Keeping a count in a dictionary, bad result when running the code, good result adding inspections - vba

Question

Weird problem. Stepping through the code with inspections gives me correct answers. Just running it doesn't.
This program loops through each cell in a column, searching for a regex match. When it finds something, checks in a adjacent column to which group it belongs and keeps a count in a dictonary. Ex: Group3:7, Group5: 2, Group3:8
Just stepping through the code gives me incorrect results at the end, but adding and inspection for each known item in the dictionary does the trick. Using Debug.Print for each Dictionary(key) to check how many items I got in each loop also gives me a good output.
Correct // What really hapens after running the code
Group1:23 // Group1:23
Group3:21 // Group3:22
Group6:2 // Group6:2
Group7:3 // Group7:6
Group9:8 // Group9:8
Group11:1 // Group11:12
Group12:2 // Group12:21
Sub Proce()
Dim regEx As New VBScript_RegExp_55.RegExp
Dim matches
Dim Rango, RangoJulio, RangoAgosto As String
Dim DictContador As New Scripting.Dictionary
Dim j As Integer
Dim conteo As Integer
Dim Especialidad As String
regEx.Pattern = "cop|col"
regEx.Global = False 'True matches all occurances, False matches the first occurance
regEx.IgnoreCase = True
i = 3
conteo = 1
RangoJulio = "L3:L283"
RangoAgosto = "L3:L315"
Julio = Excel.ActiveWorkbook.Sheets("Julio")
Rango = RangoJulio
Julio.Activate
For Each celda In Julio.Range(Rango)
If regEx.Test(celda.Value) Then
Set matches = regEx.Execute(celda.Value)
For Each Match In matches
j = 13 'column M
Especialidad = Julio.Cells(i, j).Value
If (Not DictContador.Exists(Especialidad)) Then
Call DictContador.Add(Especialidad, conteo)
GoTo ContinueLoop
End If
conteo = DictContador(Especialidad)
conteo = CInt(conteo) + 1
DictContador(Especialidad) = conteo
Next
End If
ContinueLoop:
i = i + 1
'Debug.Print DictContador(key1)
'Debug.Print DictContador(key2)
'etc
Next
'Finally, write the results in another sheet.
End Sub
It's like VBA saying "I'm going to dupe you if I got a chance"
Thanks

Answer 1

Seems like your main loop can be reduced to this:
For Each celda In Julio.Range(Rango)
If regEx.Test(celda.Value) Then
Especialidad = celda.EntireRow.Cells(13).Value
'make sure the key exists: set initial count=0
If (Not DictContador.Exists(Especialidad)) Then _
DictContador.Add Especialidad, 0
'increment the count
DictContador(Especialidad) = DictContador(Especialidad) +1
End If
Next

Answer 2

You're getting different results stepping through the code because there's a bug/feature with dictionaries that if you inspect items using the watch or immediate window the items will be created if they don't already exist.
To see this put a break point at the first line under the variable declarations, press F5 to run to the break point, then in the immediate window type set DictContador = new Dictionary so the dictionary is initialised empty and add a watch for DictContador("a"). You will see "a" added as an item in the locals window.
Collections offer an alternative method that don't have this issue, they also show values rather than keys which may be more useful for debugging. On the other hand an Exists method is lacking so you would either need to add on error resume next and test for errors instead or add a custom collection class with an exists method added. There are trade-offs with both approaches.