Loading an array with only unique values - vba

Question

I have a range I am looping through in VBA:
For Lrow = Firstrow To Lastrow Step 1
With .Cells(Lrow, "E")
If Not IsError(.Value) Then
End If
End With
Next Lrow
Within that if statement I need to load an array with each value only once
MB-NMB-ILA
MB-NMB-ILA
MB-NMB-STP
MB-NMB-STP
MB-NMB-WAS
MB-NMB-WAS
MB-NMB-WAS
So for the array I only want MB-NMB-ILA, MB-NMB-STP, and MB-NMB-WAS
Can anyone help me out, my brain isn't working right on a Monday! Thanks

Answer 1

You could use filter to test if something exists in the array.
Dim arr As Variant: arr = Array("test1", "test2", "test3")
If UBound(Filter(arr, "blah")) > -1 Then
Debug.Print "it is in the array"
Else
Debug.Print "it's not in the array"
End If
You could also use a collection and write a sub to add only unique items to the collection
Dim col As New Collection
Sub addIfUnique(sAdd As String)
Dim bAdd As Boolean: bAdd = True
If col.Count > 0 Then
Dim iCol As Integer
For iCol = 1 To col.Count
If LCase(col(iCol)) = LCase(sAdd) Then
bAdd = False
Exit For
End If
Next iCol
End If
If bAdd Then col.Add sAdd
End Sub
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim a As Integer
Dim b As Integer
For a = 1 To 10
addIfUnique "item " & a
For b = 1 To 10
addIfUnique "item " & b
Next b
Next a
For a = 1 To col.Count
Debug.Print col(a)
Next a
End Sub

Answer 2

Suppose I have the following in cell A1 to A5 and want an array of unique values i.e. {a,b,c,d}
A
1 "a"
2 "b"
3 "c"
4 "c"
5 "d"
The follow two pieces of code will help achieve this:
CreateUniqueArray - get val from each cell and add to array if not already in array
IsInArray - utility function to check if value in array by performing simple loop
I have to say that this is the brute force way and would welcome any improvements...
Sub Test()
Dim firstRow As Integer, lastRow As Integer, cnt As Integer, iCell As Integer
Dim myArray()
cnt = 0
firstRow = 1
lastRow = 10
For iCell = firstRow To lastRow
If Not IsInArray(myArray, Cells(iCell, 1)) Then
ReDim Preserve myArray(cnt)
myArray(cnt) = Cells(iCell, 1)
cnt = cnt + 1
End If
Next iCell
End Sub
Function IsInArray(myArray As Variant, val As String) As Boolean
Dim i As Integer, found As Boolean
found = False
If Not Len(Join(myArray)) > 0 Then
found = False
Else
For i = 0 To UBound(myArray)
If myArray(i) = val Then
found = True
End If
Next i
End If
IsInArray = found
End Function