Fetch the maximum value from an array - vba

Question

I have an array that looks like this:
Dim values(1 To 3) As String
values(1) = Sheets("risk_cat_2").Cells(4, 6).Value
values(2) = Sheets("risk_cat_2").Cells(5, 6).Value
values(3) = Sheets("risk_cat_2").Cells(6, 6).Value
What I would like to do now is get the maximum value from all the values in string. Is there an easy way in VBA to fetch the max value from an array?

Answer 1

Is there an easy way in VBA to fetch the max value from an array?
Yes - if the values are numeric. You can use WorksheetFunction.Max in VBA.
For strings - this won't work.
Sub Test2()
Dim arr(1 To 3) As Long
arr(1) = 100
arr(2) = 200
arr(3) = 300
Debug.Print WorksheetFunction.Max(arr)
End Sub

Answer 2

Simple loop would do the trick
Dim Count As Integer, maxVal As Long
maxVal = Values(1)
For Count = 2 to UBound(values)
If Values(Count) > maxVal Then
maxVal = Values(Count)
End If
Next Count

Answer 3

The easiest way to retrieve the maximum (I can think of) is iterating through the array and comparing the values. The following two functions do just that:
Option Explicit
Public Sub InitialValues()
Dim strValues(1 To 3) As String
strValues(1) = 3
strValues(2) = "af"
strValues(3) = 6
Debug.Print GetMaxString(strValues)
Debug.Print GetMaxNumber(strValues)
End Sub
Public Function GetMaxString(ByRef strValues() As String) As String
Dim i As Long
For i = LBound(strValues) To UBound(strValues)
If GetMaxString < strValues(i) Then GetMaxString = strValues(i)
Next i
End Function
Public Function GetMaxNumber(ByRef strValues() As String) As Double
Dim i As Long
For i = LBound(strValues) To UBound(strValues)
If IsNumeric(strValues(i)) Then
If CDbl(strValues(i)) > GetMaxNumber Then GetMaxNumber = CDbl(strValues(i))
End If
Next i
End Function
Note, that each time a string (text) array is passed to the function. Yet, one function is comparing strings (text) while the other is comparing numbers. The outcome is quite different!
The first function (comparing text) will return (with the above sample data) af as the maximum, while the second function will only consider numbers and therefore returns 6 as the maximum.

Answer 4

Solution for Collection.
Sub testColl()
Dim tempColl As Collection
Set tempColl = New Collection
tempColl.Add 57
tempColl.Add 10
tempColl.Add 15
tempColl.Add 100
tempColl.Add 8
Debug.Print largestNumber(tempColl, 2) 'prints 57
End Sub
Function largestNumber(inputColl As Collection, indexMax As Long)
Dim element As Variant
Dim result As Double
result = 0
Dim i As Long
Dim previousMax As Double
For i = 1 To indexMax
For Each element In inputColl
If i > 1 And element > result And element < previousMax Then
result = element
ElseIf i = 1 And element > result Then
result = element
End If
Next
previousMax = result
result = 0
Next
largestNumber = previousMax
End Function