connecting an event handler to an object whose lifetime does not match the desired lifetime of the event. This tipcally occurs when the object to which you are connecting an event handler goes out of scope or gets sets to null so that it gets garbage collected.
I think in your case that the .NET RCW object of type OulookMail manipulated with variable mail that is the culprit. Its lifetime is not properly handled. The fact that this does not happen in Visual Studio is that you are probably in Debug mode that changes a little the Garbage Collection so your object is not destroyed yet when you do the testing.

How to open a form within non-GUI code in VB.NET

I write a program in Visual Basic, which doesn't need - and doesn't have - a GUI unless a certain event happens, in which the user needs to be involved (and a MsgBox wouldn't suffice).
Now I want to call a form (which I have already created in the project) from my code. So I want to call
Public Class MyForm
{...} 'In my case empty
End Class
from within
Module MyMain
{...} 'do unrelated stuff
'Call MyForm somehow
{...} 'proceed stuff, knowing users input
End Module
I see the form for a very brief moment, but I can't get my program to halt and wait for me, while I am in the form.
The code in my desperation is:
Module MyMain
{...} 'do unrelated stuff
Dim wifo As New MyForm()
wifo.Show()
wifo.Visible = True
wifo.Activate()
wifo.Focus()
{...} 'proceed stuff, knowing users input
End Module
How does one do it?
If I understand you correctly, you want the Form.ShowDialog() method...
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c7ykbedk(v=vs.110).aspx

Visual Basic Form stops processes half way through [duplicate]

When I create a new project, I get a strange behavior for unhandled exceptions. This is how I can reproduce the problem:
1) create a new Windows Forms Application (C#, .NET Framework 4, VS2010)
2) add the following code to the Form1_Load handler:
int vara = 5, varb = 0;
int varc = vara / varb;
int vard = 7;
I would expect that VS breaks and shows an unhandled exception message at the second line. However, what happens is that the third line is just skipped without any message and the application keeps running.
I don't have this problem with my existing C# projects. So I guess that my new projects are created with some strange default settings.
Does anyone have an idea what's wrong with my project???
I tried checking the boxes in Debug->Exceptions. But then executions breaks even if I handle the exception in a try-catch block; which is also not what I want. If I remember correctly, there was a column called "unhandled exceptions" or something like this in this dialog box, which would do excatly what I want. But in my projects there is only one column ("Thrown").
This is a nasty problem induced by the wow64 emulation layer that allows 32-bit code to run on the 64-bit version of Windows 7. It swallows exceptions in the code that runs in response to a notification generated by the 64-bit window manager, like the Load event. Preventing the debugger from seeing it and stepping in. This problem is hard to fix, the Windows and DevDiv groups at Microsoft are pointing fingers back and forth. DevDiv can't do anything about it, Windows thinks it is the correct and documented behavior, mysterious as that sounds.
It is certainly documented but just about nobody understands the consequences or thinks it is reasonable behavior. Especially not when the window procedure is hidden from view of course, like it is in any project that uses wrapper classes to hide the window plumbing. Like any Winforms, WPF or MFC app. Underlying issue is Microsoft could not figure out how to flow exceptions from 32-bit code back to the 64-bit code that triggered the notification back to 32-bit code that tries to handle or debug the exception.
It is only a problem with a debugger attached, your code will bomb as usual without one.
Project > Properties > Build tab > Platform target = AnyCPU and untick Prefer 32-bit. Your app will now run as a 64-bit process, eliminating the wow64 failure mode. Some consequences, it disables Edit + Continue for VS versions prior to VS2013 and might not always be possible when you have a dependency on 32-bit code.
Other possible workarounds:
Debug > Exceptions > tick the Thrown box for CLR exceptions to force the debugger to stop at the line of code that throws the exception.
Write try/catch in the Load event handler and failfast in the catch block.
Use Application.SetUnhandledExceptionMode(UnhandledExceptionMode.CatchException) in the Main() method so that the exception trap in the message loop isn't disabled in debug mode. This however makes all unhandled exceptions hard to debug, the ThreadException event is pretty useless.
Consider if your code really belongs in the Load event handler. It is very rare to need it, it is however very popular in VB.NET and a swan song because it is the default event and a double-click trivially adds the event handler. You only ever really need Load when you are interested in the actual window size after user preferences and autoscaling is applied. Everything else belongs in the constructor.
Update to Windows 8 or later, they have this wow64 problem solved.
In my experience, I only see this issue when I'm running with a debugger attached. The application behaves the same when run standalone: the exception is not swallowed.
With the introduction of KB976038, you can make this work as you'd expect again. I never installed the hotfix, so I'm assuming it came as part of Win7 SP1.
This was mentioned in this post:
The case of the disappearing OnLoad exception – user-mode callback exceptions in x64
Here's some code that will enable the hotfix:
public static class Kernel32
{
public const uint PROCESS_CALLBACK_FILTER_ENABLED = 0x1;
[DllImport("Kernel32.dll")]
public static extern bool SetProcessUserModeExceptionPolicy(UInt32 dwFlags);
[DllImport("Kernel32.dll")]
public static extern bool GetProcessUserModeExceptionPolicy(out UInt32 lpFlags);
public static void DisableUMCallbackFilter() {
uint flags;
GetProcessUserModeExceptionPolicy(out flags);
flags &= ~PROCESS_CALLBACK_FILTER_ENABLED;
SetProcessUserModeExceptionPolicy(flags);
}
}
Call it at the beginning of your application:
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Kernel32.DisableUMCallbackFilter();
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
Application.Run(new Form1());
}
I've confirmed (with the the simple example shown below) that this works, just as you'd expect.
protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e) {
throw new Exception("BOOM"); // This will now get caught.
}
So, what I don't understand, is why it was previously impossible for the debugger to handle crossing kernel-mode stack frames, but with this hotfix, they somehow figured it out.
As Hans mentions, compile the application and run the exe without a debugger attached.
For me the problem was changing a Class property name that a BindingSource control was bound to. Running without the IDE I was able to see the error:
Cannot bind to the property or column SendWithoutProofReading on the
DataSource. Parameter name: dataMember
Fixing the BindingSource control to bind to the updated property name resolved the problem:
I'm using WPF and ran into this same problem. I had tried Hans 1-3 suggestions already, but didn't like them because studio wouldn't stop at where the error was (so I couldn't view my variables and see what was the problem).
So I tried Hans' 4th suggestion. I was suprised at how much of my code could be moved to the MainWindow constructor without any issue. Not sure why I got in the habit of putting so much logic in the Load event, but apparently much of it can be done in the ctor.
However, this had the same problem as 1-3. Errors that occur during the ctor for WPF get wrapped into a generic Xaml exception. (an inner exception has the real error, but again I wanted studio to just break at the actual trouble spot).
What ended up working for me was to create a thread, sleep 50ms, dispatch back to main thread and do what I need...
void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
new Thread(() =>
{
Thread.Sleep(50);
CrossThread(() => { OnWindowLoaded(); });
}).Start();
}
void CrossThread(Action a)
{
this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(a);
}
void OnWindowLoaded()
{
...do my thing...
This way studio would break right where an uncaught exception occurs.
A simple work-around could be if you can move your init code to another event like as Form_Shown which called later than Form_Load, and use a flag to run startup code at first form shown:
bool firstLoad = true; //flag to detect first form_shown
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//firstLoad = true;
//dowork(); //not execute initialization code here (postpone it to form_shown)
}
private void Form1_Shown(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (firstLoad) //simulate Form-Load
{
firstLoad = false;
dowork();
}
}
void dowork()
{
var f = File.OpenRead(#"D:\NoSuchFile756.123"); //this cause an exception!
}

VB.NET System.IndexOutOfRangeException in checkbox [duplicate]

When I create a new project, I get a strange behavior for unhandled exceptions. This is how I can reproduce the problem:
1) create a new Windows Forms Application (C#, .NET Framework 4, VS2010)
2) add the following code to the Form1_Load handler:
int vara = 5, varb = 0;
int varc = vara / varb;
int vard = 7;
I would expect that VS breaks and shows an unhandled exception message at the second line. However, what happens is that the third line is just skipped without any message and the application keeps running.
I don't have this problem with my existing C# projects. So I guess that my new projects are created with some strange default settings.
Does anyone have an idea what's wrong with my project???
I tried checking the boxes in Debug->Exceptions. But then executions breaks even if I handle the exception in a try-catch block; which is also not what I want. If I remember correctly, there was a column called "unhandled exceptions" or something like this in this dialog box, which would do excatly what I want. But in my projects there is only one column ("Thrown").
This is a nasty problem induced by the wow64 emulation layer that allows 32-bit code to run on the 64-bit version of Windows 7. It swallows exceptions in the code that runs in response to a notification generated by the 64-bit window manager, like the Load event. Preventing the debugger from seeing it and stepping in. This problem is hard to fix, the Windows and DevDiv groups at Microsoft are pointing fingers back and forth. DevDiv can't do anything about it, Windows thinks it is the correct and documented behavior, mysterious as that sounds.
It is certainly documented but just about nobody understands the consequences or thinks it is reasonable behavior. Especially not when the window procedure is hidden from view of course, like it is in any project that uses wrapper classes to hide the window plumbing. Like any Winforms, WPF or MFC app. Underlying issue is Microsoft could not figure out how to flow exceptions from 32-bit code back to the 64-bit code that triggered the notification back to 32-bit code that tries to handle or debug the exception.
It is only a problem with a debugger attached, your code will bomb as usual without one.
Project > Properties > Build tab > Platform target = AnyCPU and untick Prefer 32-bit. Your app will now run as a 64-bit process, eliminating the wow64 failure mode. Some consequences, it disables Edit + Continue for VS versions prior to VS2013 and might not always be possible when you have a dependency on 32-bit code.
Other possible workarounds:
Debug > Exceptions > tick the Thrown box for CLR exceptions to force the debugger to stop at the line of code that throws the exception.
Write try/catch in the Load event handler and failfast in the catch block.
Use Application.SetUnhandledExceptionMode(UnhandledExceptionMode.CatchException) in the Main() method so that the exception trap in the message loop isn't disabled in debug mode. This however makes all unhandled exceptions hard to debug, the ThreadException event is pretty useless.
Consider if your code really belongs in the Load event handler. It is very rare to need it, it is however very popular in VB.NET and a swan song because it is the default event and a double-click trivially adds the event handler. You only ever really need Load when you are interested in the actual window size after user preferences and autoscaling is applied. Everything else belongs in the constructor.
Update to Windows 8 or later, they have this wow64 problem solved.
In my experience, I only see this issue when I'm running with a debugger attached. The application behaves the same when run standalone: the exception is not swallowed.
With the introduction of KB976038, you can make this work as you'd expect again. I never installed the hotfix, so I'm assuming it came as part of Win7 SP1.
This was mentioned in this post:
The case of the disappearing OnLoad exception – user-mode callback exceptions in x64
Here's some code that will enable the hotfix:
public static class Kernel32
{
public const uint PROCESS_CALLBACK_FILTER_ENABLED = 0x1;
[DllImport("Kernel32.dll")]
public static extern bool SetProcessUserModeExceptionPolicy(UInt32 dwFlags);
[DllImport("Kernel32.dll")]
public static extern bool GetProcessUserModeExceptionPolicy(out UInt32 lpFlags);
public static void DisableUMCallbackFilter() {
uint flags;
GetProcessUserModeExceptionPolicy(out flags);
flags &= ~PROCESS_CALLBACK_FILTER_ENABLED;
SetProcessUserModeExceptionPolicy(flags);
}
}
Call it at the beginning of your application:
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Kernel32.DisableUMCallbackFilter();
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
Application.Run(new Form1());
}
I've confirmed (with the the simple example shown below) that this works, just as you'd expect.
protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e) {
throw new Exception("BOOM"); // This will now get caught.
}
So, what I don't understand, is why it was previously impossible for the debugger to handle crossing kernel-mode stack frames, but with this hotfix, they somehow figured it out.
As Hans mentions, compile the application and run the exe without a debugger attached.
For me the problem was changing a Class property name that a BindingSource control was bound to. Running without the IDE I was able to see the error:
Cannot bind to the property or column SendWithoutProofReading on the
DataSource. Parameter name: dataMember
Fixing the BindingSource control to bind to the updated property name resolved the problem:
I'm using WPF and ran into this same problem. I had tried Hans 1-3 suggestions already, but didn't like them because studio wouldn't stop at where the error was (so I couldn't view my variables and see what was the problem).
So I tried Hans' 4th suggestion. I was suprised at how much of my code could be moved to the MainWindow constructor without any issue. Not sure why I got in the habit of putting so much logic in the Load event, but apparently much of it can be done in the ctor.
However, this had the same problem as 1-3. Errors that occur during the ctor for WPF get wrapped into a generic Xaml exception. (an inner exception has the real error, but again I wanted studio to just break at the actual trouble spot).
What ended up working for me was to create a thread, sleep 50ms, dispatch back to main thread and do what I need...
void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
new Thread(() =>
{
Thread.Sleep(50);
CrossThread(() => { OnWindowLoaded(); });
}).Start();
}
void CrossThread(Action a)
{
this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(a);
}
void OnWindowLoaded()
{
...do my thing...
This way studio would break right where an uncaught exception occurs.
A simple work-around could be if you can move your init code to another event like as Form_Shown which called later than Form_Load, and use a flag to run startup code at first form shown:
bool firstLoad = true; //flag to detect first form_shown
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//firstLoad = true;
//dowork(); //not execute initialization code here (postpone it to form_shown)
}
private void Form1_Shown(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (firstLoad) //simulate Form-Load
{
firstLoad = false;
dowork();
}
}
void dowork()
{
var f = File.OpenRead(#"D:\NoSuchFile756.123"); //this cause an exception!
}