Determining whether an object is a member of a collection in VBA - vba

Question

How do I determine whether an object is a member of a collection in VBA?
Specifically, I need to find out whether a table definition is a member of the TableDefs collection.

Answer 1

Isn't it good enough?
Public Function Contains(col As Collection, key As Variant) As Boolean
Dim obj As Variant
On Error GoTo err
Contains = True
obj = col(key)
Exit Function
err:
Contains = False
End Function

Answer 2

Not exactly elegant, but the best (and quickest) solution i could find was using OnError. This will be significantly faster than iteration for any medium to large collection.
Public Function InCollection(col As Collection, key As String) As Boolean
Dim var As Variant
Dim errNumber As Long
InCollection = False
Set var = Nothing
Err.Clear
On Error Resume Next
var = col.Item(key)
errNumber = CLng(Err.Number)
On Error GoTo 0
'5 is not in, 0 and 438 represent incollection
If errNumber = 5 Then ' it is 5 if not in collection
InCollection = False
Else
InCollection = True
End If
End Function

Answer 3

Your best bet is to iterate over the members of the collection and see if any match what you are looking for. Trust me I have had to do this many times.
The second solution (which is much worse) is to catch the "Item not in collection" error and then set a flag to say the item does not exist.

Answer 4

This is an old question. I have carefully reviewed all the answers and comments, tested the solutions for performance.
I came up with the fastest option for my environment which does not fail when a collection has objects as well as primitives.
Public Function ExistsInCollection(col As Collection, key As Variant) As Boolean
On Error GoTo err
ExistsInCollection = True
IsObject(col.item(key))
Exit Function
err:
ExistsInCollection = False
End Function
In addition, this solution does not depend on hard-coded error values. So the parameter col As Collection can be substituted by some other collection type variable, and the function must still work. E.g., on my current project, I will have it as col As ListColumns.

Answer 5

You can shorten the suggested code for this as well as generalize for unexpected errors.
Here you go:
Public Function InCollection(col As Collection, key As String) As Boolean
On Error GoTo incol
col.Item key
incol:
InCollection = (Err.Number = 0)
End Function

Answer 6

In your specific case (TableDefs) iterating over the collection and checking the Name is a good approach. This is OK because the key for the collection (Name) is a property of the class in the collection.
But in the general case of VBA collections, the key will not necessarily be part of the object in the collection (e.g. you could be using a Collection as a dictionary, with a key that has nothing to do with the object in the collection). In this case, you have no choice but to try accessing the item and catching the error.

Answer 7

I created this solution from the above suggestions mixed with microsofts solution of for iterating through a collection.
Public Function InCollection(col As Collection, Optional vItem, Optional vKey) As Boolean
On Error Resume Next
Dim vColItem As Variant
InCollection = False
If Not IsMissing(vKey) Then
col.item vKey
'5 if not in collection, it is 91 if no collection exists
If Err.Number <> 5 And Err.Number <> 91 Then
InCollection = True
End If
ElseIf Not IsMissing(vItem) Then
For Each vColItem In col
If vColItem = vItem Then
InCollection = True
GoTo Exit_Proc
End If
Next vColItem
End If
Exit_Proc:
Exit Function
Err_Handle:
Resume Exit_Proc
End Function

Answer 8

I have some edit, best working for collections:
Public Function Contains(col As collection, key As Variant) As Boolean
Dim obj As Object
On Error GoTo err
Contains = True
Set obj = col.Item(key)
Exit Function
err:
Contains = False
End Function

Answer 9

For the case when key is unused for collection:
Public Function Contains(col As Collection, thisItem As Variant) As Boolean
Dim item As Variant
Contains = False
For Each item In col
If item = thisItem Then
Contains = True
Exit Function
End If
Next
End Function

Answer 10

this version works for primitive types and for classes (short test-method included)
' TODO: change this to the name of your module
Private Const sMODULE As String = "MVbaUtils"
Public Function ExistsInCollection(oCollection As Collection, sKey As String) As Boolean
Const scSOURCE As String = "ExistsInCollection"
Dim lErrNumber As Long
Dim sErrDescription As String
lErrNumber = 0
sErrDescription = "unknown error occurred"
Err.Clear
On Error Resume Next
' note: just access the item - no need to assign it to a dummy value
' and this would not be so easy, because we would need different
' code depending on the type of object
' e.g.
' Dim vItem as Variant
' If VarType(oCollection.Item(sKey)) = vbObject Then
' Set vItem = oCollection.Item(sKey)
' Else
' vItem = oCollection.Item(sKey)
' End If
oCollection.Item sKey
lErrNumber = CLng(Err.Number)
sErrDescription = Err.Description
On Error GoTo 0
If lErrNumber = 5 Then ' 5 = not in collection
ExistsInCollection = False
ElseIf (lErrNumber = 0) Then
ExistsInCollection = True
Else
' Re-raise error
Err.Raise lErrNumber, mscMODULE & ":" & scSOURCE, sErrDescription
End If
End Function
Private Sub Test_ExistsInCollection()
Dim asTest As New Collection
Debug.Assert Not ExistsInCollection(asTest, "")
Debug.Assert Not ExistsInCollection(asTest, "xx")
asTest.Add "item1", "key1"
asTest.Add "item2", "key2"
asTest.Add New Collection, "key3"
asTest.Add Nothing, "key4"
Debug.Assert ExistsInCollection(asTest, "key1")
Debug.Assert ExistsInCollection(asTest, "key2")
Debug.Assert ExistsInCollection(asTest, "key3")
Debug.Assert ExistsInCollection(asTest, "key4")
Debug.Assert Not ExistsInCollection(asTest, "abcx")
Debug.Print "ExistsInCollection is okay"
End Sub

Answer 11

It requires some additional adjustments in case the items in the collection are not Objects, but Arrays. Other than that it worked fine for me.
Public Function CheckExists(vntIndexKey As Variant) As Boolean
On Error Resume Next
Dim cObj As Object
' just get the object
Set cObj = mCol(vntIndexKey)
' here's the key! Trap the Error Code
' when the error code is 5 then the Object is Not Exists
CheckExists = (Err <> 5)
' just to clear the error
If Err <> 0 Then Call Err.Clear
Set cObj = Nothing
End Function
Source: http://coderstalk.blogspot.com/2007/09/visual-basic-programming-how-to-check.html

Answer 12

It works for me
Public Function contains(col As Collection, key As Variant) As Boolean
For Each element In col
If (element = key) Then
contains = True
Exit Function
End If
Next
contains = False
End Function

Answer 13

Not my code, but I think it's pretty nicely written. It allows to check by the key as well as by the Object element itself and handles both the On Error method and iterating through all Collection elements.
https://danwagner.co/how-to-check-if-a-collection-contains-an-object/
I'll not copy the full explanation since it is available on the linked page. Solution itself copied in case the page eventually becomes unavailable in the future.
The doubt I have about the code is the overusage of GoTo in the first If block but that's easy to fix for anyone so I'm leaving the original code as it is.
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'INPUT : Kollection, the collection we would like to examine
' : (Optional) Key, the Key we want to find in the collection
' : (Optional) Item, the Item we want to find in the collection
'OUTPUT : True if Key or Item is found, False if not
'SPECIAL CASE: If both Key and Item are missing, return False
Option Explicit
Public Function CollectionContains(Kollection As Collection, Optional Key As Variant, Optional Item As Variant) As Boolean
Dim strKey As String
Dim var As Variant
'First, investigate assuming a Key was provided
If Not IsMissing(Key) Then
strKey = CStr(Key)
'Handling errors is the strategy here
On Error Resume Next
CollectionContains = True
var = Kollection(strKey) '<~ this is where our (potential) error will occur
If Err.Number = 91 Then GoTo CheckForObject
If Err.Number = 5 Then GoTo NotFound
On Error GoTo 0
Exit Function
CheckForObject:
If IsObject(Kollection(strKey)) Then
CollectionContains = True
On Error GoTo 0
Exit Function
End If
NotFound:
CollectionContains = False
On Error GoTo 0
Exit Function
'If the Item was provided but the Key was not, then...
ElseIf Not IsMissing(Item) Then
CollectionContains = False '<~ assume that we will not find the item
'We have to loop through the collection and check each item against the passed-in Item
For Each var In Kollection
If var = Item Then
CollectionContains = True
Exit Function
End If
Next var
'Otherwise, no Key OR Item was provided, so we default to False
Else
CollectionContains = False
End If
End Function

Answer 14

i used this code to convert array to collection and back to array to remove duplicates, assembled from various posts here (sorry for not giving properly credit).
Function ArrayRemoveDups(MyArray As Variant) As Variant
Dim nFirst As Long, nLast As Long, i As Long
Dim item As Variant, outputArray() As Variant
Dim Coll As New Collection
'Get First and Last Array Positions
nFirst = LBound(MyArray)
nLast = UBound(MyArray)
ReDim arrTemp(nFirst To nLast)
i = nFirst
'convert to collection
For Each item In MyArray
skipitem = False
For Each key In Coll
If key = item Then skipitem = True
Next
If skipitem = False Then Coll.Add (item)
Next item
'convert back to array
ReDim outputArray(0 To Coll.Count - 1)
For i = 1 To Coll.Count
outputArray(i - 1) = Coll.item(i)
Next
ArrayRemoveDups = outputArray
End Function

Answer 15

I did it like this, a variation on Vadims code but to me a bit more readable:
' Returns TRUE if item is already contained in collection, otherwise FALSE
Public Function Contains(col As Collection, item As String) As Boolean
Dim i As Integer
For i = 1 To col.Count
If col.item(i) = item Then
Contains = True
Exit Function
End If
Next i
Contains = False
End Function

Answer 16

I wrote this code. I guess it can help someone...
Public Function VerifyCollection()
For i = 1 To 10 Step 1
MyKey = "A"
On Error GoTo KillError:
Dispersao.Add 1, MyKey
GoTo KeepInForLoop
KillError: 'If My collection already has the key A Then...
count = Dispersao(MyKey)
Dispersao.Remove (MyKey)
Dispersao.Add count + 1, MyKey 'Increase the amount in relationship with my Key
count = Dispersao(MyKey) 'count = new amount
On Error GoTo -1
KeepInForLoop:
Next
End Function