ReDiming an array in VBA - vba

Question

I have a serious problem with resizing a 2-dimensional array in VBA. I've done a lot of reading about this (popular) issue, but still I can't figure out what's wrong in my code.
So, I have some data in a spreadsheet. In the second row I have some descriptions of an element, while in the first row I have categories of those elements. What I want to do is create an array which has (distinct) categories in the first row and indexes of descriptions related to a particular category in the second row.
The code works correctly up until
If j = UBound(distinctList, 2) Then
Then ReDim comes in and I get a "Subscript out of range error".
That If is there to add a new category and is meant to kick in if the entry from the spreadsheet does not equal any entry from the new array.
Function distinctValues(arr)
Dim distinctList() As String
Dim j As Integer
k = 0
'ReDim distinctList(0 To 0, 0 To 1)
'Dodaj pierwszy wpis
For i = LBound(arr) To UBound(arr)
If arr(i) <> "" Then
ReDim distinctList(0 To 1, 0 To j)
distinctList(0, 0) = arr(i)
distinctList(1, 0) = i + 1
'k = k + 1
Exit For
End If
Next i
'Dodaj kolejne wpisy
For i = LBound(arr) + 1 To UBound(arr)
If arr(i) <> "" Then
For j = LBound(distinctList, 2) To UBound(distinctList, 2)
If arr(i) = distinctList(0, j) Then
distinctList(1, j) = distinctList(1, j) & ", " & i + 1
'k = k + 1
Exit For
End If
If j = UBound(distinctList, 2) Then
ReDim Preserve distinctList(0 To 1, 1 To UBound(distinctList, 2) + 1)
distinctList(0, j) = arr(i)
distinctList(1, j) = distinctList(UBound(distinctList, 2), 1) & ", " & i + 1
Exit For
End If
Next j
End If
Next i
Debug.Print distinctList(0, 0) & " => " & distinctList(1, 0)
'distinctValues = distinctList
End Function

Answer 1

It's because you can't change the lower bound of the second dimension, you need to keep it the same..
You declare ReDim distinctList(0 To 1, 0 To j) at the top
when you redim, you need to keep lower bound of the second dimension at 0
ReDim Preserve distinctList(0 To 1, 0 To UBound(distinctList, 2) + 1)

Answer 2

I think you could implement this general solution to your particular solution if you apply this code to change the nr. of dimensions before you add the/a new category.
Option Explicit
Public Sub redimarray()
'This sub redimensions an array as an array of arrays, so to acces the k'th element in the n-th dimension you need to type: my_array(n)(k)
'and you can still simply redefine the array dimensions by:
'my_array =FlexArray("lower_bound_n-th_dim,lower_bound_n-th_dim,_n+1-th_dim,upper_bound_n-th_dim,_n+1-th_dim) = e.g.: FlexArray("2,3,9,11")
'if you then want to have conventional array element conventional_array(3,4) you can copy the entire my_array into a 1 dimensional array where
' the array elements are added like a (nr-of_elements_per_dimension)-base numbering system. once they have been manipulated, you can store them back into
'nr of elements per dimension:
'dim 0 = 4, 0-3
'dim 1 = 3, 4-6
'dim 2 = 8, 1-8
'nr of elements in 1dim array = 4*3*8 = 96
'(0)(4)(1)
'(0)(4)(2)
'...
'(0)(4)(8)
'(0)(5)(1)
'so working_array(3,5,2) = (3-0)*nr_elem(dim 1)*nr_elem(dim 2)+(5-4)*nr_elem(dim 2)+(2-1)
'dim 0 = nr_elements(0), start_element(0)-end_element(0)
'dim 1 = nr_elements(1), start_element(1)-end_element(1)
'dim 2 = nr_elements(2), start_element(2)-end_element(2)
'so working_array(3,5,2) = (end_element(0)-start_element(0))*nr_elements(1)*nr_elements(2)+(end_element(1)-start_element(1))*nr_elements(2)+'so working_array(3,5,2) = (end_element(0)-start_element(0))*nr_elements(1)*nr_elements(2)+(end_element(2)-start_element(2))=index in 1 dimensional array.
Dim NewArray() As Variant
NewArray = FlexArray("1,2,3,8,2,9")
'NewArray = FlexibleArray("1,2,3,8,2,9")
MsgBox (NewArray(1)(8))
End Sub
Public Function FlexArray(strDimensions As String) As Variant
Dim arrTemp As Variant
Dim varTemp As Variant
Dim varDim As Variant
Dim intNumDim As Integer
Dim iDim As Integer
Dim iArr As Integer
varDim = Split(strDimensions, ",")
intNumDim = (UBound(varDim) + 1) / 2
' Setup redimensioned source array
ReDim arrTemp(intNumDim)
iArr = 0
For iDim = LBound(varDim) To UBound(varDim) Step 2
ReDim varTemp(varDim(iDim) To varDim(iDim + 1))
arrTemp(iArr) = varTemp
iArr = iArr + 1
Next iDim
FlexArray = arrTemp
End Function